Evolution is the religion of death!

Simba: But dad, don’t we eat the antelope?

Mufasa: Yes, Simba, but let me explain.  When we die, our bodies become the grass and the antelope eat the grass.  And so we are all connected in the great circle of life.

There are a lot of things I don’t like about evolution: it is contrary to the plain reading of Scripture, it means God lied in His revelation of the creation, and it’s just bad science in general.  I’m especially frustrated when Christians claim to believe in evolution.  Why do people who claim to believe in God, jump through hermeneutical hoops to make the Scriptures compatible with a theory that is not only false, is not only irrelevant to any other area of science, but is also antithetical to the most fundamental tenets of Christianity?  It makes no sense.

Perhaps the most dangerous doctrine of evolution is that it gives the completely wrong understanding of death.  In the above conversation, taken from The Lion King, Mufasa talks about death as part of the “great circle of life.”  Worldly advice like this gives a mistaken impression of death, one completely opposite to the understanding of death taught by Scripture.

The Bible is very clear that death is the judgment for sin. There are several passages that illustrate this: For the wages of sin is death, Romans 6:23;   Therefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, so death passed onto all men, for all have sinned; et al.  Romans 5:12.  Are you picking up what I’m putting down?  There’s nothing good about death.  We die physically because we are descended from Adam (1 Corinthians 15:22) but, after we die, the lost will be judged for their own sins before the Great White Throne (Revelation 20:11-14). At that Judgment, everyone whose name is not written in the Book of Life, is cast into the Lake of Fire; this is called the second death (Revelation 20:14-15).

The gospel is the good news that we can have life in Christ. When we are born again, the Bible says we pass from death into life (John 5:24).  As Christians, our sins are forgiven by Christ's blood. Our physical death becomes that time when we are rid of these vessels of clay and enter into eternity knowing that we will have no part in the second death. In 1 Corinthians 15:55, Paul rejoices, saying, O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

In an interview of Bill Nye, published in the NY Times, we read this interesting exchange:

NYE: I think the fear of death figures prominently in creationist thought. That the promise of eternal life is reassuring to people who are deeply troubled by the troubling fact that we’re all going to die. And it bugs me, too. But I press forward rather than running in circles screaming….

NY Times: And ultimately, death is a part of evolution.

NYE: It’s the key. The key is that you can pass on improvements by having kids. And there aren’t enough resources for any population to go completely unchecked, whether the population is humans or crickets. There isn’t enough for everybody, so you compete. And this is one of Darwin’s enormous insights.

Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life,” (John 11:25). According to Nye, death is “the key” to evolution. He cites the high priest of evolution, Charles Darwin, and describes this doctrine of death as an “enormous insight.”  Rather than trusting in the One who promises eternal life, Nye would rather we be philosophical about death. We might fear it individually, but it keeps populations in check. It drives organisms to improve. In the bigger picture, death is good!

Because it plays such a key role in evolution, some people almost regard death as noble. Biologos, a group that identifies itself as Christian, has an article titled, Death and Rebirth: The Role of Extinction in Evolution. Wow, “death and rebirth!”  It almost seems to put evolution on equal footing with the Resurrection! In the article, the author makes this claim:

Extinction is actually a common feature of life on earth when viewed over long (e.g. geological) timescales. By some estimates, over 99% of the species that have ever lived have gone extinct [this is a lie, by the way].... Such an extinction event (of a single species, or perhaps a handful of species) alters the environment of other remaining species in an ecosystem. This, in turn, may influence the ability of some of these remaining species to reproduce compared to other species.... As the ecosystem landscape shifts due to loss of species, new biological opportunities, or niches, might arise. These new niches are then available to support new species to fill them.

There you go. Animals go extinct but that makes way for new animals to evolve. It's the circle of life. Some things live and some things die and it's good.  God tells us about this evil mindset in Proverbs 8:36, “all they that hate me love death.”

When a tsunami or earthquake kills thousands of people, critics often say that such tragedies are evidence there is no God. How should we answer?  Christians who believe in an “old” creation and theistic evolution have no “good news” for unbelievers.  If God used evolution to create us, then death and tragedy are intentional. If the earth is billions of years old, then earthquakes, volcanoes, and floods are rather ordinary.  They are how God shapes the earth. Over the supposed billions of years the earth has existed, there would have been millions of earthquakes. Why then should we consider any one of them a tragedy? It's just another tink of God's hammer as He continues shaping the earth just as He's always done. If a tsunami kills thousands of people, then what of it?  I suppose they're just another step in the evolutionary ladder who have gone the way of Homo ergaster or Australopithecus. 

The role of death in evolution is the complete opposite of what death truly is. Death is an intruder into the creation. It is the consequence of Adam's sin and later, of our own sins. It is an enemy that will one day be destroyed (1 Corinthians 15:26). Death should be dreaded by the lost and they should seek a way to avoid it. The gospel – the good news – is that there is life in Jesus!!  It is supposed to be the job of Christians to take this message to the lost, to preach this gospel to every creature.  James 5:20 says, Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.  

As we’ve already seen, there is precisely one penalty for sin - death. All have sinned; all die. The mortality rate among people is exactly 100%. Some people die in their sleep; some people die at the point of a sword; some people die very old; some people die very young; but everybody dies! We all have the same destiny - a grave. We all also have the same opportunity - salvation through the Son.  That’s the message we need to give to the lost and dying.

I see Nye as only a little bit removed from a witch doctor. He mixes a little bit of science with a lot of religious beliefs. He is a faithful apostle of the world, spreading a terrible gospel. Evolution is the religion of death.