14. Why Is Denying The Theory Of Evolution Portrayed As Rejecting Development And Progress?

The word "evolution" has been used in several senses in recent times. A social aspect has been added to it, for instance, and the word has come to mean human progress and technological development. There is nothing wrong with the concept of "evolution" when it is used in this sense. There is no doubt that man will use his intelligence, knowledge, and strength to develop over time. The sum of human knowledge will grow from generation to generation. In the same way that this is not evidence for the theory of evolution itself, which seeks to explain the emergence of life by chance, neither does it conflict in any way with the fact of creation.

Yet evolutionists engage in a facile word game here, and confuse a true concept with a false one. For example, it is true to state that "On account of man's long years of living as a social being, his knowledge, culture, and technology are in a constant state of development." (We must remember, however, that there can be regression over time as well as progress. Sociologically speaking, there have been times of progress, as well as times of stagnation and regression.) However, the claim that "In the same way as man has developed and progressed, living species have also advanced and changed over time" is completely false. Although it is perfectly logical and scientific to say that, as a thinking being, man's knowledge has increased and been passed on to subsequent generations, allowing constant progress, it is utterly senseless to claim that living species developed and evolved by chance and coincidence, in accordance with uncontrolled and unconscious natural conditions.

The greatest names in the advancement of science were all creationists

No matter how much evolutionists try to identify themselves with concepts such as innovation and progress, history has shown that the real initiators of innovation and progress have always been faithful scientists who have believed in divine creation.

We see the mark of such believing scientists at every point of scientific progress. Leonardo da Vinci, Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo, who opened a new era in astronomy, Cuvier, the founder of paleontology, Linnaeus, the founder of the modern classification system for plants and animals, Isaac Newton, the discoverer of the law of gravity, Edwin Hubble, who discovered the existence of the galaxies and the expansion of the universe, and many others have believed in God and that life and the universe were created by Him.

One of the greatest scientists of the twentieth century, Albert Einstein, said:

I cannot conceive of a genuine scientist without that profound faith. The situation may be expressed by an image: science without religion is lame...61

The German Max Planck, who laid the foundations of modern physics, said:

Anybody who has been seriously engaged in scientific work of any kind realises that over the entrance to the gates of the temple of science are written the words: Ye must have faith. It is a quality which the scientist cannot dispense with.62

The history of science reveals that change and progress have been the work of creationist scientists. On the other hand, of course, scientific developments in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries especially have allowed us to come by countless pieces of evidence of creation. Modern science and technology have allowed us to discover the fact that the universe came into being from nothing, in other words that it was "created." It is a fact accepted by the whole scientific world that the universe came into being and developed as a result of the explosion of one single point. In this way, the model of the infinite universe, with no beginning or end, maintained by materialists under the primitive scientific conditions of the nineteenth century has been destroyed. It has been realised that the universe was created, as it says in the Qur'an, and that it has a beginning and frontiers and has expanded over time. The Qur'an expresses this fact thus:

It was again twentieth century scientific progress that allowed us to discover more evidence of the design in life. The electron microscope revealed the structure of the cell, the smallest unit of life, as well as the parts that comprise it. The discovery of DNA demonstrated the infinite intelligence in the cell. Biochemical and physiological advances have shown the flawless workings at the molecular level of the body, and its superior design which cannot be explained by anything other than creation.

As opposed to all this, it was the primitive state of science 150 years ago that prepared the ground for the formation of the theory of evolution.

In conclusion, it is impossible to consider those who believe in creation, and who constantly provide new evidence of it, as being opposed to progress, development, and science. On the contrary, such people are their greatest supporters. Those who actually oppose progress are those who turn their backs on all the scientific evidence and defend the theory of evolution, which is nothing but an unsubstantiated fantasy.