Lutheran Science Institute - Natural Selection

Natural Selection

Evolution - a Lutheran Response

second edition
by Mark Bergemann

This lesson book condenses 263 pages of articles into seven lessons. See Lesson 4, "Natural Selection," pages 21-25.

Evolutionists and Creationists Often Agree
There are many points of agreement on natural selection
Mark Bergemann, 2019
16 pages

"Let’s examine how one of the most famous champions of evolution, Richard Dawkins, describes natural selection’s ability to produce new Biblical kinds. After writing nine books on evolution, Dawkins realized that in those books 'The evidence for evolution was nowhere explicitly set out.' In The Greatest Show on Earth—The Evidence for Evolution, Dawkins states, 'This book is my personal summary of the evidence that the theory of evolution is actually a fact—as incontrovertible as any fact in science.'”

Essays on Origins
Dr. David Menton, 1996

Essay #10: Natural Selection And Macroevolution
Excerpt: "Evolutionists like to refer to the sort of variation we see among individuals of a species as microevolution, implying that this is somehow related to the chance formation of fundamentally new animals by a process known as macroevolution. There is, in fact, no known relationship between so- called microevolution and macroevolution. Most evolutionists are quite aware of Essays on Origins, David N. Menton, this (although you would never guess it from the explanations of evolution in the media, textbooks, and in the classroom)."

Essay #11: Sickle Cell Anemia And Other "Good"
Mutations Of Evolution

Essay #12: Can Evolution Produce An Eye? Not A Chance!
Excerpt: "Evolutionists counter that the whole probability argument is irrelevant since evolution is utterly
purposeless, and thus never tries to make anything in particular! They insist, more over, that
"natural selection" makes the impossible, possible."

Essay #18: Species, Speciation and the Genesis Kind

Disclaimer
Views expressed on this website are those of the author and not necessarily the view of LSI.

What Evidence Do Evolutionists Give for Common Descent? and Why Do They Think It Is Strong Evidence?
....by Mark Bergemann 2022

Evolutionists claim that plants, animals, and people share a common ancestor—a bacteria-like creature. They assert that people, carrots, worms, and bacteria are “cousins.” What evidence do they present for this stunning claim? Let’s look at the most common evidence presented by evolutionists: in college biology textbooks, by the National Academy of Sciences (advisors to the US president), and by champions of evolution such as Richard Dawkins.

Has Common Descent Become Unfalsifiable?
by Mark Bergemann 2022

So, based on a lack of the expected transitional fossils, evolutionists have modified the common descent part of the evolution story so that one species can descend from a different ancestral species either gradually or rapidly. In that way, common descent will now reflect the fossil record—whatever fossil evidence is found—many transitional fossils or none. Whether fossils are found or not found, either way, evolutionists view the common descent evolution story as being confirmed by the fossil evidence.

Teaching Discernment -using evolution videos

by Mark Bergemann

Show a video to your students and then have the class discuss a Lutheran response. Creationist commentary for several videos is provided.

Natural Selection -know evolution series
Mark Bergemann, LSI Journal, 2016

The evolution story is a mixture of reality and fabrication. Natural selection is a great example of this truth.

Reality: Natural selection produces new species of plants and animals.
Fabrication: The claim that natural selection produces new kinds of plants and animals.

There are many species in most Biblical kinds. Every kind of plant and animal which exists today, or which has gone extinct, was created by God thousands of years ago during the six days of creation. No new kinds ever develop. New species develop all the time, but always within their own kind. Birds did not descend from dinosaurs, they descended from birds. People did not descend from apelike creatures, they descended from people.

Creation-Evolution Q&A
Warren Krug, LSI Journal 2013.

Question #5. What is the mechanism by which evolution is said to work?
Excerpt: "Evolution is supposed to be able to create new organisms by means of natural selection and mutations. Nobody doubts that mutations cause changes in genes which can indeed lead to differences in creatures. Natural selection (a.k.a. “survival of the fittest”) then 'chooses' those creatures which are better able to survive. The idea is that over time natural selection will tend to produce better, more advanced creatures which pass on the improvements to their descendants – hence, molecules-to-man evolution."

Question #6. Can we conclude that no species has ever changed into a different species?

Question #7. Isn’t genetics a key to evolution?