August 26, 2019

Review of John Byl, "Is Evolution Unfalsified?" – Part 1

Dr. John Byl, from Trinity Western University in Langley, BC (Canada), wrote an article at his personal blog that was intended to demonstrate that the modern scientific theory of biological evolution has been falsified in many (and in some cases important) ways. These include, but are not limited to: being contradicted by the facts of Genesis; failing to start due to origin of life problems; never being observed (macroevolution); and so on. [1] This article was important to me because, as an evangelical Christian who is investigating evolutionary science from a biblical world-view, it could potentially end my search if the theory has been falsified. And I think the author's blog itself is trustworthy and important because its goal is to not only promote a biblical world-view but one that is also consistent with confessional standards in the Reformed faith, a worthy and commendable cause in my view (because my faith draws heavily from the covenant theology of the Reformed faith). So his ideas and arguments are something to take seriously. I would encourage Christians who visit here to do the same, and to read his blog regularly.

In this case, however, I don't think his argument succeeded. What I want to do over the course of a few articles is carefully explain how I responded to the arguments he made, that is, the critical analysis that occurred in my head according to my studies and limited understanding. I think it is important to emphasize that this is simply one Christian's considered analysis and my hope is that people find it helpful in some way. And if Dr. Byl isn't one of those people—I expect he won't be—nevertheless I am grateful for the challenging material he continues to produce.

Is evolution falsified by Genesis?


The strongest argument against any position, of course, is that it is contradicted by Scripture. On this point both Dr. Byl and I firmly agree. "The plain reading of Genesis," he said—

No, sorry. I have to stop the argument right there and explain something I have learned in my theological studies, especially with regard to doctrinal disputes (e.g., Calvinism vs. Arminianism). In order to argue that a view contradicts Scripture one must start with a responsible exegesis of the relevant texts. As any serious student of Scripture well knows—Dr. Byl included, I'm sure—a plain reading of some modern English translation does not amount to any kind of meaningful exegesis and is not consistent with sound hermeneutic principles. Although the sufficiency of Scripture seems to be boilerplate for confessional documents (e.g., Article 7 of the Belgic Confession), that doesn't obviate the need for responsible exegesis. Just consider the doctrinal conflict which I used as an example. I appreciate a point made in the Westminster Confession of Faith, namely, that since it was the original languages that were directly inspired by God and not subsequent translations, in all controversies of religion the final appeal of the church must be to them (WCF 1:8).

There really is so much going on in Genesis that a plain reading simply misses. For example, consider that "Adam" and "Eve" were in all probability not the names they called each other, as those belong to the Hebrew language which did not exist until about the middle of the second millennium BC. That should then alert us to the fact that these are assigned names which are packed with archetypal meaning and significance, [2] a man named Human (federal head of mankind) with a spouse named Life (whose seed will be the Savior). These possess important covenant relevance and christological hints of the gospel. As Christians we should probably leave the plain reading to personal devotions and go deeper—responsibly, carefully, and honestly—when it comes to theological and doctrinal disputes.

The single most crucial element in Dr. Byl's argument is the idea that Genesis describes the dawn of natural history, the physical or material origins of all things. He seems to believe that the universe did not materially exist until that moment—no galaxies, planets, molecules, hydrogen atoms, absolutely nothing but God alone. All of the young-earth creationist material I have ever studied operates with that assumption already in place, as does Dr. Byl here (for he identifies Adam as "the first man" in the sense that nobody existed before him, that is, he had no parents). But it is an illegitimate assumption here because, in this context, it begs the question. Does Genesis regard the dawn of natural history? It is illegitimate to assume the very thing to be proved, so instead let's turn it into a conclusion drawn responsibly from the text. Once that is done, then Dr. Byl could legitimately argue, "This is what falsifies evolution." And it would—permanently. [3]

Is evolution falsified by origin of life problems?


I was not entirely sure what Dr. Byl was arguing here. The first part seemed to be an argument against biochemical theories on the origin of life, but surely Dr. Byl is familiar with the fact that evolution is a theory on the origin of species and their biological continuity. For me, a good memory aid for this fact is remembering the title of Darwin's book. If someone wants to know what evolution is about, the clearest answer is, "It is a theory on the origin of species, explaining it in terms of descent with modification from a common ancestor."

Although this fact seems to annoy young-earth creationists for some reason, evolution is not about the origin of life, or the origin of the solar system, or the origin of the universe, much less the origin of everything (which is the world-view of evolutionism). Rather, evolution presupposes the existence of these things in order to address the origin of species. [4] Most of the books that I have read which deal with the theory, written by scientists and philosophers (including Christian ones), are quite clear on this point. As explained by the University of California, Berkley, at their web site Understanding Evolution, "The central idea of biological evolution is that all life on Earth share a common ancestor, just as you and your cousins share a common grandmother." That is the theory, so any critiques thereof must address that specific target, and not engage in a bait-and-switch.

But let us assume for the sake of argument that life indeed could not originate through natural processes. How would that falsify evolution? As far as I can tell, it simply wouldn't—indeed it couldn't, for the theory of evolution presupposes the existence of life. It is a biological theory, hence life is presupposed. Allow me to use different terms to clearly express the salient point as I understand it (and I admit that I could be mistaken): Notwithstanding how life arose, it has nevertheless evolved. Ergo, undermining origin of life research doesn't undermine evolution.

I find myself speculating at times as to why creationists [5] seem to focus so intensely on the problem of life's origin. The only intelligent answer I can come up with, so far, is that there must be this idea that if as Christians we can make a compelling case for God as a necessary condition at this point then we can capitalize on that for various other points of creation. Personally, I could not accept that kind of thinking because trying to insert God at any point tacitly concedes that he’s not already a necessary precondition for every point. Aubrey Moore, a fellow of St. John’s College, Oxford, and curator of the Oxford Botanical Gardens, made the following observation more than 100 years ago: [6]
Those who opposed the doctrine of evolution in defense of a "continued intervention" of God seem to have failed to notice that a theory of occasional intervention implies as its correlative a theory of ordinary absence. And this fitted in well with the deism of the last century. [...] Yet anything more opposed to the language of the Bible and the [church] fathers can hardly be imagined. [...] There are not, and cannot be, any divine interpositions in nature, for God cannot interfere with himself. His creative activity is present everywhere. There is no division of labour between God and nature, or God and law. [...] A theory of "supernatural interferences" is as fatal to theology as to science.
This perceptive remark has been echoed by others like Robert J. Russell who likewise said, "The problem with interventionism is that it suggests that God is normally absent from the web of natural processes [...]. Furthermore, since God's intervention breaks the very processes of nature which God created and constantly maintains, it pits God's special acts against God's regular action, which underlies and ultimately causes nature's regularities.” [7]

Looking at these origin of life arguments for design, I must echo the sentiment of Cardinal Newman: "I believe in design because I believe in God, not in a God because I see design." [8] At any rate, God is not a conclusion to be reached but an axiomatic presupposition, the necessary precondition that grounds all intelligibility.

Is evolution falsified if macroevolution hasn't been observed?


The second part of his argument had to do with "macroevolution" never being observed in action. Those who have read Dr. Byl's article will know that he defined macroevolution as large-scale change "from one kind of animal to another," in contrast to microevolution or "small changes within kinds." (This was at the start of his article.) First of all, it is impossible to evaluate Dr. Byl's argument because it makes use of an undefined term: No one has any idea what exactly the term "kind" represents, only what it doesn't represent. Until creationists (generally speaking) have clearly defined and scientifically defended that term, it is illegitimate to argue that macroevolution has not been observed because we cannot know what that even means.

Is evolution falsified if macroevolution hasn't been proven?


Second, insofar as a single human generation is too brief and limited to observe large-scale evolution, no one would expect it to be observed in action. And it doesn't even matter that it hasn't been observed because, honestly, that's not how a scientific theory works in the first place! When you have a massive wealth of diverse and seemingly related facts accumulated over centuries from a wide range of independent scientific fields, you need some kind of conceptual structure that helps organize the data into a coherent and intelligible collection. That is the role of a scientific theory. In other words: We don't have a theory in search of observable evidence to support it, we have observable evidence in search of a theory to explain it. Currently, that's evolution, explaining how our planet's biodiversity came about.

And as a theory evolution is not itself true. A shocking admission? It really shouldn't be. It's not the theory that is true but the facts which it attempts to explain. What's true are the facts of paleontology, population and developmental genetics, biogeography, molecular biology, paleoanthropology, archaeology, anatomical homology and analogy, evolutionary developmental biology and epigenetics—and on and on. These are the facts, the empirical observations made of the real world. But how are we to understand and make sense of all these categorically different observations being made? Again, in science that is the role of a theory, a conceptual structure that provides a way of organizing, interpreting, and understanding the massive wealth of data we possess, drawing all the relevant facts together into a coherent scientific model that makes sense of them or explains them—and, even better, it makes predictions that result in new, previously unknown evidence being discovered which then adds to the evidential credibility of the theory.

This is what the heliocentric theory does, for example. (Yes, heliocentricism is "just a theory.") It makes sense of otherwise strange planetary motions. It is not itself true, it is just our best scientific explanation of what is true—the celestial bodies and their "wandering" motions—an explanation so powerful that it enables us to intercept planets with satellites and rovers, land scientific instruments on comets (e.g., Churyumov-Gerasimenko), even calculate the location and orbit of a tiny Kuiper belt object roughly ten billion kilometers away accurately enough to perform a photographic fly-by (e.g., 2014MU69, "Ultima Thule"). As falsifiable predictions, these also amount to empirical tests of the theory. In a similar way, evolution is not true, it's just the best scientific explanation we have for all these things that are, an explanation so powerful that it can even allow us to predict what types of fossil we ought to find and where to find them, even before we go looking. [9]

Is evolution falsified by having no useful application?


So Dr. Byl quotes a statement from Jerry Coyne about the theory of evolution being mostly useless practically, a statement that is flat-out wrong. There's no point sugar-coating it. Evolution has bestowed a host of practical benefits, some of which Coyne described in his book Why Evolution is True (2009)—which renders this statement perplexing. (I'm ignoring the bit about it having yielded little in the way of commercial benefits. I found that confusing, as if commercial application is a meaningful criterion in science. It's not. And I'm assuming that Dr. Byl didn't take his quote entirely out of context.)

Quoting a gentleman named Dr. Jerry Bergman, Dr. Byl said that "most university textbooks for the life sciences make little substantial mention of macro-evolution"—whatever that is—"especially not for experimental biology" or for medicine. (I wonder if Dr. Bergman referenced specific universities or textbooks, so that someone could look into his claim.) Assuming this claim is true, if a person thinks about this for just a few seconds he should realize that it may have something to do with the fact that these are not dealing with paleontology or comparative anatomy or what have you. Since they are not dealing with the sort of facts which "macroevolution" is supposed to address, obviously it wouldn't be relevant, so of course it would receive little mention. But how is that supposed to falsify evolution? That was not at all clear to me.

It's also worth noting that Dr. Byl had to split evolution apart into microevolution and "macroevolution," then uncouple the theory from the former (which is defined) so only the latter remains (which is undefined), in order to claim that Darwin's theory is of little use or has no substantial application in textbooks on biology or medicine. Well, obviously. But what is his argument anyway? That "macroevolution" (as he uses it) doesn't happen? It's strange that he or anyone would expect a university textbook on life sciences to mention it at all, then. Or maybe his point is that it does happen but microevolution doesn't lead to it. But that would contradict his Genesis argument about the static nature of "kinds." Honestly, I found it difficult to ascertain what his argument was here, with respect to evolution being falsified.

Setting aside how Dr. Byl uses the terms, for those who are interested the following represents the coherent picture as I understand it (any errors in this picture are mine):

Microevolution is about the variation that exists within a species population (change in allelic frequencies), which leads to macroevolution or speciation events through allopatric or sympatric conditions. These, taken together over geologic time, constitute the evolution of life with its patterns of descent with modification from a common ancestor found in molecular and fossil records. [10]

(Part 2 is forthcoming, where we look at evolution being naturalistic as well as its unanswered questions.)

John M. Bauer
@JohnMBauer1
Approx. 2,400 words

Footnotes:

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

[1] John Byl, "Is Evolution Unfalsified?" Bylogos (blog), August 28, 2015 (accessed December 24, 2018).

[2] John H. Walton, The Lost World of Adam and Eve: Genesis 2–3 and the Human Origins Debate (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2015).

[3] For a robust example of such an exegesis, see John H. Walton, The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2009). For a more complete picture, this view should be integrated with Gregory K. Beale, The Temple and the Church's Mission: A Biblical Theology of the Dwelling Place of God (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2004) with some specific help from J. Richard Middleton, The Liberating Image: The Imago Dei in Genesis 1 (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2005).

[4] To say that evolution presupposes the existence of these things is to admit that they are relevant and important to the theory, but nevertheless separate from the theory.

[5] At this blog generally, and in this article particularly, when I use the term "creationists" I am referring strictly to young-earth and old-earth creationists of every stripe (e.g, geocentric and heliocentric, fiat and progressive, biblical and scientific, etc.). In other words, my use of the term does not include evolutionary creationists.

[6] Aubrey L. Moore, Science and Faith: Essays on Apologetic Subjects, 6th ed. (1889; London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., 1905), 184–185, 225. Emphasis mine.

[7] Robert John Russell, "Quantum Physics and the Theology of Non-Interventionist Objective Divine Action," in Philip Clayton and Zachary Simpson, eds., The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Science (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 584.

[8] Letter to William R. Brownlow, April 13, 1870, in John H. Newman, The Letters and Diaries of John Henry Newman, eds. Charles Stephen Dessain and Thomas Gornall, 31 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1963), 25:97. According to Denis Alexander, the reason why ID advocates are so convinced that the origin of life and biochemical complexity requires a designer "is that if we calculate the chances of complex things coming into being by random processes then it is very improbable that this will happen. Of course. We all agree on that. [...] [But then] no one in the field believes that life started with complex molecules like proteins or DNA, as [ID advocates seem] to think, so all the calculations about huge improbabilities are a waste of time. [...] Why do creationists and ID folk spend so much time tilting at windmills?" Denis R. Alexander, Creation or Evolution: Do We Have to Choose? (Oxford, UK: Monarch, 2008), 334. I would also add that their calculations do not ever account for the variable of God's ordinary providence.

[9] A gap in the fossil record between land-dwelling tetrapods 365 mya (e.g., Acanthostega gunnari) and lobe-finned fish 385 mya (e.g., Eusthenopteron foordi) led a research team to Ellesmere Island in northern Canada to look for fossils of what should be an intermediate species. And that is precisely what they discovered, several late-Devonian specimens (375 mya) of just such a species now called Tiktaalik roseae. Neil Shubin, Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body (New York: Pantheon, 2008). See also Jerry A. Coyne, Why Evolution Is True (New York: Viking Penguin, 2009), 37–38. "So we can make another prediction. Somewhere, in freshwater sediments [that are] about 380 million years old, we'll find a very early land-dweller with reduced gills and limbs a bit sturdier than those of Tiktaalik" (38).

[10] "What Do We Mean by Evolution? Speciation, Fossils, and the Question of Information" (Chapter 5), in Alexander, Creation or Evolution, 93–129.

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