Episode 262 – Evolution: A Word in Doubt – An Interview with Dr. Jonathan Sarfati
Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The goal of Anchored by Truth is to encourage everyone to grow in the Christian faith by anchoring themselves to the secure truth found in the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God.
Script Notes:
For the LORD is God, and he created the heavens and earth and put everything in place. He made the world to be lived in, not to be a place of empty chaos.
“I am the LORD,” he says, “and there is no other. I publicly proclaim bold promises. I do not whisper obscurities in some dark corner. I would not have told the people of Israel to seek me if I could not be found. I, the LORD, speak only what is true and declare only what is right.
Isaiah, chapter 45, verses 18 and 19, English Standard Version
You are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power.
For you created all things, and they exist because you created what you pleased.
Revelation, chapter 4, verse 11, English Standard Version
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VK: Hi! I’m Victoria K. Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. Today we are continuing to explore the origin of the universe and the beginning of life with our series that we call The Truth in Genesis. To help us in our exploration we’ve invited Dr. Jonathan Sarfati to be our guest in the studio. Dr. Sarfati is the lead scientist for Creation Ministries International. He has written a number of widely selling books that bring an understandable, yet comprehensive, scientific perspective on what empirical observations actually tell us about the age of the earth and the origin of life. Dr. Sarfati has sold hundreds of thousands of books such as Refuting Evolution volumes 1 and 2, By Design, The Greatest Hoax on Earth and The Genesis Account.
During this series Dr. Sarfati has been answering questions about a wide variety of topics that pertain the evidence that supports the historicity of the literal Biblical account. Of course, we recognize that the overwhelming view in our culture today is that the universe is billions of years old and that life somehow arose spontaneously by a process labeled as “evolution.” But, surprisingly enough, the science that supports life arising from non-living chemicals is not nearly as settled as is usually thought. Moreover, as we’ll learn today, evolution as a hypothesis is defined so flexibly that it is nearly impossible to find a consensus on what the term actually means. Today we’ll be looking at what the terms “evolution” and “natural selection” actually mean and how God’s provision for the adaptation of species has been misused in a way that violates the rules of logic and evidence.
Specifically, today we’re going see that the concept of natural selection had actually been recognized by Biblical creationists before Charles Darwin ever put a pen to paper to publish his most famous book. But before we get too far into our discussion, Dr. Sarfati would you like to say a word of greeting to the Anchored by Truth listeners and maybe tell us a little bit about yourself and how you became interested in studying the subject of creation and biological adaptation?
Dr. Sarfati: - Thanks for inviting me. It’s a pleasure to be on Anchored by Truth today. Introductory comments.
VK: Dr. Sarfati, during our last few episodes we have been discussing several key points demonstrate that the earth and universe are much younger than conventionally assumed. First, there are significant scientific problems with the way dates have been traditionally been assigned to the age of the universe and the earth. Second, there is a considerable body of scientific evidence that supports the ages for creation and the earth derived from Genesis. Third, the Noahic flood dispels the need for a long-age uniformitarianism to explain the geological configuration of the earth. A long age time period is absolutely essential to placing any confidence in – as you put it - a particles-to-people concept of evolution. But there are other problems with the notion that life arose from non-life and blind, random forces produced all the brilliant diversity we see on the earth today. But before we get too deep into our discussion the term “evolution” is often given widely varying meanings. What does the term “evolution” actually mean?
Dr. Sarfati: Comments on the varying ways “evolution” is used by its advocates
VK: Thank you. That was very helpful. So let’s delve more deeply into some of the issues associated with natural selection and evolution.
Question List:
a. Can you comment a little more on the fact that Christian scientists had considered the possibility of natural selection as a mechanism for the creation of new species before Darwin wrote The Origin of Species? If so, what was Darwin’s contribution to science?
b. What does “natural selection” mean and how does it operate?
c. Is it fair to say that the critical factor that precludes random, undirected activity, even at the molecular level, from enabling simpler life forms to “evolve” into more complex life forms is the inability of random activity to create the additional information within the cell that enables all complex life to function?
d. How can the loss of genetic information actually contribute to enhanced survival of a species in some circumstances?
e. Can genetic mutations ever create new information? Would it ever be possible for a single-celled ancestor to create all the genetic information present in humans and other higher orders of animals?
f. What resources would you recommend for Christians who want to study the scientific problems with evolution?
g. In your opinion what are the three or four of the most important facts that Christians should know that demonstrate that particles-to-people evolution is not supported by actual scientific evidence?

VK: So the big takeaway from our discussion today is that evolutionists consistently commit the logical fallacy of equivocation and use the term “evolution” to create a veneer of scientific respectability to defend an anti-supernatural secularism. This reinforces the conclusion that we have seen through this Truth in Genesis series. There are significant problems with common consensus that the universe is billions of years old and that the evolutionary hypothesis has been proven scientifically. Methods for assigning ancient days to long past events are not as reliable as normally thought. And the Genesis flood explains geological phenomena that are observed around the globe. So if a billions of years age for the earth is not necessary to explain either geological or paleontological discoveries maybe we should begin considering an alternative. This means that the conclusion we get from Genesis – that God created all the various “kinds” of animals – is amply supported by empirical observations and scientific evidence.
Dr. Sarfati, we’d really like to thank you for joining us on Anchored by Truth today. Just as a reminder this show, as well as all Anchored by Truth episodes will be available by podcast shortly after the broadcast airing. So any listener today who has a friend or study group that could benefit from Dr. Sarfati’s depth of knowledge can go to their favorite podcast app and search on Anchored by Truth by Crystal Sea Books. Today for our closing prayer, since we may often be the only one who can be the voice of God to bring God’s truth to our friends, how about today that we pray for those friends?
---- Prayer for Friends, radio version.
VK: We hope you’ll be with us next time when we’ll continue our discussion with Dr. Sarfati. And we hope you’ll take some time to encourage some friends to tune in too, or listen to the podcast version of this show.
If you’d like to hear more, try out crystalseabooks.com where “We’re not famous but our Boss is!”
(Bible Quotes from the English Standard Version)
Isaiah, chapter 45, verses 18 and 19, English Standard Version
Revelation, chapter 4, verse 11, English Standard Version
https://creation.com/3-rs-of-evolution
https://creation.com/divine-engineer-sarfati-by-design-review
https://creation.com/the-evolution-trains-a-comin