Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Hank Hanegraaff serves as president and chairman of the board of the North Carolina–based Christian Research Institute. He is also host of a nationally syndicated radio broadcast, which is heard daily across the United States and Canada—and around the world via the Internet at equip.org. Hank is the author of more than twenty books. 

Widely regarded as one of the world’s leading Christian authors and apologists, Hank is deeply committed to equipping Christians to be so familiar with truth that when counterfeits loom on the horizon, they recognize them instantaneously. Through his live call-in broadcast, Hank answers questions on the basis of careful research and sound reasoning, and interviews today’s most significant leaders and thinkers. 

Hank and his wife, Kathy, live in Charlotte, North Carolina, and are parents to twelve children.

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FATAL FLAWS

Thomas Nelson

Contents

Foreword...................................................viiAcknowledgments............................................ixIntroduction...............................................xi1. Truth or Consequences...................................12. Fossil Follies..........................................163. Ape-Men Fiction, Fraud, and Fantasy.....................314. Chance..................................................415. Empirical Science.......................................556. Recapitulation..........................................69Notes......................................................81

Chapter One

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Other than scripture, Darwin's magnum opus, The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, might well be the most significant literary work in the annals of recorded history. Sir Julian Huxley called the evolutionary dogma it spawned "the most powerful and most comprehensive idea that has ever arisen on earth."

Harvard scientist Ernst Mayr said that the Darwinian revolution of 1859 was "perhaps the most fundamental of all intellectual revolutions in the history of mankind." Likewise, Dr. Michael Denton points out that the far-reaching effects of the Darwinian dogma ignited an intellectual revolution more significant than the Copernican and Newtonian revolutions. He goes on to say,

The triumph of evolution meant the end of the traditional belief in the world as a purposeful created order-the so-called teleological outlook which had been predominant in the western world for two millennia. According to Darwin, all the design, order and complexity of life and the eerie purposefulness of living systems were the result of a simple blind random process-natural selection. Before Darwin, men had believed a providential intelligence had imposed its mysterious design upon nature, but now chance ruled supreme. God's will was replaced by the capriciousness of a roulette wheel. The break with the past was complete.

It would be impossible to overstate the significance of Darwinian evolution. As Denton underscores, the twentieth century cannot be comprehended apart from the intellectual revolution the theory produced:

The social and political currents which have swept the world in the past eighty years would have been impossible without its intellectual sanction. It is ironic to recall that it was the increasingly secular outlook in the nineteenth century which initially eased the way for the acceptance of evolution, while today it is perhaps the Darwinian view of nature more than any other that is responsible for the agnostic and sceptical outlook of the twentieth century. What was once a deduction from materialism has today become its foundation.

In light of this unprecedented impact of Darwinian dogma, it would be reasonable to expect it to be solidly rooted in truth. In reality, as this book will demonstrate conclusively, evolution is rooted in metaphysical contentions and mythological tales. Denton aptly summed up this sentiment when he termed the Darwinian theory of evolution "the great cosmogenic myth of the twentieth century."

The far-reaching consequences of this cosmogenic myth can be felt in "virtually every field-every discipline of study, every level of education, and every area of practice." The most significant consequence, however, is that it undermines the very foundation of Christianity. If indeed evolution is reflective of the laws of science, then Genesis must be reflective of the flaws of Scripture. And if the foundation of Christianity is flawed, the superstructure is destined to fall. Noted atheist G. Richard Bozarth understood this full well when he penned the following words:

Christianity is-must be!-totally committed to the special creation as described in Genesis, and Christianity must fight with its full might, fair or foul, against the theory of evolution.... It becomes clear now that the whole justification of Jesus' life and death is predicated on the existence of Adam and the forbidden fruit he and Eve ate. Without the original sin, who needs to be redeemed? Without Adam's fall into a life of constant sin terminated by death, what purpose is there to Christianity? None.... What this all means is that Christianity cannot lose the Genesis account of creation like it could lose the doctrine of geocentricism and get along. The battle must be waged, for Christianity is fighting for its very life.

While Bozarth predicted the demise of Christianity without Genesis, he might just as well have predicted the demise of civilization without God. Friedrich Nietzsche, who provided the philosophical framework for Hitler's Germany, understood this better than most. Thus, he predicted that the death of God in the nineteenth century would ensure that the twentieth century would be the bloodiest century in human history.

In the final analysis more consequences for society hinge on the issue of human origins than on any other. Among them are the sovereignty of self, the sexual revolution, and survival of the fittest.

Sovereignty of Self

The supposed death of God ushered in an era in which humans proclaimed themselves sovereigns of the universe. Nowhere was this more evident than at the Darwinian Centennial Convention, which celebrated the hundredth anniversary of the publication of Darwin's The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. With pomp and ceremony Sir Julian Huxley, the great-grandson of Thomas Huxley, Darwin's bulldog, boasted, "In the evolutionary system of thought there is no longer need or room for the supernatural. The earth was not created; it evolved. So did all the animals and plants that inhabit it, including our human selves, mind and soul, as well as brain and body. So did religion. Evolutionary man can no longer take refuge from his loneliness by creeping for shelter into the arms of a divinized father figure whom he himself has created."

While the evolutionary system of thought was credited for expunging the need for God, in reality it is merely the repackaging of an age-old deception. In the very first book of the Bible, Satan tells Eve that if she eats the forbidden fruit, "Your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil" (Gen. 3:5). What Satan was communicating was that Eve could become the final court of arbitration-she could determine what was right and what was wrong.

Humanity's newfound autonomy sacrificed truth on the altar of subjectivism. Ethics and morals were no longer determined on the basis of objective standards but rather by the size and strength of the latest lobby group. With no enduring reference point, societal norms were reduced to a matter of preference.

One of the most devastating consequences of humanity's repackaging of Satan's age-old deception was the sexual revolution.

Sexual Revolution

Years ago noted evolutionist Aldous Huxley and his peers argued that that the theory of evolution supported the assumption that there was no meaning to the world and therefore life could be lived without moral restrictions. Huxley wrote, "Like so many of my contemporaries, I took it for granted that there was no meaning [to the world]. This was partly due to...