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"God... hath made everything beautiful in its time". The evolutionist usually denies that God made anything, much less that he made anything purposely beautiful (see Dr. Dawkins: Climbing Mount Improbable page 236). However Dr Dawkins can distinguish things that are beautiful from those that are not (see The Blind Watchmaker page 59 "my aesthetic selection"). Mankind has the ability to appreciate beauty in greater or lesser degree. If mankind did not have that ability he would not spend time painting pictures or creating other works of art. |
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"I know that whatever God doeth, it shall be for ever; there is nothing to be added to it, nor anything to be taken from it". God's creation is not something that can be improved upon. It was made perfect from the outset (Genesis 1:31). His work cannot be improved by a process of evolution, whether by addition or subtraction. |
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In this section the preacher (for that is another name for the book of Ecclesiastes) points out the things that man has in common with beasts. However, it should be noted that this is to humble man and it is God that has made man so for this purpose. The children of men are to see that they themselves are but beasts (verse 18). Only man has the God-given intelligence to make such a judgement of himself. Man as we are told in Job 11:12 is born like the foal of a wild ass. We would do well to take this to heart. Scripture has a word for this aspect of man. It is Enosh meaning 'feeble, mortal man' (Psalm 8:4). |
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Here we have a man labouring simply for the sake of heaping up riches though he has no offspring or brother to whom it can be passed on. To use the evolutionist's terminology: his genes will not benefit. It would sometimes help if evolutionists looked at actual cases rather than assuming hypothetically that creatures always work for the benefit of their genes. |
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Here we have a case of persons helping one another. There is no idea of any genetic relationship involved and therefore their so-called selfish genes do not benefit. Man does things for all kinds of reasons, some good, some evil, some wise and some foolish. Ecclesiastes has more references to madness than any other book in the Bible (JND translation). Madness would indicate that what man often does has no rational basis at all ! |
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"When goods increase, they are increased that eat them". There are checks and balances in nature. The earth would be overrun with vegetation if there were no herbivores, or with herbivores if there were no carnivores. God has seen to it that in normal circumstances vegetation is not eaten to extinction or creatures hunted to extinction. If a plant or creature could improve its survival ability beyond a certain level it would become a plague. God can produce plagues as he did in Egypt if he so wishes, but in the normal course nature is so set up that living species do not become a plague. Locusts may be thought to be an exception, but their swarming is no doubt allowed by God as a witness to what he can do if He considers fit. |
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"God made man upright". The preacher had obviously noticed that animals normally walk on all fours. Even those that can walk on two legs only, such as bears and some primates, normally walk on four legs. If we want to find two legged creatures other than man we would have to look to the birds. Why did God make man upright ? One reason (probably the main reason) is that man was made like that so he could easily look up to the heavens as Christ lifted up his eyes to heaven when speaking to his Father (John 17:1). Man was made to commune with God. Animals do not do this in any real way. An evolutionist, if he is also an atheist as many are, could not countenance such an idea because if he did he would have to abandon his atheism. His atheism will not allow him to accept the thought that there was ever a conscious intention to make man as he is. |
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