The initial target is to get people to think about the ideas that they have been told. It is not just to show the failings of what they believe, but to get them to think about the repercussions of their ideas.

You can win battles but lose wars, and the person.

Many people either think they know or want to know their origins, you can ask where they think things originated. When you talk about creation you can talk about the creator, Jesus Christ (John 1:1).

The subject of evolution is probably the most frequently used means to justify people’s denial of God & discredit the bible. However creation can often be a conversation starter when you come to origins.

Show them the basic fallacies of what they have been taught:

1 The beginning. The Big Bang basically tells of how nothing turned into everything in the universe.

All without a magician, a rabbit or a top hat.. This violates scientific laws¹.

2 The origin of life. How life appeared by natural processes. This violates the basic law of biology².

3 The genetic code in all living things requires a code maker ³.

4 How increasing complexity in life appeared. This violates basic laws of science⁴.

I will specify 3 groups of people you could possibly encounter:

1 The average person. They will have gone through the standard education system & indoctrination process. They were taught evolution and dates of millions of years at school & seen it broadcast throughout the media. They will have accepted the theory because that is all they have heard of.

If you ask them for evidence supposedly evolved they are normally stumped. If they do give an answer it is likely to be something superficial. A common example might be the variation in dogs or the alleged variations in peppered moths (biston betularia).

a Dog breeds vary but all are all still dogs.

b Two varieties of the moth exist, the light coloured variety predominated, but with the industrial revelation

trees trunks were allegedly darkened so they showed up on more than the dark, enabling birds to spot

them more easily. Note, this would be a good example of natural selection, not of evolution! What were

there in the beginning? Light & dark varieties of the moth. What were at the end? Light & dark varieties

of the moth. The proportions may have altered but they are still the same kind. [see more in the ‘Frauds’

section below] Look at what the starting position was & what was the end result.

2 The person who has studied science. This type will probably have been spoon fed a few arguments & may even come over as a scientific expert. They may appear daunting, but you can show some of the failings of evolution & get them thinking about what they believe. You could point them to an appropriate website.

Ask for an example of beneficial change in any creature and they will not be able to give one – there are none! They may speak about mutations beneficial to mankind: seedless grapes – helpful to humans,  shortened legged sheep – useful to farmers, or sickle cell anaemia – a disease in tropical regions. None of these is beneficial to the actual creature.

3 The expert in evolution. This type I have yet to meet. I still hope to come across Richard Dawkins at Gatwick Airport.

When discussing the subject of evolution it is important to define the terms being used.

You may think of evolution as a process of change from microbes to man, while an evolutionist is thinking of changes in bird beak sizes. Here are some of the usages of the word:

1 Cosmic evolution – This covers the origin of the universe, & appearance of the laws of science.

2 Stellar evolution – The formation of stars & galaxies, also planets, moons, asteroids & comets, etc.

3 Appearance of life – How life allegedly arose by natural processes.

4 Macro evolution – The progress of life from the 1^st cell to fish, amphibians, reptiles, mammals & man.

5 Micro evolution – This looks at the minor changes we see in nature, differences in eye colour, variations in skin colour. nb do not use this term! People hearing the word ‘evolution’ think you believe the whole story. It is much better & more accurate to say ‘variation’ or ‘speciation’.

You may also come across a number of logical fallacies, notably:

1 The straw man – Setting up a false claim then proving it is false:

‘You creationists believe God created all species, but we see species change so this disproves creation’.

2 Bait & switch – Talking about one subject then inferring another:

‘We see changes in bacteria in the lab, so this shows evolution is true’.

When discussing changes void using the word ‘species’. Biologists have trouble defining this term & the word is not used in the bible. Keep to the word ‘kind’ as this is used in Genesis. There are varieties within kinds but these are all limited, there is no thing as a ‘dat’ or ‘cog’.

Frauds. These abound in the area of alleged ape-man fossils. Here are 3 examples:

1 Piltdown Man – a composite skeleton which deceived scientists for 40 years. A number of PhD’s were based on it & it was broadly accepted because people wanted to believe it.

2 Peking man – the bones of this once famous alleged ape-man were conveniently lost in WW2 before full investigation & confirmation.

3 Nebraska man – America needed its own ape-man fossil & found it here based on a single tooth). Pictures of ‘ape-man’ families were published around the world. Other fossils were later found & the tooth was shown to have belonged to an extinct pig.

The peppered moth again. The idea of these being selectively caught by birds on tree trunks seemed a good example of natural selection. The problem was that they rested on leaves not tree trunks. So in the photo for the report they had to be stuck onto trunks.

Ernst Haeckel & falsified drawings of embryos. In the 19^th century there was little evidence for evolution so he doctored the drawings of various creature’s embryos. He also coined the infamous phrase, ‘Ontology recapitulates phylogeny’. 150 years ago he was censured by his university for committing fraud, but this idea is still taught in today’s biology textbooks.

Dating. Deep time & and an ancient Earth are essential to evolutionists for their theory to work, vast eons are required for supposed changes. [see dating methods in Time article]

The bible shows that the age of the Earth is about 6,000 years old. This comes from adding the genealogies given through the Old Testament. Beware many Christians have compromised with secular ideas. [See the article on Compromise].

If someone mentions millions of years ask what dating method this comes from. If they say carbon-14 this shows that they do not understand dating processes, as carbon-14 can only show dates up to thousands of years ago. Over 90% of dating methods available point to a young Earth. [See article on Time]

Footnotes:

¹ The 1^st law of thermodynamics – matter/energy cannot be created or destroyed.

The law of cause & effect – every effect must have had a cause.

² Life only comes from existing life. This has never been seen to be falsified.

³ Information technology has shown that information only comes from an intelligent source. Random

processes break down information they never increase it.

⁴ The 2^nd law of thermodynamics – entropy (disorder) increases