The Choice: No Future, Bright Future

BEFORE YOU CHOOSE, BE INFORMED!

THE TRUTH MANY WON’T FACE: HOPE IN GOD OR RELINQUISH HOPE

SCIENTISTS predict that the expanding universe will run out of energy, grow dark and end all life. Or that it will collapse in upon itself and end all life. Scientist Peacocke says: “Thus science fails to answer ‘the ultimate question of hope.”’ It “raises questions about the ultimate significance of human life in a universe that will eventually surely obliterate it.”

If we credit our presence here to evolution, eliminate God and the Bible and moral restraints, we also eliminate any purpose and meaning our lives might have had. We become brother to ants and elephants, worms and crabgrass, cockroaches and cats. Of what consequence are ants? Or crabgrass? Or men?

Evolutionists, having stripped us of meaning, feel the pressure to make us meaningful. Many conclude their books with flabby little speeches about the glory we share in being a rung in the evolutionary ladder that millions of years from now will plant our descendants on some superb pinnacle of grandeur.

Empty Philosophizings of Evolutionists

Professor Millikan emotes on the “tremendous emotional appeal” man can derive from participating in the evolutionary ascent to future heights. Geneticist Herman Muller quails before the biological armageddon mutations threaten us with, but still thinks they will evolve us to “undreamed-of heights.” The proof of the pudding is in the eating, but he isn’t about to take a bite by wanting mutations for himself. Dobzhansky says man’s strivings to evolve upward bestow hope and dignity and meaning on life, and concludes: “So, let me repeat, evolution bestows hope.”

Such empty talk comforts no one. Sullivan, in “Limitations of Science,” correctly says: “Our religious impulses cannot be satisfied with anything less than a belief that life has a transcendental significance.” (Pp. 149, 150) If our end is eternal oblivion, nothing really matters. And if that is also the ending for our grand, hypothetical offspring millions of years hence, their existence is pointless. By their empty philosophizings evolutionists grope to still the inherent need for God. They whittle new crutches to replace the religious ones they have cast aside. They refuse to face this truth: hope in God, or relinquish hope.

The Biblical Hope

In contrast, what is the hope from God? He made the earth to last forever, to be a paradise forever, to be inhabited by obedient human creatures forever. (Eccl. 1:4; Isa. 45:18) People do not make fine watches, beautiful buildings, exquisite gardens, simply to destroy them. Neither will Jehovah God’s purpose in creating the earth and all life upon it be defeated. “I have purposed,” he says, “and I will do it.”​—Isa. 46:11, “An American Translation.”

His concern for the earth is shown by his edict concerning men who are now polluting it, which is to “bring to ruin those ruining the earth.” (Rev. 11:18) God’s kingdom under Christ Jesus will bring about the conditions described at Revelation 21:3, 4: “Look! The tent of God is with mankind, and he will reside with them . . . And he will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore. The former things have passed away.”

The evolutionary “hope” is hopeless. It is eternal oblivion. The Biblical hope is for a bright future of everlasting life in a paradise earth. Each one makes his own choice. Before you make yours, be fully informed.

The Current Question: Should Creation Have Equal Time With Evolution In Science Classes?

A BIBLICAL VIEWPOINT

EVEN RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS ARE IN DISAGREEMENT

CHRISTIAN Fundamentalists in the United States are campaigning to get “scientific creationism” taught along with evolution in science classes in the public schools. One report claims that as many as 40 state legislatures have considered bills requiring this. Arkansas has passed such a law. The issue has been argued in court. Textbook changes have been made. The issue is also being debated in Canada.

Many Christian parents feel their children are under attack. The target, their children’s faith. The place of attack, the classroom. The attackers, evolutionists. The ammunition, assertions​—not science. The technique, browbeating and brainwashing. The result, decay of values.

Evolutionists disagree with these statements, especially the last one. Historian H. G. Wells did not. In his “Outline of History,” pages 956, 957, he referred to Darwin’s book “The Origin of Species” and said: “A real demoralization ensued . . . There was a real loss of faith after 1859. The true gold of religion was in many cases thrown away with the worn-out purse that had contained it for so long, and it was not recovered.”

Runaway Collapse of Morals

Today the moral breakdown is far worse, and worsening daily. Premarital sex, premarital pregnancy, birth control by abortion, homosexuality​—anything goes. Do your own thing, whatever seems right for you. However, “there is a way that some think right, but it leads in the end to death.”​—Prov. 16:25, “The Jerusalem Bible.”

The answers given by religious groups to the question of teaching creation in the classroom are not uniform. Some say it should be taught, others say no, and many times there is disagreement even within one church group. Opposers say it violates the principle of separation of Church and State; those favoring it protest that their tax dollars are now used to teach godless evolution. The issue has become political.

How do Jehovah’s Witnesses view all of this? They do not engage in worldly politics, but look to Jehovah’s kingdom under Christ as the solution to the vast array of problems now confronting mankind. (John 18:36) They busily preach God’s kingdom as the only hope​—which preaching includes the Genesis account of creation.

Many times representatives of Jehovah’s Witnesses are invited to speak about their organization in classrooms. These talks include material on creation. Some teachers have even used their publication entitled “Did Man Get Here by Evolution or by Creation?” for classroom discussions.

Parents Teach Their Children

The children of Jehovah’s Witnesses often discuss creation when the teacher talks about evolution. They can do this because they have been taught the subject at home. These parents teach their children about origins, rather than leaving such instruction up to secular instructors or Sunday-school teachers.

Thus Jehovah’s Witnesses meet the Biblical responsibility placed on parents: “Fathers, do not be irritating your children, but go on bringing them up in the discipline and mental-regulating of Jehovah.” Also, “You must inculcate them in your son and speak of them when you sit in your house and when you walk on the road and when you lie down and when you get up.”​—Eph. 6:4; Deut. 6:6, 7.

Jehovah’s Witnesses and their children put no credence in evolutionary philosophies, but recognize Jehovah as ‘the Creator of heaven and earth and the One giving life to all people.’​—Isa. 42:5.