Evolution: The
Beginning
How a board game
about evolution teaches us about God
A couple of years ago around Christmas time I heard a radio
advertisement for a new board game that was marketed as a fun way to teach
children about evolution. The game is
called Evolution: The Beginning. I was sad to hear this game promoted as a good
Christmas gift, since evolution (with the exception of theistic evolution)
denies the existence or necessity of God.
I could imagine Christmas morning: “Merry Christmas Bobby. Here’s a gift that teaches that your life has
no meaning and no purpose and when you die its over!” I wanted to know more about this game so I
did some research online about the game play and goal of the game.[1] I was surprised to find that, though designed
to teach about evolution, this game inadvertently teaches about the necessity
of the Creator God.
The first thing in my investigation that struck me as odd is
the conflict between the title of the game and the actual starting point within
the game. One would think that with a
name like Evolution: The Beginning
the game would start at the beginning of supposed evolution. But it doesn’t. Each player starts with an already living,
complex organism. In contrast,
evolutionary theory starts with life forming from non-life in a primordial soup
resulting in a simple, single celled organism from which all life is said to
have evolved. The game begins, however,
with complex animal life living in an already developed ecosystem of drinkable
water and edible food. So if the game
does teach about evolution, it doesn’t teach about the beginning. One wonders why? Could it be that evolution has no real
answers about the beginning? Rather than
use a board game to teach my kids about the beginning I will stick with the
Bible that tells me “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Gen. 1:1
Evolution is supposed to be an unguided process with no
intervening God or intelligence moving evolution along. It happens simply because of random
mutations, natural selection, and time.
Leading atheist and evolutionist Richard Dawkins says:
But evolution is, as far as we
can tell, purposeless and unguided. There seems to be no direction,
mutations are random, and we haven’t detected a teleological force or agent
that pushes it in one direction. And it’s important to realize this: the
great importance of Darwin’s theory of natural selection is that an
unguided, purposeless process can nevertheless produce animals and plants
that are exquisitely adapted to their environment. That’s why it’s called
natural selection, not supernatural selection or simply selection.[2]
A look at the manufacturer’s product description of the game
tells a different story than Dawkins. In
the product description the game is billed as a “casual strategy game.”[3] Apparently strategy is involved in order to
win this evolution game and survive as the fittest. Of course strategy requires a
strategist. The animal a player starts
out with cannot evolve into a survivor without the player using his
intelligence to manipulate the game play in his animal’s favor. This doesn’t sound like Dawkins’ idea of
unguided evolution at all. The product
description further states:
In Evolution: The Beginning, you’ll
adapt your species to succeed in a dynamic ecosystem where food is scarce and
predators roam… With hundreds of ways to evolve your species, every game unfolds
in a beautifully unique way.[4]
In the above quote notice that the player is responsible to
adapt his species towards success. The
player chooses the ways in which he wants to evolve his species. There’s nothing random or unguided here. In order for the game to work, someone has to
work it. In order for an animal to
evolve into a better suited animal, the player has to guide it. The player decides which combination of
adaptations would best reach the player’s goal for his animal. But in evolution theory there can be no
goals. There can be no outside player
using strategic guidance. Evolution just
happens by itself in an unguided, purposeless way.
In the downloadable PDF rulebook accessed by a link provided
on the manufacturer’s website we learn more ways in which this game points
towards the need for an intelligent actor upon the scene. First, the rulebook tells us that the goal of
the game “is to help them multiply, thrive, and eat as much food as possible.”[5] Of course evolution can have no goal. There can be no one helping species survive
and adapt with an eye to the future.
Then we are told that game play involves placing a new card
down on the table. This action will
create another species. So another
species cannot exist without someone creating it. It doesn’t create itself during the
game. It must be created. Not a good argument for evolution. Sounds like observable science to me. Things don’t create themselves, they need a
creator.
Finally, the rulebook tells the player how to use Traits.[6] Traits are particular characteristics such as
flight, or horns, or climbing ability that can be added to or taken away from
your animal at the player’s discretion.
It is important to note that these traits are fully functional
traits. In other words, when you give
the horn trait to your animal, the animal instantly receives a set of fully
functional horns. There is no
intermediary state, say when an animal has only the beginning stages of a horn. He just goes from a hornless animal to an
animal that benefits from a fully functional set of horns in an instant. This is supposed to reflect advantageous
mutations in evolution. But in evolution
a hornless animal doesn’t develop horns overnight. It supposedly takes millions of years for
that kind of trait to develop. In the
meantime there should be many previous generations of this animal that had the
beginnings of horns, followed by generations with primitive horns, etc., until
the lucky generation gets the benefit of real, useful horns. The absence of these kinds of transitional
fossils in the fossil record is telling.
Of further note concerning the Traits in the game is the
fact that the traits can be added and removed at the player’s whim, depending
upon what the player thinks will advance his species. There is no limit to the amount of times a
player can add or remove traits from his animal. This again requires someone to decide what
traits help or hinder a species. But in
evolution, no one decides. No one says
“I want my animal to be able to fly, run fast, and have teeth.” Even though the game allows the player
unlimited trait addition and subtraction, real science does not. Evolution requires some way to introduce new
information into the genetic coding of an animal to allow it to change into a
different kind of animal. A reptile’s
bones and lungs are not the same as those of a bird. The traits that birds have like hollow bones,
wings, feathers, etc. are not available to reptiles until the coding for those
things are added to the reptile’s genes.
There is no scientific answer for how new information can be added
through the unguided natural processes touted by evolutionists.
We can be thankful for Evolution:
The Beginning because it points out the many deficiencies of the theory of
evolution. Perhaps the greatest way in
which the game can show the fallacy of evolution is if it was bought but never
played. If it was left on a shelf for
4.3 billion years does anyone believe that the cardboard animals would someday
come alive and play the game on their own?
Equally absurd is the evolutionistic theory of how life began in the
beginning.
Evolution: The Beginning has no answers concerning the beginning. Neither does the theory it's based upon. It is unscientific in its use of traits, so is the theory it's based on. It cannot be played without an intelligent strategist.
The Bible tells us about the beginning. It tells us of a God who is self sufficient, eternal, all powerfull, and infinintly intelligent. God created everything out of nothing by speaking it into existence. He did so in the space of 6 days. Everything He created was good. Everything He created was complete and endowed with all the genetic information needed for each living thing to thrive and multiply after its own kind. He formed the first man from the dust of the ground and the first woman from the man's own rib taken from his side. He created this first couple in His own image, setting humankind apart from all other created things. The image of God made man unique and special to God. Because of this our lives have meaning and purpose: to know God and live in His service.
Evolution: The Beginning has no answers concerning the beginning. Neither does the theory it's based upon. It is unscientific in its use of traits, so is the theory it's based on. It cannot be played without an intelligent strategist.
The Bible tells us about the beginning. It tells us of a God who is self sufficient, eternal, all powerfull, and infinintly intelligent. God created everything out of nothing by speaking it into existence. He did so in the space of 6 days. Everything He created was good. Everything He created was complete and endowed with all the genetic information needed for each living thing to thrive and multiply after its own kind. He formed the first man from the dust of the ground and the first woman from the man's own rib taken from his side. He created this first couple in His own image, setting humankind apart from all other created things. The image of God made man unique and special to God. Because of this our lives have meaning and purpose: to know God and live in His service.
NOTE:
This paper is not an argument for theistic evolution, which
might seem compatible with the idea behind the game. Some might conclude that, since the game
needs a game player, God would be a good candidate to fill that role. Maybe God guided evolution along towards His
goals? This is called theistic evolution
and is not compatible with the Bible. Follow
the link for some reasons why theistic evolution is unbiblical: https://answersingenesis.org/theistic-evolution/
[1]
Taken from the manufacturer’s website https://www.northstargames.com/products/evolution-the-beginning
accessed on May 9, 2018
[2] https://www.richarddawkins.net/2012/07/whats-the-problem-with-unguided-evolution/
accessed on May 9, 2018
[3]
Taken from the manufacturer’s website https://www.northstargames.com/products/evolution-the-beginning
accessed on May 9, 2018
[4]
ibid
[5]
ibid
[6]
ibid