By Johnny Stringer
In describing man’s descent into the gross wickedness that characterized the world of his day, Paul says that when they turned from God, their thinking became vain and they became fools (Rom. 1:21-22). In their foolishness, they turned to idolatry (vv. 23-25). Few today would deny the foolishness of the idolatry practiced by the heathen, but it should be recognized that foolishness is the inevitable result of rejecting God. As rejection of God led to the foolishness of idolatry among the heathen, today it leads to philosophies that are equally foolish.
For example, the rejection of God has led to the exceedingly foolish philosophy of evolution, as men have sought to explain the universe apart from God. Nothing could be more outlandish and far-fetched than that theory. To say this is not to reflect on the intelligence of its defenders, for many of them are highly educated and intelligent people. The reason they hold to a foolish philosophy is that they have accepted the basic premise that there is no God, and apart from God there can be no sensible explanation as to our origin. Consequently, no matter how intelligent and educated a man may be, if he leaves God out of his thinking, any explanation he devises will of necessity be a foolish one.
The foolishness of the evolutionary theory led Malcolm Muggeridge, well-known British intellectual, to say, “I boldly say it won’t be even a joke in the history books. People would laugh their heads off to think that people of an educated generation could take so very literally a notion so silly.” I have long said that if the world stands long enough, the theory of evolution will be discarded as so many other human theories have been. The fad will have passed, having had its heyday, and future generations will look back and smugly chuckle at the foolish notion held by people back in the unenlightened twentieth century. Unbelievers of that future day, however, will have replaced the evolutionary philosophy with one which is just as foolish; for, apart from God, there can be no sensible explanation for our origin, and any theory they devise will of necessity be foolish.
Truth Magazine XXIII: 31, p. 508
August 9, 1979