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Kenyan pastor speaks out against evolution

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evolution monument
The evolution monument in Nairobi, Kenya.

A bronze monument to evolution is a prominent feature at the entrance to the National Museum of Kenya (NMK) in Nairobi. Standing about 5m high, a silhouette of Africa forms a frame, upon which bronze figures of apelike creatures and a human-being are superimposed in an order to suggest an evolutionary explanation of man’s origin.

In anticipation of the museum’s re-opening in June 2007, publicity intended to promote the museum’s exhibitions has recently drawn some criticism. Among the museum’s exhibits is a collection of “hominid fossils” touted as being “one of the world’s finest.”

Bishop Boniface Adoyo of the Evangelical Alliance of Kenya complains that the museum ‘wants to force evolution on people as scientific “fact”.’ In an interview with one of Creation Ministries’ South African representatives, he explained his concern that visitors to the museum would be misled. He said, ‘The museum displays those fossils as scientific “proof” of evolution from ape-to-human. At the museum evolution is not presented as a theory, but is presented as a “fact.”1 This misleads people, especially children.’

Boniface-Adoyo
Bishop Boniface Adoyo of Christ is the Answer Ministries in Kenya—speaking out against evolution.

In response to Bishop Adoyo’s challenge, Richard Leakey, whose family is renowned for having collected fossils in East Africa for more than half a century, said, ‘The church leaders are out of step. They should concentrate on their faith and leave scientists to concentrate on their historical work and defend it.’

Leakey is making use of the old chestnut that matters of faith have nothing to do with science—the so-called fact-value distinction, or the belief that science and religion are in non-overlapping domains.

However, although we realized on talking to him that Bishop Adoyo had in some respects not been exposed to the sorts of things CMI explains, he understands that the church must not remain silent regarding evolution because it contradicts the teaching of Scripture. He said that ‘the Bible teaches that God made animals and man as separate kinds.He continued saying, “I am made in God’s image. But if I am evolving, then God is evolving. But we know that God is not evolving”(Heb 13:8, referring to God the Son).

In fact, the evolutionists are not staying out of the ‘domain of faith’ at all. [Leakey is a virulent antitheist himself, having signed Humanist Manifesto 2000; see also the Creation magazine article on his father Louis, the discoverer of the discredited ‘missing link’ he called Zinjanthropus boisei, showing how evolutionary dogma affected a ‘missionary kid’. –Ed.] In many parts of Africa, they push the idea that man has evolved from apelike creatures to even the very young. These ideas dramatically influence them in such areas as, ‘Where did I come from? What is the meaning of life? Can I trust the Bible?’ The pictures show some of the propaganda being aimed at the youth of Africa.

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Cover of a booklet put out by the Kenyan Museum (left). The cover and an inside page (right) of an evolutionary book on dinosaurs in Swahili (Tendaguru is a dinosaur fossil site in Tanzania).

We applaud local African church leaders for making a stand. Please pray especially for Bishop Boniface. We would ask South Africans in particular to help their local CMI ministry become ever stronger and established in our own country so as to enable it to fulfil its burden to get more of our ministry and materials into the other countries of our region.

[Ed. Note: if you have any contacts in various African countries, please pass on the knowledge of this website—poverty in some parts often prevents people from buying a magazine, but through shared facilities, or internet cafes, many have access to the net. This site has thousands of free articles, including a detailed refutation of ‘ape-men’ by Dr Peter Line.]

Published: 6 October 2006

Reference

  1. Bishop Boniface is, quite understandably, using the layman’s understanding of ‘theory’. We have cautioned about this for tactical reasons—see our Arguments We Think Creationists Shouldn’t UseReturn to text.
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