There seems to be an unfortunate controversy heating up among creationists over the term natural selection. Natural selection, as defined by Darwin, and endorsed by so many people, is a substitute for God’s amazing purpose and design in Creation. It misrepresents the real cause of the earth’s biodiversity. Purpose and design are inseparable. In engineering and architecture, designs of machines and buildings always have a purpose. God’s purpose for the biodiversity He created in living organisms and man was to “…be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth…” (Genesis 1:28-30). Evolution is a blind purposeless process. It denies purpose because purpose implies intelligence. We observe and can quantify design everywhere in Creation and it requires specifications from a designer. Evolutionists claim that natural selection is nature’s so-called design process. Evolutionists use “magical words” when they refer to biological features that simply “appeared,” “emerged,” “arose,” “burst onto the scene,” or “evolved themselves.”

Darwin proposed that somehow nature “selects” the fittest for survival. He had no concept of genetics. Today’s “neo-Darwinian” evolutionists claim genetic mutations are the mechanism for natural selection. This is impossible because mutations are rare and almost always neutral or harmful. Not only that, but most biological functions require many parts working together at the same time for an intended purpose. These functions could not have evolved in single small incremental steps as Darwin proposed – the idea of irreducible complexity. In any case, natural selection can only “select” traits that already exist and are beneficial to the organism. It cannot develop new traits.

The observed reality is that biological traits and functions are directed by the DNA blueprint that God placed in all of life. DNA holds the biological plans and specifications for life. It is the most information rich entity known. Genetic mutations are either changes or reductions in DNA information. Information can only originate or increase if there is an intelligent designer. God designed each organism’s DNA so genes can express themselves differently, or “switch on and off,” to allow it to adapt to its environment. This is called epigenetics.

The term “natural selection” is misleading. Nature is inanimate. Even evolutionist Ernst Mayr said, “Natural selection never selects for anything…”[1] When natural selection is mentioned, people think, “Evolution.” A Florida-based creation ministry polled four groups of people, most of whom were creationists, asking them what’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the term natural selection? Seventy-five percent of the time people answered with some type of evolutionary construct.[2] It is good for creationists to say and write articles stating that “Natural selection is not Evolution,” especially when they emphasize that changes only occur within “kinds.” But still, by using the term, they are fighting an uphill battle for truth and clarity.

Creationists can and should honestly debate the mechanisms of speciation and biodiversity. But we don’t need to argue about a term that Darwin popularized. We don’t need to use the term natural selection in order to be accepted by our secular colleagues. We need to start using another term such as “designed adaptation,” “engineered biodiversity,” “designed speciation” or “engineered culling”? We need to glorify our supreme Designer and Engineer, the Lord Jesus Christ, for the awesome biodiversity of Creation. It is He who placed a rich gene pool in every member of the plant and animal kingdoms and in mankind. He designed and created fully formed organisms with the genetic information needed for them to diversify, multiply, fill, and fit their environments. Truly all living beings are fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are His works.

Jack Snyder

[1] The Objects of Selection, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), 1997

[2] Telecon with Rich Overman, Creation Education Resources (creationeducation.org), 28 Sep 2026.