Have you run into any angry spiders lately? Well, you may in the future thanks to, you may have guessed it, the villain in many news stories—climate change. And, of course, throw in evolution, as well! Researchers discovered that “angry” (aggressive) spiders in storm-prone areas survived better and reproduced more offspring than tamer spiders. This is attributed to evolution, while the storms are attributed to climate change.

But it’s not evolution. The spiders remain spiders—there’s been no change of spider kind. Some behaviors are simply more beneficial than others under certain circumstances, which may drive a change in the population. This is natural selection, not evolution. Even though news items and scientific journals frequently equivocate the two, they aren’t the same thing.

Natural selection works on already existing genetic information, whereas evolution requires the addition of brand-new genetic information to form new features that never previously existed. (Something that has never been observed!) Information always comes from other information and ultimately a mind, and in this case, the Creator’s mind.

Are these storms (such as Hurricane Dorian, the storm that devastated the Bahamas and parts of the United States in recent weeks) really the result of man-made climate change? Well, climates do change—that is observational science. But the cause of climate change isn’t straightforward. Some scientists have suggested that it may be dependent on the sun and cycles of the sun (such as sunspots), with humans only playing a very minor role.

You can discover more about climate change, and a biblical response to this issue, at our upcoming Easter conference (April 9–12, 2020) at the Answers Center at the Ark Encounter, south of Cincinnati. We’ll tackle two kinds of climate change—physical and spiritual—as we look at what’s happening in our culture and in the environment from a biblical worldview. I’ll be speaking, along with Ray Comfort of Living Waters, climate experts such as Dr. Cal Beisner of the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation, as well as other specialist and dynamic speakers. The conference will conclude with an Easter morning sunrise service (which was absolutely packed earlier this year and loved by guests from across the US at our first Easter conference).