A smokescreen for the gospel

For being a small, conservative area, there have been remarkably few flair ups regarding evolution in Jamestown. There was a series of letters to the editor in the local newspaper in late 2005, but other than that, it is not an issue that has come up publicly. In fact, I'm not aware of any flare ups involving school boards anywhere in the state of North Dakota in the 15 years I've been here.

There are occasional talks about evolution in churches, but nothing public. This winter there was a more public display of anti-evolution sentiment. There was a large billboard downtown, declaring:

Evolution Disproved
Intelligent designer, Jesus Christ
Jn 3:18
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.

That was it. There was no indication what group paid for the billboard. There was no indication of how to find out more. Unfortunately, I didn't write down the verse from John, and the billboard was taken down a week ago. I think it was 3:18, but it might have been 3:16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life". What I am certain is that the verse said nothing whatsoever even remotely relating to evolution.

I'm very familiar with creationists and other pseudoscience beliefs and how people think differently about these things. But this billboard still perplexed me. Were they claiming that the verse is what disproves evolution? What does God requiring belief in him even have to do with evolution? Do they really believe they had made an argument? They even got the theology wrong--I thought the Father was the designer, and Jesus was the redeemer. I was amazed by the complete irrelevance of the billboard.

This must have made sense to someone. There is someone that believes a single sentence from the Bible about Jesus is a disproof of evolution. They were impressed enough they wanted to tell the whole city. And it was self explanatory enough that they didn't need to refer us to any other resource. I wonder at that mind set. No matter how much I study these views, I can't understand how they think. If they had quoted something from Genesis 1 about God creating the world, it would not be in the least convincing, but I could at least understand the relevance to evolution.

I wonder if they really hoped to change anyone's mind. I suppose a few believers would feel special or smug seeing it, but they already believe. The people you are most likely to reach are the undecided. Is it at all possible there is someone who wasn't sure about this topic, read the billboard, and said "Now I get it"? I can't imagine there is, but I can't imagine the mindset even of the believers who put this up.

I suppose one thing this billboard shows is that to the ardent opponent of evolution, the science and arguments they put up are completely irrelevant, a smokescreen for John 3:16.