Why is there cancer?
Cancer has touched most of our lives, taking down friends in their prime and plaguing the older years of loved ones. When did cancer begin and will we find a cure?
This post is based on a children’s book by Hughes and Cosner (2018).
In the beginning, was there cancer?
Evolutionists believe that for the first few billion years of life on our planet, single-celled organisms had the globe to themselves. But at some point in deep time, cells began to team up and multicellular life arose (Appendix A). Being multicellular has many benefits. Cells cooperate and work toward a common goal. This cooperation of trillions of cells allows us to have the incredibly complex structures we enjoy, like our brain.
But multicellularity makes you vulnerable to cancer. Cancer occurs when cells start growing uncontrollably and lose their function. They become deadly when they spread and grow around the body, disrupting organ function. Cancer is multicellularity gone wrong — tumour cells that have lost their ability to sense their context and cooperate with the cells around them.
So evolutionists believe that cancer has been around since complex life began. It was there in the beginning of complex life. But what does the Bible say?
You may think, “Why did God create cancer to hurt people?” But God didn’t create cancer to hurt people. In the beginning of creation everything was very good and there was no illness, but Adam and Eve disobeyed God and everything changed. This is called the Curse. It’s also called ‘the Fall’ into sin.
Why did God curse creation when Adam and Eve sinned?
When God made Adam and Eve, He put them in charge of everything He created – they were responsible for the whole world (Gen. 1:26, 28; 2:15). That meant that when Adam and Eve sinned, it affected the whole creation. Things that God created ‘very good’ became corrupted. People were affected by illness, injury and death (Gen. 3:16-19). And plants developed prickles and thorns – some fruit even became poisonous.
In Eden, there were lots of trees with good fruit to eat, but after the Fall, Adam and Eve had to leave the garden and work very hard to grow food. Some animals began to pose a threat to people and other animals. There are still a lot of good things about creation, but Adam’s sin meant that it was no longer perfect as it was when God created.
What about creatures that sting and bite? Would they have done this before the fall?
We know that no insects would have harmed humans before the Fall. Some that are pests today have, other, good functions in the natural world – for example, helping to break down plant matter, and pollinating plants. Some things like stingers may have had other functions that we don’t know about today, and what we experience as painful toxins in stings could have had other, beneficial purposes at the beginning of creation.
What about things that look designed to hurt other things, like sharks, jellyfish, and lions?
It is important to realize that things can have more than one use. For instance, even though the piranha in one of the most notorious carnivorous fish, its nearly–identical cousin, the pacu, is completely vegetarian. Its teeth are used for chomping on fruit that falls off trees and into the water! Also some bears, pandas, and koalas use sharp claws for stripping plants of their leaves and bark.
Some animals that people thought were meat-eaters, based on their teeth, actually have turned out to be completely vegetarian! That shouldn’t surprise us, because we know that all animals used to be vegetarians. And the Bible tells us that someday they, and humans too, will be again (Isa. 11:6-9; 65:17-25).
What about natural disasters like forest fires and tsunamis?
The pre-Fall world would not have had natural disasters that hurt people. Sin affects the whole world, even the weather causing natural disasters. Natural disasters are usually not caused by a specific sin (although the Bible shows us that sometime God used ‘natural disasters’ as judgment on people – like the global flood in Noah’s day! Gen. 6:5-7), but they are caused by sin and the Curse. Jesus teaches us that seemingly ‘random’ catastrophes show us how terrible sin is and cause us to repent and love God (Lk. 13:4-5).
So, is the Curse also the reason why people get sick and even die?
Before the Fall, there would have been no sickness – no getting a cold or flu, and no need for doctors or hospitals. This is because God created the human body ‘very good’, and designed it to live forever. But after the Fall, the body started to not work as well, and sometimes this causes us to get sick. And eventually, we die; this is the worst consequence of sin (1 Cor. 15:22). In fact, the Bible calls death an enemy. In a lot of ways, the Bible is the story of what God did in the past to defeat death, and what will happen in the future when death is finally gone for good. God displayed His power over death by raising His Son, Jesus, from the dead (Jn. 20:11-18)!
What’s happening to our genome?
Measurements of the rate of mutation show that mutations arise faster than selection can eliminate them. Because genomes degrade steadily over time, they cannot produce a better organism in the long run. This means that each generation is generally less genetically–fit than the previous generation (it has more deleterious mutations). So the incidence of genetically related diseases is increasing with time. This means that, in the long term, humans and every other complex organism is heading for extinction, which is the opposite of Darwinian evolution!
Can we find a cure for cancer? Whether or not there will ever be a cure for all cancer types is debatable. This has been a topic of research for many years. Because of improved treatments people with prostate and breast cancer can recover and live for another 20-30 years. But cancer that is thought to be cured can still come back even years later. This is why some doctors prefer to say that the cancer is in remission. But although modern medicine can counteract some effects of the Fall like disease, death comes to all.
Will thorns, stingers and sickness exist in heaven?
The good news is that because of Jesus, those who trust in Him can look forward to a future without prickles, insect bites, and stings, natural disasters, sickness, and death! This is because all these things are caused by sin. But when God remakes the world without sin, it also means that the things sin caused will also be gone for good! God promises to give everyone who believes in Jesus a new body that will never get sick, grow old, or die, so we can live forever with Him on the recreated earth (Rev. 21:4).
The Bible says that diseases like cancer are a result of humanity’s fall into sin, and not just the consequence of being a multicellar organism. Diseases like cancer were not present in the original creation. And it’s good to know that there won’t be any cancer in heaven! That’s the only long-term cure for cancer!
Appendix A: The origin of multicellular organisms
Evolutionists believe that the first life on our planet were single-celled organisms that somehow formed from raw materials. Some time later they believe that single cells began to team up and multicellular life arose. This is a faith statement and through molecular biology we know that a single living cell is actually a very complex structure. Scientists can’t manufacture a living cell in the laboratory from raw materials. And they don’t know how a single cell could change into a multicellular organism. Life is a highly complex system.
The origin of the single cell and the origin of multicellular organisms are some of the untestable presuppositions of the theory of Darwinian evolution.
Hughes E and Cosner L (2018), Creation answers for kids, Creation Book Publishers, p.18-21.
Posted, August 2019
Also see: An evolutionaty miracle