Answers In Genesis explain the difference

One of the difficulties, in approaching the issue of a biblical view of origins, is the failure to notice the difference between presupposition and evidence. Evidence is what is seen, observed or measured. Presupposition is the underlying belief system or worldview that facilitates the interpretation or extrapolation of the evidence.

For example, suppose you watched an unusual hourglass, where white sand from the upper chamber trickled into the lower chamber, turning into blue sand as it did so. When you first find the hourglass, there is already some blue sand in the lower chamber. You measure how much blue sand there is, how much white sand there is, and what rate the sand is flowing from top to bottom. Based on these measurements, you calculate how long the hour glass has been running.

But wait-your calculation is based on three assumptions.

1. All the blue sand started off as white sand in the top chamber.
2. No one has added any extra blue sand while you weren't looking.
3. The rate of flow has always remained constant, while the hourglass has been running.

None of these assumptions are provable. You were not there to observe whether they have always held true or not. The truth of the assumptions is your presupposition.

There is nothing wrong with presuppositions or worldviews. We have to have some paradigm in order to interpret the world around us. The problem only arises if there is a clash of worldviews. The creation / evolution debate is such a clash of worldviews. This is why so many evolutionists insist they have evidence for evolution, when in fact the evidence only works if interpreted by their presuppositions.

Take, for example, the issue of homology. It is undeniable that the observation of certain biological features shows remarkable similarity. Homology is the term used, when such similarity is assumed to be due to common ancestry. An example used in many school textbooks is that of similarities in the forelimbs of vertebrates. One GCSE biology textbook compares the pattern of bones in a human arm and hand, a lizard's forelimb and foot, a bird's wing, a whale's flipper and a bat's wing. An evolutionary argument would suggest that, even though these features perform different jobs today, they must have evolved in small stages from a common ancestor.

It is clear that such homologous structures are consistent with an evolutionary worldview. However, they are not evidence for it. There is a perfectly reasonable, alternative explanation which fits the evidence just as well, if not better. The biblical worldview suggests that all such vertebrates were created by God. If one accepts this biblical worldview, then the homologous structures can be interpreted by assuming that they had not a common ancestor but a common designer. The fact that similar bones are used to do different jobs shows an economy of design.

Naturally the whole subject of homology, whether by evolutionary or creationist interpretation, is much bigger than this example, but it serves to illustrate how one supposed evidence for evolution is not evidence at all-it is based on presupposition.

There is a strong presupposition in some quarters that God does not exist. Adherents to such a viewpoint cannot prove their case by evidence, but have developed a worldview, of which evolution is part, where God is not necessary. The Bible tells us that the apparent design of these and other features is real, and is intended to point us on our way to the Saviour.

By Him (that is Jesus) all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. (Colossians 1:16)