Darwin and Science

1. Darwin and Science

2. No evolution at present • No new species • No known mechanism for evolution • No fossil evidence • No order in the fossils • No evidence from similarities • No evidence that evolution is even possible • No evidence from molecular biology

3. No evolution at present • Evolution is a process that occurs between generations, as mutations are passed from parent to offspring. • Those mutations which are beneficial are rare—in fact they have never been observed. • Many mutations of individual proteins are necessary to observe a changed structure so a new structure would take generations to develop

4. What that comes to is this: “Evolution, at least in the sense that Darwin speaks of, cannot be detected within the lifetime of a single observer.” Davit Kitts, “Paleontology and Evolutionary Theory,” Evolution 28 (September 24, 1974): 466.

5. Punctuated Equilibrium • This lack of observable evidence led Harvard’s Stephen Jay Gould to conclude that a build-up of mutations over generations led to a sudden change in organisms. • This idea is more consistent with the fossil record which contains NO transitional forms (i.e. dinosaurs becoming birds) • Now evolution has an explanation for the lack of transitional forms

6. Gould’s Evidence • Gould devised punctuated equilibrium because of the lack of evidence for slow change over time. • His evidence for punctuated equilibrium is the complete lack of evidence for evolution in the first place.

7. Slow or Fast? • So either evolution happens so slow we can’t observe it… • or it happens so fast we can’t observe it

8. No new species • Darwin never addressed the origin of species in his book On the Origin of Species • “No one has ever produced a species by mechanisms of natural selection. No one has gotten near it.” • Colin Patterson, “Cladistics,” Interview on BBC (March 4, 1982)

9. No new species • “The formation of species has long represented one of the most central, yet also one of the most elusive, subjects in evolutionary biology.” • S.R. Palumbri, “Marine Speciation,” Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics (1994): 548

10. No known mechanism for evolution • Since it is not observable (at any speed), no one understands how evolution works. • “Little evidence about the possible mechanism of evolution has been provided by the fossil record, so attention has been focused on studies involving living organisms. Without any significant dimension of time, these have been able to give no more than hints as to how new species arise under natural conditions.” • Keith S. Thompson, “The Meanings of Evolution,” American Scientist 70 (September/October 1982): 529.

11. No fossil evidence • Thee claim used to be that the fossil record was the best evidence for evolution • However, in the billions of known fossils there is not one unequivocal transitional series with transitional structures in the process of evolving.

12. No fossil evidence • “The known fossil record fails to document a single example of phyletic evolution accomplishing a major morphologic transition.” • Steven M. Stanley, Macroevolution:Pattern and Process (San Francisco: W.M. Freeman and Co., 1979), 39 • That is, we’ve seen no evolving structures in the fossil record.

13. No fossil evidence • Neither are there evolving species • “As is now well known, most fossil species appear instantaneously in the fossil record, persist for some millions of years virtually unchanged, only to disappear abruptly.” • Tom Kemp, “A Fresh Look at the Fossil Record,” New Scientist 108 (December 5, 1985): 67.

14. No order in the fossils • The fossil record is not a flow of history recorded in the rocks of the earth’s crust. • The order is not in the fossils displayed in the glass case at the museum, but in the art painted on the wall above them. • “I regard the failure to find a clear “vector of progress” in life’s history as the most puzzling fact of the fossil record….We have sought to impose a pattern that we hope to find on a world that does not really display it.” • Stephen J. Gould, “The Ediacaran Experiment,” Natural History 93, (February 1984):23.

15. No order in the fossils • We date rocks using index fossils (fossils of animals whose dates we know) • We also date fossils be identifying the age of the rock layer in which we find the fossils • “And this process is something of a problem: If we date the rocks by their fossils, how can we then turn around and talk about the patterns of evolutionsry change through time in the fossil record?” • Niles Eldredge, Time Frames: The Rethinking of Darwinian Evolution and the Theory of Punctuated Equilibria (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1985), 33.

16. No order in the fossils • "Evolution could so easily be disproved if just a single fossil turned up in the wrong date order. Evolution has passed this test with flying colours."  • Richard Dawkins, The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution, (Freepress, 2009).

17. No evidence from similarities • Without further evidence to support evolution, the evidence of similarities among creature supports the concept of creation as well as evolution

18. No Evidence that Evolution is Even Possible • The second law of thermodynamics states that natural processes tend toward disorder, that things fall apart naturally, not build up. We do not get order from disorder. • “How can the forces of biological development and the forces of physical degeneration be operating at cross purposes? It would take, of course, a far greater mind than mine even to attempt to penetrate the riddle….I can only pose the question.” • Sydney Harris, “The Second Law of Thermodynamics,” San Francisco Examiner (January 27, 1984).

19. No Evidence that Evolution is Even Possible • The claim is that the 2nd law doesn’t apply to open systems. • A closed system is one that is isolated from outside influence. • There’s no such thing. This is why no experiment can be completely controlled. • The argument about open systems is bogus.

20. No evidence from molecular biology • Molecular biology has stunned evolutionists into silence • The complexity of molecular machines, the handedness of proteins, apparent impossibility of gradual development scream intelligence.

21. Conclusions from Science “Creation and evolution, between them, exhaust the possible explanations for the origins of living things. Organisms either appeared on the earth fully developed or they did not. If they did not, they must have developed from pre-existing species by some process of modification. If they did appear in a fully developed state, They must have been created by some omnipotent intelligence.” D.J. Futuyma, Science on Trial (New York: Pantheon Books, 1983), 197.

22. Michael Behe Astonishingly, science’s own journals contain no explanations. Since science is found in science journals and Darwinian explanations are not, Darwinism is not science. Behe, Michael, “Denying Darwin: David Berlinski and Critis,” Commentary (Sept. 1996): 22.

23. Darwin and Religion

24. A universe with a God would look quite different from a universe without one. A physics, a biology where there is a God is bound to look different. So the most basic claims of religion are scientific. Religion is a scientific theory. -Richard Dawkins

25. Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence. -Richard Dawkins

26. So why isn’t there a political movement to fight for the teaching of photosynthesis? Why isn’t the ACLU filing lawsuits on behalf of Boyle’s law? The answer is clear. For the defenders of Darwinism, no less for its critics, religion is the issue. Just as some people oppose the theory of evolution because they believe it to be anti-religious, many others support it for the same reason. This is why we have Darwinism, but not Keplerism ; we encounter Darwinists but no one describes himself as Einsteinian. Darwinism has become an ideology. D’Souza, D.. What’s So Great About Christianity. )Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. 2007)

27. Conclusions from Religion • What does the Bible say?

28. Col 2:8 See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.

29. Rom 1:18-23 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident 1within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse

30. Rom 1:18-23 . For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.

31. 1 Cor 15:39 All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men, and another flesh of beasts, and another flesh of birds, and another of fish. • I guess that kills theistic evolution

32. 2 Peter 3:3-5 Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation." • Evolutionary arguments were anticipated by the Apostles themselves.

33. http://hsmparadox.wikispaces.com/