Before we move out of the biologic realm, there are a few loose ends we need to address: The first being the limits of biological change. Creationists actually do believe in evolution! HUH!! What?? Slow down, let me splain (ala Ricky Ricardo). We believe in micro-evolution or commonly called variation within kinds. We do NOT believe in macro-evolution changes from kind to kind.
First “kind” is a Biblical term. Many Christians have used this incorrectly, interchanging it with “species”. It is a more broad classification than species. Modern science can’t even arrive at a clean definition of the term. Generally it is accepted that only animals within a certain group that can reproduce with one another constitute a “species”. Problem is there have been exceptions to this.
Let us look at Darwin’s finches that he found on the Galapagos Islands. There are thirteen species and they can interbreed with one another. You still have a finch. You can never get an eagle or a chicken or even the road runner (beep, beep). Darwin studied the size and shapes of their beaks. During heavy rains, many soft seeds grew and were food for the finches. After the rainy season it was noted that many more short beaked finches seemed to populate the islands. During periods of drought only seeds encased in hard shells could be had by finches with longer sharper beaks. This species appeared now in greater numbers (the short beaked varieties having died out from starvation). During the years of heavy rains the short beaked variety again was more abundant. The idea of natural selection being of a functional/environmental advantage for one species over the other: Physical variations that proved advantageous would be inherited by the succeeding generations. Remember you’ve still got a finch. This is micro-evolution or variation within a kind.
No problem – right? Wrong!!
Darwin now extrapolated this concept to a MACRO-evolution model: That populations would be altered over time to become transformed into fundamentally DIFFERENT organisms, which would arise without any form of intelligent guidance. Slow slight changes usually due to environmental and/or geographic pressures. The finch would eventually become a philosopher; over millions of years of course. Natural selection (eywa, the force) can act as a designer (God) substitute.
“Natural selection acts only by taking advantage of slight successive variations. She can never take a sudden leap, but must advance by short and sure, though slow, steps.” – Charles Darwin
Whoa, whoa- back up. Are you saying just because Darwin saw variations within finches, he expanded his model to include that any animal would eventually OVER TIME change into an entirely different type of animal? You got it!! That’s why you read today about evolutionists who believe that whales which are mammals, probably came from a land mammal like a cow which somehow evolved back into the ocean as a whale. Notice the operative words are – “probably, somehow and like”.
Is there any scientific evidence for this? Sort of, kind of: Evolutionists have found fossilized partial whale skeletons on the top of mountains. The animal therefore obviously walked up the mountain to get something to eat and died up there – right? Sounds a bit fishy to me. Could there possibly be any other explanation? Hint – was there ever a time that, “Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered” Gen. 7:19-20? P.S. They have also found fossilized skeletons of cows and horses, and clams, etc, etc….. on mountains.
Darwin was not aware of Mendelian genetics at the time he wrote Origins. If we look at say a dog that has long hair (LL) and mate it with a dog with short hair (SS). The offspring will be a mix of dogs some of which will have long hair (LL), some with short hair (SS), and some with medium length hair (LS).
If then we mate dogs with only short hair with each other (SS x SS,) we get only dogs with short hair (SS). There is no way we can back cross the offspring, who are ONLY of the (SS) variety, and get anything but (SS) dogs. Same if we cross only long haired dogs we get only long haired (LL) offspring.
Once genes are lost they are lost. Notice that genes need to be there in the first place. Where did genes (made of DNA) come from originally? Choice : Natural selection (eywa, gaia) i.e., water, lightning and rocks OR created by an Intelligent Designer, God Almighty Himself? I’m not leaving you much wiggle room, because there is none. Second, notice the LOSS of information – no gain in genetic info (DNA).
Therefore if you take the whole family of dogs – long, short and medium haired and impose a blizzard on them or they migrate to a cold climate, guess which ones will make it long enough to reproduce? I’ll put my money on the long haired variety (LL). That’s why you won’t find any short hairless Chihuahuas breeding naturally in the wilds of Siberia. Has there been environmental and/or geographic pressure been put on the dogs? Absolutely! On genes that ALREADY existed. No NEW genes nor DNA info is forming, only a loss of genetic information.
“Natural selection is scrutinizing the slightest variations, rejecting those that are bad, preserving and adding up all that are good.” – Charles Darwin
Sorry Charley, only the best dogs become Starkist *TM. Ease up; it’s just a play on words. Charley is giving Mother Gaia and Eywa (natural selection) a power it doesn’t warrant. Notice that for Darwin Natural selection is the engine for advancing evolution; but in reality Natural selection, as you have seen, leads eventually to a downward loss of genetic information. Natural selection then is evidence for Creation NOT evolution! God created the major animal kinds, “In the beginning”. With Noah’s Flood however, there have been losses of some species/loss of genetic info. Only those animals on the ark, released after the flood waters receded, were able to pass along their genes.
As for boats; ever think about your outboard motor? I know, only after a few beers when the engine has conked out. Look at the microscopic bacterial flagellum. The flagellum is a whip like propeller attached to a rotor, stator, drive shaft, motor, U-joint, etc. These are the actual names given by evolutionary scientists to the bacterial flagellum. It has about forty major parts and must be magnified 50 thousand times in order to see it. Now that’s nano-technology. It runs at 100,000 RPM (your car @ 3-4,000 RPM) and can stop in a quarter turn. Talk about stopping on a dime! Sounds like an outboard motor to me. I’m sure your Evinrude just evolved by blind random chance also.
Dr. Michael Behe, professor of Biochemistry at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania coined a term for this. It’s called Irreducible Complexity. “Multi-component parts give the organelle/system all the pieces necessary – lose any part and there is a loss of function of that system” (if not total failure entirely).
Another great example of Irreducible Complexity is the basic mousetrap. It has a wooden base, a spring, a hammer, a catch and a few U-shaped nails or staples to hold all in place. If ANY of these component parts are missing the trap either will not work at all or will work very poorly. THINK!! Each component must be designed to specific tolerances. Let’s compare the mousetrap to the larger rattrap.
The size and thickness of the wood base is different; also, the gauge, length and number of coils on the spring; and, the length and gauge of the hammer and catch; plus the size and gauge of the nails or staples. Even the materials each is made from. A cardboard base isn’t going to work. Aluminum foil isn’t the proper gauge metal or even the type of metal that should be used. Oh, and each part must be assembled in the proper sequential manner, i.e. the assembly line. This should be screaming intelligent design – in your face!
Now some smart aleck out there is going to say eywa or the force, excuse me, natural selection is just going to proceed by trial and error until after millions of years it evolves a mousetrap that works properly. The mousetrap is a metaphor for life; how is the mousetrap (the living organism) suppose to eat and reproduce, if for millions of years it’s been starving (actually died out several million years back) while it was trying to figure out a way to catch its food? Or you are sitting on your boat as the tide takes you out to Jaws, while you wait for your Evinrude to evolve to a working status.
“If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed which could not possibly have been formed by numerous successive slight modifications my theory would absolutely break down.” – Charles Darwin
Charley I believe Dr. Michael Behe has more than demonstrated that fact; and thus your theory can be trashed old chap.
Want to really have some fun with the evolutionists who are ultra left wingnuts. Now I’m talking deer in the headlights stuff. The dumb stare! These examples are best used on the pseudo-intellectual anti-God liberals. You know the ones with their (brown) noses in the air, B.S. degrees and M.S. (More of the Same) and PhD. (Piled Higher and Deeper) or the Hollywood types. Now don’t get your panties all in a twist; but if the shoe fits….
#1 – Ask them to explain to you the evolution of the woodpecker. Just be quiet and watch as the eyes glaze over momentarily as they try to organize their thoughts. They may even make some constipated sounding utterances. Finally some unintelligible gibberish will be vocalized, mostly of the nasal variety.
From what bird did the woodpecker evolve, Sir, and how did it accomplish that? More guffawing is produced. You may at this point wish to inform your “erudite” opponent the facts of the matter. The woodpecker slams its specially DESIGNED hardened beak into the tree at the rate of 100 times a minute. With each jack-hammered thrust it closes its eyes to prevent them from blowing out of their sockets.
The specially DESIGNED neck muscles keep the head/beak in perfect alignment with the tree, to prevent the shearing forces from dislocating the cervical spine. The woodpecker also has a specially DESIGNED resilient shock-absorbing tissue between its beak and skull; otherwise without it the beak would ram backward into the cranial cavity and result in a cerebral hemorrhage. Kinda hard to reproduce and continue to evolve when you’re dead. The woodpecker is able to land on a vertical (opposed to other birds which land on a horizontal). It is able to perform this feat because it has specially DESIGNED talons front AND rear on each short muscular leg. It has very stiffly DESIGNED tail feathers which it fans out when it lands on a tree and therefore able to tripod himself on that vertical face. The woodpecker also has a very keen sense of smell and hearing to even know that an insect is under the bark of a tree. The tongue of the woodpecker is 4x longer than its beak. Why doesn’t it choke and die of asphyxiation on its own tongue: Because the tongue has been DESIGNED to coil up like a garden hose under its scalp and over its skull when not in use. The tongue is also barbed to stab the insect once a hole has been bored into the tree. In some woodpecker species the tongue has a sticky glue-like substance which baits the insect. Now the DESIGNER also developed an emulsifier for the woodpecker’s tongue once the insect was retracted into its mouth. Otherwise the gluey fly paper tongue with the insect prey attached would choke the woodpecker to death.
So which of these natural selection “environmental advantages” evolved first: The neck muscles, the hardened beak, the shock absorber, the tongue, the talons, etc., etc.? Where is Mother Gaia’s “environmental advantage”? Most birds are happy finding bugs on the ground or on the surface of stems and leaves.
The answer is Dr. Behe’s Irreducible Complexity. ALL these components must be in place and functioning when the woodpecker was first DESIGNED “In the beginning”. I know I’ve heard that phrase somewhere. And it must locate close-by a specific mate-able partner – like another woodpecker! Somehow evolutionists always seem to forget it takes two (one male and one female). Thank heavens the atheists cannot override by judicial edict, God’s command for the animal kingdom to be fruitful and multiply.
#2 – Please explain to me, Sir, how the giraffe evolved? I’m sure this guy is getting very beady eyed and frustrated by this time. This 18 foot tall monster (the giraffe that is) has one of the largest hearts in the animal kingdom; and double the blood pressure of most creatures. It needs this heart to pump all that blood up the long neck, against gravity to the brain. Now gravity could work against this big fellow when it bends over to get a drink. All that blood rushing to its brain in conjunction with the massive contraction of it huge heart, transporting even more blood to the brain. Brain explodes, result – dead giraffe; again it’s hard to evolve when you’re dead. A really smart design engineer placed one way valves in the neck’s blood vessels to prevent this from happening when the giraffe bends over for some water.
While the giraffe is drinking a nearby zebra brays out a warning that a lion is nearby. The giraffe bolts straight up and passes out; is eaten by the lion and again can’t reproduce and evolve further. Even you get dizzy when you are bent over for a time and then stand up too quickly. Design solution: a network of spongy tissue at the base of the brain which soaks up blood when the giraffe was originally bent over drinking. Therefore, when he suddenly straightens up, the “sponge” contracts forcing just enough oxygenated blood into the brain so that the giraffe will not black out, giving the animal a chance to escape from the predator lions.
We could go on and on. Check out in your homework section (at the end) the Bombardier Beetle; an interesting little critter who literally spews boiling hot 212 degree fire and gas from two turret like cannons. This weapon is a cross between a flame thrower and twin caliber machine guns. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what will happen if this combustible system isn’t designed and assembled properly. Should I say this is explosive evidence against evolution? OK, allow me one bad joke. NOW go watch Nat Geo or the Discovery Channel and see if you can pick up on all the examples of Irreducible Complexity that the writers/producers of these shows conveniently fail to mention.
“But ask the animals, and they will teach you; or the birds of the air, and they will tell you; or let the fish of the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this.” Job 12:7-10
The insidious nature of this philosophy is how they can contort it to very evil ends. When discussing baboons the evolutionary social scientists point to what happens in the troop when a new leader emerges. The new alpha male will proceed to beat and pound on the abdomens of any females pregnant by the old deposed leader, until the fetuses are all aborted. This is to illustrate to we humans that abortion is perfectly acceptable, since our “cousins” the baboons use it for birth control.
For those who are STILL insistent that evolution is true, you cannot be exempt from this evolutionary process. How far down that evolutionary totem pole are you willing to place yourself, since YOU are related to the primates!? Or did a loving, merciful and forgiving God make you and your child in His own image?
Your Homework Assignment:
www.AnswersInGenesis.org
www.ICR.org
www.KolbeCenter.org