THE ABC'S OF REMEMBERING AND EXPLAINING THE PROBLEMS WITH THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION

A Summary of the Evidence Cited in Favor of Evolution

1. The Building Blocks of Life Happen Naturally

In 1953, Astronomer Harlow Shapley (as well as most of the scientific community) claimed that Stanley Miller had proven that “the appearance of life is essentially an automatic biochemical development that comes along naturally when physical conditions are right.”1  Click here for the problems with Miller’s experiment.

 

2. Homology: Structures That Are Internally Similar

“Structures that are similar because they were inherited from a common ancestor are called homologous structures,” and “this unity of plan is evidence of a common ancestor.”2  This quote from a recent biology textbook illustrates circular reasoning: Common ancestry explains similar structures, and similar structures prove common ancestry. It is also illogical to claim that similarities between similar structures in different animals necessarily imply a genealogical relationship because common design is also the result of a common Designer.3

 

3. Embryonic Recapitulation

“As organisms grow from fertilized egg cells into embryos, they pass through many similar developmental stages.”4 In 1997, photographic evidence proved conclusively that Ernst Haeckel, the originator of this theory, had faked his drawings of embryos to make them appear to trace evolutionary stages as they develop.5  Medical science now knows that embryonic parts such as so-called “gill-slits” are actually critical organs in the process of development and have nothing to do with tracing evolutionary transitions.6

 

4. Ape-man Fossils and Reconstructions

“If you go back far enough, we and the chimps share a common ancestor. My father’s father’s father’s father, going back maybe a half million generations—about five million years—was an ape.”7  Click here for the problems with ape-man fossils and reconstructions.

 

5. Transitional Fossils

If macroevolution is true, the fossil record should be full of countless examples of transitional forms showing gradual development from one type of living thing to another. Top evolutionary paleontologists have confessed that the fossil record doesn’t show the predicted continuous and gradual changes needed by evolution.8  Click here for info. about the absence of transitional fossils.

 

6. Archaeopteryx: Link Between Dinosaurs and Birds

The National Academy of Sciences claims that Archaeopteryx is “a fossil that has feathers like a bird but the skeleton of a small dinosaur. It’s one of those missing links that’s not missing any more.”9  In 1993, a more complete skeleton of Archaeopteryx was found that clearly showed a bony sternum, which indicates that this was a bird well suited for power flying just like modern birds. Other features, such as teeth, a long tail, and claws on the end of its wings, which Darwinian evolutionists claim are reptilian, are not clear indicators at all. A number of modern birds have teeth and claws on their wings, while some reptiles have short tails and some have long ones.10

 

Only fanciful, imaginative stories have been suggested to show how reptile scales could possibly evolve into those marvels of engineering called flight feathers. Evolutionary spokesmen like Stephen Jay Gould and Niles Eldredge now call Archaeopteryx a “curious mosaic.”11  Others say it is a member of a totally extinct group of birds.12  Since creatures from different orders and classes clearly have some characteristics in common, it’s hardly reasonable to view Archaeopteryx as a missing link.

 

7. Antibiotic and Pesticide Resistance

The National Academy of Sciences claims, “Many strains of bacteria have become increasingly resistant to antibiotics as natural selection has amplified resistant strains that arose through naturally occurring genetic variation.”13

 

Resistance can occur in several ways:

  1. Some bacteria already had the genes for resistance to the antibiotic. This has been demonstrated by thawing bacteria which were frozen before the antibiotic was even developed and finding that the previously frozen bacteria were also antibiotic resistant.
  2. A mutation occurs, destroying information in the gene set which previously limited production of enzymes but now allows an overproduction of enzymes. The increase in the previously existing enzymes results in an increased resistance to an antibiotic by which the bacteria would have been killed had they possessed their original lower level of the enzyme. This mutant form, in a natural setting, would be less fit because it wastes resources producing unnecessary enzymes.
  3. Genetic material can be transferred between bacteria.14  The important thing to realize is that in each case, no new information is being produced. Therefore, these are merely examples of microevolution and don’t explain the origin of the resistance to antibiotics which is what macroevolution is supposed to explain.

 

INTRODUCTION

IRRATIONAL FANATIC?

IS EVOLUTION IMPORTANT?

WHAT IS EVOLUTION?

EVIDENCE FOR EVOLUTION?

Fossil of Archaeopteryx showing it's long tail and feathers.

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  1. S. Tax, ed., Evolution After Darwin (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960), 1:57, as quoted in Lee Strobel, The Case for Faith (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 2000), p. 96.
  2. Sylvia S. Mader, Biology, Sixth Edition (Boston, MA: WCB/McGraw-Hill, 1998), p. 289, as quoted in Jonathan Wells, Icons of Evolution (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 2000), p. 77.
  3. Josh McDowell and Don Stewart, Reasons Skeptics Should Consider Christianity (El Cajon, CA: Creation-Life Publishers, 1981),  p. 180.
  4. Teaching About Evolution and the Nature of Science (National Academy of Sciences), p. 1, as quoted in Jonathan Sarfati, Refuting Evolution (Green Forest, AR: Masters Books, 1999), p. 85.
  5. M.K. Richardson et al., “There Is No Highly Conserved Embryonic Stage in the Vertebrates: Implications for Current Theories of Evolution and Development,” Anatomy and Embryology, 196(2): 91-106, 1997; also, E. Pennisi, “Haeckel’s Embryos: Fraud Rediscovered,” Science, 277(5331):1435, September 5, 1997; “Embryonic Fraud Lives On,” New Scientist, 155(2098): 23, September 6, 1997, as cited in Sarfati, p. 85.
  6. Duane T. Gish, Evolution: The Challenge of the Fossil Record (El Cajon, CA: Creation-Life Publishers, 1985), pp. 251-253.
  7. Ape-man: The Story of Human Evolution, hosted by Walter Cronkite, Arts and Entertainment Network, 4 September 1994, as quoted in Hanegraaff, p. 57.
  8. David M. Raup, “Conflicts Between Darwin and Paleontology,” Bulletin, Field Museum of Natural History (January 1979): pp. 22, 25, as quoted in Hanegraaff, p. 34.
  9. Teaching About Evolution and the Nature of Science (National Academy of Sciences), p. 8, as quoted in Sarfati, p. 57.
  10. Duane T. Gish, Evolution: The Fossils Still Say No! (El Cajon, CA: Institute for Creation Research, 1995),  p. 133, as quoted in Hanegraaff, Hank. The Face That Demonstrates the Farce of Evolution. (Nashville, TN: Word Publishing, 1998), p. 36.
  11. Gish, Evolution: The Challenge of the Fossil Record, p. 115.
  12. Larry Martin (University of Kansas paleontologist) as quoted in Hanegraaff, p. 116.
  13. Teaching About Evolution and the Nature of Science (National Academy of Sciences), pp. 16-17, as quoted in Sarfati, p. 39.
  14. Sarfati, p. 39.

 

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