Brief Answers to Common "Evidences" that Supposedly Support Evolution

Answers to Evolutionism

(The purpose of this page is to offer some brief answers--in note form--to common arguments offered by darwinian evolutionists to support their theory.)

Brief Answers to a Few of the Common Arguments Used to Support Evolutionism

(This information is now available on audio CD!)

Introduction

It is common for an introductory biology textbook to be written from the evolutionary perspective. Often "evidences" for the reasonableness of the theory of evolution are presented in such a manner that the whole thing appears to be conclusive and beyond reasonable doubt. Phrases such as "All scientists agree..." or "It is universally accepted..." (which are patently untrue--there are thousands of scientists who reject the theory of evolution) tend to intimidate many who have not closely studied the issue. The unsuspecting are led to believe that only "backwoods yahoos" and "illiterate bigots" would dare question the veracity of evolution.

Upon closer inspection, many of these evidences are found to come up short. In fact, many evolutionists disagree quite vehemently among themselves in regard to the significance of these evidences.

The following observations, presented only as brief notes, are offered merely in a small attempt to communicate that some of the evidences for evolution are not really as conclusive as many had thought them to be. If these brief comments "whet your appetite," there are many excellent articles and books which provide detailed studies.

Eohippus

Two modern-day horses have been found in the same fossil stratum as Eohippus. (If they evolved from Eohippus, they should appear in strata that are "millions of years" younger.)

No evolutionary intermediates have been found between the "horses." Each appears abruptly in the fossil record.

There is no complete series to be found anywhere in the world. The series jumps from North America to Europe and back to North America.

There is no more evidence to conclude that these fossils indicate the evolutionary progression of the horse than that fossils of a chihuahua, a terrier, a german shepherd, and a great dane indicate the evolutionary progression of the dog.

Vestigial Organs

Organs that were once thought to be vestigial have been discovered to serve useful (and even essential) purposes. (For example, the thyroid and pituitary were once considered to be vestigial.)

Lamarckism (the idea that organs develop or degenerate according to use or disuse) was discarded many years ago. Organs do not develop or degenerate according to need. The use or disuse of an organ has no effect on subsequent generations. Only a genetic change can result in a different organ.

If vestigial organs existed, so should "nascent" organs (those "on the way in"). They do not.

Peppered Moths

They have always existed in light and dark varieties. Before the industrial revolution, dark moths on white tree trunks were easily found and eaten by birds. Thus the white moths were predominant. After the industrial revolution, the trunks were blackened by pollution, and the white moths were more easily found and eaten by birds. Thus the black moths became predominant.

In any case, there is certainly no evolution of a simpler organism being transformed into a more complex one.

Archaeopteryx

Most modern paleontologists classify it as a true bird.

Fossils of true birds have been found in the same rocks as the Archaeopteryx (implying that Archaeopteryx is not the ancestor of birds).

"Ontogeny Recapitulates Phylogeny"

Evolutionists themselves have discarded this older argument (first proposed by Ernst Haeckel in 1866) and no longer advance it as evidence for evolution. Scientists now recognize that the stages of an embryo are specifically programmed by the DNA of the organism involved and have nothing to do with developmental stages of other organisms.

The Miller-Urey Experiments

The complexity of amino acids does not even remotely compare to the degree of complexity necessary for self replicating life forms.

There is no evidence that earth's early atmosphere was methane-ammonia (and considerable evidence that its atmosphere has always been an oxidizing one).

These experiments involved conditions carefully arranged by purposeful scientists.

The mild spark discharges were poor simulations of lightning. Real lightning would have destroyed any complex molecules that might have been present.

Complex molecules (even DNA and RNA) do not in and of themselves mean life anyway. Dead organisms have lots of DNA, etc. that cannot be made to reproduce itself.

(For more information in this area, see The Second Law of Thermodynamics and Evolution)

The Fossil Record

Often complex fossils are found alongside simple organisms. Layers thought to be "older" are found on top of "younger" layers.

After 130 years of digging up over 100 million fossils (of 250,000 species), the gaps between major groups of organisms are undeniably clear. One would think that by now fossils would have been found to begin to close up these gaps. They have not.

Dr. George Gaylord Simpson (noted evolutionist) has called the sudden appearance of many types of complex life forms in the Cambrian rocks the "major mystery of the history of life."

At one place or another in the world, rocks of every geologic period lay directly on basement rocks below which there are no fossils.

Interesting quote by Dr. Stephen Gould (world famous evolutionist and professor at Harvard University who has spent a lifetime studying the fossil record): "...the fossil record doesn't show gradual change and every paleontologist has known that ever since Cuvier....Every paleontologist knows that most species, most species don't change. That's bothersome if you are trained to believe that evolution ought to be gradual. In fact it virtually precludes your studying the very process you went into the school to study. Again, because you don't see it, that brings terrible distress." (Question and answer session following a lecture at Hobart College on February 14, 1980)

Dr. Gould wrote in the June-July 1977 issue of Natural History magazine, "The fossil record with its abrupt transitions offers no support for gradual change..."

(Incidentally, fossilization is not found to occur today. After death, organisms go through the process of decay. This seems to indicate that fossilization is the result of catastrophic events.)

Steve Hall
1991
steve@aboundingjoy.com

© 2000 Steve Hall. Permission is hereby granted to quote from these web pages, in part or in full, as long as the following statement is included: "© 2000 Steve Hall (steve@aboundingjoy.com). Quoted by Permission."

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