Another Jolt For Evolution Theory

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Another Jolt For Evolution Theory

 

FROM THE EDMONTON SUN

 

USA, Oct 12 (via VNN) — Published: October 8, 2000 - Author: Ted

Byfield

 

If parents check the science textbooks used in Canadian schools

they'll see some familiar illustrations, familiar because much the

same art appeared in their textbooks.

 

There's the "evolution of man" illustration, starting with an ape-

like creature on the left, then progressing to the slightly more

erect figure with arms stretching to the ground, then to a less hairy

individual, finally to a modern human.

 

There's the upside-down tree illustration, beginning with the blob,

the single cell, at the top and branching out like a tree as it

descends downward to assortments of creeping and crawling things to

reptiles, birds, fish, animals and humans.

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"He takes 10 so-called "proofs" of evolution offered in current

textbooks and shows where not one of them is in a fact a proof of

anything, and several are actually frauds."

 

 

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Or there's the fruit fly illustrations, showing how some fruit flies

change to double-winged creatures under certain conditions or the

speckled moth illustration showing how industrial conditions caused

moths to change from white creatures to black.

 

Note that there are three points being made here. One is that an

amazing assortment of species have existed over time. The second is

that the more elaborate species were the offspring after many

generations of earlier less complex species. The third is that these

changes occurred through natural circumstances. There was no "mind"

or plan or design behind them, no God. It was all pure chance.

 

When most scientists speak of "evolution" they do not mean the first,

nor even the first and the second. They mean all three, that there

was no designer, that change happens through "natural selection."

Freak differences occurred in individual members of a species

conferring a natural advantage on the offspring of those individuals.

These went on living, where those without the advantage petered out,

the "survival of the fittest."

 

This fall there has appeared a scientifically authoritative book

casting grave doubt on the whole basis of these confident

illustrations. Dr. Jonathan Wells, a molecular and cell biologist

from the University of California at Berkeley who is a senior fellow

of the Discovery Institute, in his Icons of Evolution does more than

cast doubt.

 

He takes 10 so-called "proofs" of evolution offered in current

textbooks and shows where not one of them is in a fact a proof of

anything, and several are actually frauds. The speckled moths were

actually pasted on the trees, not found there. And while there may be

rare instances of species that seem part ape, part human, there is no

evidence the one came from the other.

 

Why, you wonder, do scientists ascribe credibility to these proofs?

 

Because, says Dr. Wells, every scientist specializes. He may be aware

the particular "proof" offered in his own area of expertise is

fundamentally flawed, but he assumes those in all the other areas are

not. In fact, he says, they all are.

 

Wells's book is the second in two years to challenge the natural

selection theory. The last one was Darwin's Black Box by the

biochemist Michael Behe. He examines the blob atop the tree

illustration.

 

In Darwin's day the simple cell was a "black box" that could not be

opened.

 

Now, says Behe, we have opened the box; we can see how the cell is

constructed. It's about as simple as a jet engine. It is a

masterpiece of design. There is no possibility, none whatever, he

says, that it could have come about by mere happenstance.

 

Both these books follow an earlier one by Berkeley law professor

Philip Johnson whose Darwin On Trial put the theory of natural

selection before a make-believe jury, and gave the evidence for it as

it would be presented in court. He shows how the supposed evidence,

all of it, fails to vindicate the theory.

 

Yet when the Kansas school system last year decided that evolution

need no longer be taught as a scientific fact, but could be advanced

as a theory with the students urged to argue the pros and cons, the

response all over the continent was explosive. Papers like the

Edmonton Journal and Globe and Mail denounced the Kansas board as

perverted by superstition and religious bigotry. They made not a

single reference to the scientific basis of the decision.

 

Evolution by natural selection, says Johnson, is the "creation myth

of the 20th Century." Wells agrees. Perhaps the 21st will get a

better one.