> For a quick answer to all the BS on evolution that has been making the
> rounds today, may I suggest the following article on 15 myths on
> evolution. As usual, Jonathan -- I mean the Doctor -- is spot on.
>
> The following link shjould take you to a recent Scientific American (is
> this an magazine name an oxymoron, John?))
>
> http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=000D4FEC-7D5B-1D07-8E49809EC588EEDF> &
> catID=2
>
> Rog
Here is my wife's off the cuff response to Dr Who, without the benefit of
having read the above article, which I have since suggested she do.
George
Resistance to antibiotics and pesticides is evolution? I was taught in
my clinical microbiology classes that the resistance was already there,
latent, in the population and that the adverse stress of the inimical
agent causes it ti come to the fore. And that the resistant bacteria
"teach" the other survivors to do the trick by "gene swapping". They
aren't evolving something entirely new, it already existed in the
population. And, if the harmful substance is removed, the resistance
ability also goes dormant again. Is this evolution in reverse? But
wait: "Evolution is the development of the simple toward the more
complex." It "isn't supposed" to happen in reverse.I admit, simple evolution does sometimes happen, though resistance isn't
the best example. How about the observation the Indian elephants almost
never develop tusks anymore. Are we evolving a new species? No, it's
'simple' evolution, evolution within a species. Darwin observed simple
evolution in the Galapagos (sic) finches. He thought, "All these species
of finch are descended from one species of finch." He then made the
enormous leap, "Therefore ALL species have a common ancestor." That's
like saying, "These two paintings look like they were painted by the same
artist. Therefore ALL paintings must have been painted by the same
individual." Evolution has never been demonstrated to operate across
genus and species lines. That's what the "missing link" term is about.
No one has ever unearthed a common ancestor between egg-layers and non egg
layers, between animals with reptile type ears and mammalian type ears,
between ruminants and those of us with 'normal' stomachs, or arthropods
and vertebrates. The infamous archaeopteryx, which we were all taught in
school was the link between reptiles and birds, has long been considered
by paleontologists to be an evolutionary 'dead end'; ancestral to nothing.
Check your professional literatureEvolution does not work across genus, family, order, class, phylum, or
kingdom. Explain the 'Cambrian Explosion' if it does. Precambrian
fossils consisted only of single-celled organisms until just before the
Cambrian. The Cambrian starts with the abrupt appearance of many
fully-formed phyla and classes of animals. Even Darwin noticed: "several
of the main divisions of the animal kingdom suddenly appear in the lowest
known fossiliferous rocks." Suddenly means that life evolved from
jellyfish to insects, fish, salamanders, mollusks and others 'overnight'.
How?While you're at it, how does evolution fly in the face of Newton's Third
Law - that everything tend toward a state of maximum disorder. One has to
put energy into a system from the outside to get it to organize instead of
fall apart.And to reply to one last point: I agree, I have more in common with an
ape than with a locust. But then we were designed to operate in totally
different ecological niches. A mountain bike doesn't have much in common
with an F-16 either.Sir, you're a scientist. Scientists make hypotheses and then try to prove
them. If they cannot be demonstrated, they remain theories. That is why
evolution is called a theory.Creation cannot be proven by men either. We do not have the creative
power within us. But God's true creative spirit is demonstrated if the
life of everyone he has changed. We cannot change ourselves, "For who can
bring a clean thing out of an unclean?" But there are untold millions of
transformed lives to speak for God. If He speaks in individual lives and
not academic demonstrations, well, He always has preferred to work one on
one.
So, when was the last time you witnessed the evolution of a new, non-
interbreeding, genus and species?
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