Ancient
Man
Why there is no evidence humans evolved from anything
In the previous chapter (Fossils and Strata), we examined the supposed evidences for the past evolution of plants and animals. In this chapter, we will view the imagined ancestry of human beings.
Following an
introduction, this chapter is divided into two main sections: Hominids and Early
Man.
The section
on Hominids will deal with what is called prehistoric man, or what we might call
"the man of evolution." In some respects it is an addition to the
chapter on fossils, although it reads more like a sideshow as it tells about
fakeries such as Piltdown Man, Java Man, Tuang Man, etc.
The
concluding section, Early Man, will be about actual geologic or historical
evidences of ancient peoples, and is about the "man of history." It is
somewhat paralleled by information near the end of chapter 4, Age of the Earth.
The concept
that we are just animals, only slightly removed from apes, means that there are
no moral standards, no laws worth obeying, no future, and no hope. The
realization of this terrible truth even penetrated the gloom of *Darwin’s mind
at times.
"With me
the horrid doubt always arises whether the convictions of man’s mind, which
has been developed from the minds of the lower animals, are of any value or at
all trustworthy. Would anyone trust in the convictions of a monkey’s mind, if
there are any convictions in such a mind?"—*Charles Darwin, quoted in
Francis Darwin (ed.), Life and Letters of Charles Darwin (1903; 1971 reprint),
Vol. 1, p. 285.
HAVE SUCH
BONES BEEN FOUND?—(*#1/28 Man’s Non-human Ancestry Unknown*) From grade
school on up, children are taught about "cavemen," and are gradually
conditioned to the idea that we evolved from lower forms of life. They are also
taught about the bones and skulls of our "ancestors."
As adults, we
frequently hear reports of fossil remains of ape-like humans that have been
found. Each discovery has been hailed as a landmark proof of the theory of
evolution. Scientists have given a name to these supposed half-man/half-ape
remains; they call them hominids..Is it really true that such skeletal
remains have been found? Are we really related to apes? In this chapter, you
will examine the evidence and find solid answers.
APES—(*#2/28
From Ape to Man*) Evolutionists teach two variant theories regarding man’s
direct ancestor: (1) man and ape came from a common ancestor about 5-20 million
years ago; (2) man descended from an ape.
Modern man
is said to have evolved until about 100,000 years ago—and then he stopped
evolving! It is claimed that, since that time, man has switched over from
"physical evolution" to "cultural and social evolution." This
is an attempt to explain the fact that, in historical records, evolution has
never been known among humans.
There is no
evidence that evolution is now—or has ever—occurred among animals or plants
either. Are they culturally evolving now also? In addition, it is strange that if
man is essentially the same as he was a million years ago, then why did he only
begin leaving writings, buildings, and artifacts during no more than the last
few thousand years? Why does human history only go back less than 5,000 years?
"The
search for the proverbial ‘missing link’ in man’s evolution, that holy
grail of a never-dying sect of anatomists and biologists, allows speculation and
myth to flourish as happily today as they did fifty years ago and more."—
*Sir Solly Zukerman, "Myth and Method in Anatomy," in Journal of the
Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (1966), Vol. 11(2), pp. 87-114.
Did man
descend from the apes? Our DNA is different from that of each of the apes,
monkeys, and all the rest. The number of vertebrae in our backbone is different
from that in the apes. Our cranial (brain) capacity is totally different from
the great apes.
Orangutans .
. . . . . 275-500 cc.
Chimpanzees .
. . . . 275-500 cc.
Gorillas . .
. . . . . . . 340 -752 cc.
Man . . . . .
. . . . . . .1100 -1700 cc.
Cranial
capacity is, by itself, an important test of whether a skull is from a man or an
ape.
"Since
there are variations in tissues and fluids, the cranial capacity is never
exactly equal to brain size, but can give an approximation. A skull’s capacity
is determined by pouring seeds or buckshot into the large hole at the base of
the skull (foramen magnum), then emptying the pellets into a measuring jar. The
volume is usually given in cubic centimeters (cc.). Living humans have a cranial
capacity ranging from about 950cc. to 1,800cc., with the average about
1,400cc."—*R. Milner, Encyclopedia of Evolution (1990), p. 98.COMPARING
GORILLA AND MAN—*Charles Darwin said man was descended from an ape. Shown
below is a typical ape, a gorilla. Carefully notice is bony structure. Notice
the skulls and neck bones. Both were carefully designed by a highly-intelligent
Creator, but both are very different.
Gorilla
and Man
Evolution
teaches that we descended from the great apes, and they, in turn, from the
gibbons and other smaller apes.
Several
differences between man and ape:
(1) Birth weight as a percent of maternal weight is, in man, almost twice that
of the great apes (5.5 vs. 2.4-4.1), but about the same or less than that found
in monkeys (5-10) and in gibbons (7.5). (2) Order of eruption of teeth is the
same in man and in the Old World monkeys, but it is different than that of the
great apes. (3) Walking upright is quite different. Man and the gibbon walk
habitually upright; the great apes do not. As with the other teachings of
evolution, scientific facts are on the side of the creationists, and the
evolutionists, and their incredulous theories are outside the domain of
scientific fact, discovery, and law. (4) The neck hinge is at the back on man,
but at the front on the ape. The shape and arrangement of the teeth,
for example, is quite different for apes and man:, for example, is quite
different for apes and man:
"Many
male primates have large canine teeth, which are used in fighting and defense.
Where the upper canines meet, or occlude, with the lower jaw, there are spaces,
or gaps, between the opposing teeth. Canine diastemas [spaces opposite large
canines] are characteristic of the jaws of baboons, gorillas and monkeys. They
are used as a diagnostic feature in studying fossils because they are absent in
hominids [men or near-men]. A primate jaw with canine diastemas is considered
probably related to apes or monkeys, not close to the human family."—*R.
Milner, Encyclopedia of Evolution (1990), p. 69.
PRIMITIVE
PEOPLES—Early civilizations were advanced; but, from time to time, groups
would migrate to new areas and for a time live in "stone age
cultures," until they had opportunity to build cities, plant, and engage in
animal husbandry (*Science Year: 1966, p. 256).THE THEORETICAL ANCESTRY OF
MAN—Shown below are side views of the skulls, bottom views of the upper teeth,
and side views of the hands—of the supposed ancestral line of mankind (Galago
to Guenon, to chimpanzee, to man).
A careful
comparison reveals they are each quite different from the others.
The
Theoretical Ancestry of Man
In some
localities, the climate and environment have been difficult enough that groups
have continued down to the present time in stone-age conditions. Such racial
groups can be found in New Guinea and certain other areas.
Some of these
peoples have lost a knowledge of agriculture and the making of weapons, tools,
or houses. They only have a few crude stone and bamboo tools, and no weapons.
They live under the trees in the open, and the men spend each day gathering
worms, leaves, and fruit for the family to eat.Many anthropologists believe that
those primitive "stone age" peoples are not evidence of earlier
human life-forms, but rather tribes which have slipped back from the rest of
us.
"Many of
the so-called ‘primitive’ peoples of the world today, most of the
participants agreed, may not be so primitive after all. They suggested that
certain hunting tribes in Africa, Central India, South America, and the Western
Pacific are not relics of the Stone Age, as had been previously thought, but
instead are the ‘wreckage’ of more highly developed societies forced through
various circumstances to lead a much simpler, less developed
life."—*Science Year, 1966, p. 256.
CAVEMEN—The
first introduction many children have to evolution are pictures of dinosaurs and
cavemen. It is true that there have been groups that have lived in caves. They
wandered from warm climates to colder ones and chose to live in caves for a time
before building themselves homes in a new land. But the fact that some people
lived in caves for awhile does not prove evolution from one species to another.
*Diodorus
Siculus, writing about 60 B.C., told of people living along the shores of the
Red Sea in caves. He describes many other barbarian tribes, some of them quite
primitive. Thus we see that both advanced civilizations and more backward
cave cultures lived at the same time. We have no reason to conclude that the
less advanced peoples were ancestors of the more advanced ones..
Archaeologists
tell us that in some places in Palestine, people resembling the Neanderthal race
lived in caves, while not far away in Jericho people dwelt in well-built,
beautifully decorated houses.
NEANDERTHALS—(*#3/7
Neanderthal Men*) Evolutionists call the cavemen, "Neanderthals."
In 1856
workers blasted a cave in the Neander Valley near Düsseldorf, Germany. Inside
they found limb bones, pelvis, ribs, and a skull cap. The bones were examined by
both scientists and evolutionists, and for a number of years all agreed that
these were normal human beings. Even that ardent evolutionist and defender of
*Darwin, *Thomas H. Huxley, said they belonged to people and did not prove
evolution. *Rudolph Virchow, a German anatomist, said the bones were those of
modern men afflicted with rickets and arthritis. Many scientists today
recognize that they had bowed legs due to rickets, caused by a lack of sunlight.
In 1886, two
similar skulls were found at Spy, Belgium. In the early 1900s, a number of
similar specimens were found in southern France. Over a hundred specimens are
now in collections.
A French
paleontologist named *Marcellin Boule said they belonged to ape-like creatures,
but he was severely criticized for this even by other evolutionists who said
this fossil was just modern man (Homo sapiens), deformed by arthritis.
A most
excellent, detailed analysis of how rickets and arthritis caused the
features, peculiar to Neanderthals, was written by Ivanhoe in a 1970 issue
of the scientific journal, Nature. The article is entitled, "Was Virchow
Right About Neanderthal?"
"Neanderthal
man may have looked like he did, not because he was closely related to the great
apes, but because he had rickets, an article in the British publication Nature
suggests. The diet of Neanderthal man was definitely lacking in Vitamin
D."—*"Neanderthals had Rickets," in Science Digest, February
1971, p. 35.
Neanderthal
features include a somewhat larger brow ridge (the supra orbital torus), but it
is known that arthritis can make this more prominent. Virchow noted that the
thighbone (femur) was curved, a condition common to rickets. Lack of Vitamin D
causes osteomalacia and rickets, producing a subtle facial change by increasing
the size of the eye cavity (orbit), especially vertically.
*D.J.M.
Wright, in 1973, showed that congenital syphilis could also have caused the kind
of bone deformities found in Neanderthal specimens.
The
Neanderthals apparently lived at a time when there was not as much sunlight.
We know that the ice age came as a result of worldwide volcanic dust pollution.
The weather in Europe at that time was cold enough that they may have stayed so
much in their caves that they did not obtain enough sunlight, especially due to
the overcast sky conditions.
They may also
have lived longer than men do today. Biblical records indicate that those living
just after the Flood (on down to Abraham and even Moses) had somewhat longer
life spans than we do today. In 1973, *H. Israel explained that certain
living individuals today begin to develop Neanderthaloid features—the heavy
eyebrow ridges, elongated cranial vault, and so on—with extreme age. There is
definite evidence that the Neanderthals were several hundred years old.
For much more
information, see the book, Buried Alive, by Jack Cuozzo (1998). In it, he
clearly shows that the Neanderthals were several hundred years old. Facial
bones keep growing throughout life. He also discovered that the
evolutionists had mismatched the upper and lower jaw, in order to make the
Neanderthals look like apes.
Here are two
facts you will not find in the textbooks: (1) In 1908 a typical Neanderthal
skeleton was found in Poland. It had been buried in a suit of chain armor that
was not yet fully rusted ("Neanderthal in Armour," in *Nature,
April 23, 1908, p. 587). (2) A Neanderthal skeleton was found in the
Philippine Islands in 1910. Due to the extreme moisture of that land, it would
be impossible for the skeleton to be as much as a century old ("Living
Neanderthal Man," in *Nature, December 8, 1910, p. 176).
A third
interesting fact is that the Neanderthals had larger craniums than we do.
They had larger brains! This indicates regression of our race from a former
longer-lived, more intelligent, race rather than evolutionary progression. Brain
capacity is an important indicator of whether a cranium (the part of the skull
which encloses the brain) belongs to an ape or a person.
"The
cranial capacity of the Neanderthal race of Homo sapiens was, on the average,
equal to or even greater than that in modern man."—*Theodosius
Dobzhansky, "Changing Man," in Science, January 27, 1967, p. 410.
"Normal
human brain size is 1450-1500 ccs; Neanderthal’s is 1600
ccs. If his brow is low, his brain is larger than modern
man’s."—Michael Pitman, Adam and Evolution (1984), p. 87.
"The [Neanderthal] brain case on the average was more than 13
percent larger than that of the average of modern man."—Erich A. von
Fange, "Time Upside Down," in Creation Research Society Quarterly,
June 1974, p. 23.
They also
had well-developed culture, art, and religion.
At the present time, most scientists agree that Neanderthals were just plain
people that lived in caves for a time. Unfortunately, we are still waiting for
this change in thinking to be seen in children’s textbooks.
Two
Neanderthal-like skulls were found in Santa Barbara, California in 1923.
Researchers recognized that they were just Indian skulls.
Neanderthals
were just racial types similar to ourselves.
CRO-MAGNON
MAN—(*#4/4 Cro-Magnon and Rhodesian Man*) In 1868 a cave was discovered at Les
Eyzies, in the Dordogne area of France. In the local dialect, cro-magnon means
"big hole." A number of skeletons have been found there, and have been
hailed as the great "missing link" between man and ape.
The
Cro-Magnons were truly human, possibly of a noble bearing. Some were over six
feet tall, with a cranial volume somewhat larger than that of men today.
This means they had more brains than men have today. Not only did they have some
excellent artists among them, but they also kept astronomy records. The
Cro-Magnons were normal people, not monkeys, and they provide no evidence of a
transition from ape to man..
2
- HOMINIDS
BASIC
QUESTIONS—We will now turn our attention to part of a lengthy line of fakes.
As we view them, one by one, there are a few questions we should keep in mind:
(1) Why is
it that, each time, only one specimen is found? Why not hundreds or thousands of
them? If these are our ancestors, there should be millions of specimens.
There are so many people alive today, there should have been large numbers of
half-ape people alive during that "million years" that men are said to
have lived on this planet. Indeed, evolution teaches uniformitarianism, the
concept that past climates and living conditions were essentially like those we
have now in the world.
(2) Why
are only little pieces of bone found for each specimen—never a complete
skeleton? Is this not reading a lot into almost no evidence? Or is it
possible that the less found, the easier it is to try to make unfounded claims
for it? (Later in this chapter we learn that if only parts of bones are
found, their positions can be moved about to imitate half-ape skulls and jaws.)
(3) Although
bones decay in a few years in damper regions, and in a few centuries in drier
regions,—why is it that these special bones did not decay even though they
are supposed to be "a million years old"? The very possibility,
that these "million-year-old bones" are not supposed to have decayed,
makes it all the more certain that there ought to be millions of other bones
lying around belonging to our ancestors! There are millions living today, if
people have lived on earth for a million years,—the earth should be filled
with the bones of our ancestors!
(4) How
could "million-year-old bones" possibly be found in damp earth
(not encased within solid rock) in Indonesia, China, and England? Yet the
evolutionists claim that such bones have been found, as we shall learn below.
In an article
about the grand opening of the International Louis Leakey Memorial Institute for
African Prehistory (TILLMIAP) in Nairobi, Kenya, *Lewin wrote this:
"Perhaps
more than any other science, human prehistory is a highly personalized pursuit,
the whole atmosphere reverberating with the repeated collisions of oversized
egos. The reasons are not difficult to discover. For a start, the topic under
scrutiny—human origins—is highly emotional, and there are reputations to be
made and public acclaim to be savoured for people who unearth ever older
putative human ancestors. But the major problem has been the pitifully small
number of hominid fossils on which prehistorians exercise their imaginative
talents."—*Roger Lewin, "A New Focus for African Prehistory,"
in New Scientist, September 29, 1977, p. 793.
ONLY BONE
PIECES—One problem, as indicated above, is all that these experts work with
is such things as jaw fragments, broken skull pieces, and parts of other bones.
No complete or even half-complete skeleton, linking man with the rest of animals
has ever been found. all that these experts work with is such things as jaw
fragments, broken skull pieces, and parts of other bones. No complete or even
half-complete skeleton, linking man with the rest of animals has ever been
found. all that these experts work with is such things as jaw fragments, broken
skull pieces, and parts of other bones. No complete or even half-complete
skeleton, linking man with the rest of animals has ever been found. But, working
with pieces collected here and there, imagination can produce most wonderful
"discoveries." In some instances, some of the pieces have been found
at some distance from the rest of the fragments.
JAVA
MAN—(*#5/5 Java Man*) In 1891, Java Man was found. This is a classic instance
of a man searching for evidence to support a theory. This is a classic instance
of a man searching for evidence to support a theory. * Eugene Dubois became a
convinced evolutionist while attending a Dutch college. Dropping out of school,
he began searching for fossils in Sumatra and other Dutch East Indies islands.
He shipped thousands of crates of regular animal bones back to Holland, and then
went to Java.
In September
1891 near the village of Trinil in a damp place by the Solo River, *Dubois found
a skull cap. A year later and fifty feet from where he had found the skull cap,
he found a femur. Later he found three teeth in another location in that area.
*Dubois assumed that (1) all these bones were from the same individual, and (2)
that they were as much as a million years old.Nearby, in the same condition
(indicating the same approximate age) he also found two human skulls (known as
the Wadjak skulls), but he did not publicize this find, for they had a cranial
capacity somewhat above that of modern man. Thirty-one years later, in 1922, he
admitted the Wadjak skull was an ape.
Excitedly,
*Dubois reported the find (the pieces of bone) as "Java Man," and
spent the rest of his life promoting this great discovery. The thigh bone was a
normal human upper leg bone. As might be expected, many experts questioned
whether all the bones came from the same person, and even if they did, they said
they were human bones, not ape bones. But *Dubois spent most of the remainder of
his life lecturing and telling people about the "half-human half-ape"
bones that he had found in Java in 1891-1892. He named it Pithecanthropus
erectus (erect ape-man).
British
zoologists thought it was human, German experts decided it was ape,
and the French conjectured that it was something between the two.
Finally, in
1907 a German expedition was sent from Berlin to Java to settle the matter. But
*Dubois would not show them his "bone collection" nor help them
in any way. Arriving in Java, they went over the Trinil site thoroughly, removed
10,000 cubic meters of material and 43 boxfuls of bones, and then declared it
all to be wasted time. Their main discovery was that *Dubois’ Java Man bones
had been taken from a depth that came from a nearby volcano. It had overflowed
in the recent past and spewed forth lava, which overwhelmed and buried a
number of people and animals.
CLICK TO ENLARGEARRANGING
JAVA MAN—This sketch is an excellent illustration of how evolutionists prefer
PIECES of bones, for they can fit them together in different ways to achieve
their purposes.
About 15
years before his death, and after most evolutionists had become convinced that
his find was nothing more than bones from a modern human,—*Dubois announced
his conviction that the bones belonged to a gibbon!
School
textbooks and popular books for the public continue to cite 500,000 years as the
age of "Java Man," which, admittedly, is quite an imaginary figure.
PILTDOWN
MAN—(*#6/7 Piltdown Man / #10 The Story of Piltdown Man*) In 1912, Piltdown
Man was found. In 1912, Piltdown Man was found. This created a great sensation
in both the newspapers and halls of science when it was announced by the British
Geological Society. They gave it the scientific name, Eoanthropus dawsoni. For
nearly 40 years the scientific world bowed before Piltdown Man as the great key
to human evolution. Only one specimen existed, when there ought to be thousands
if it was really genuine.
Paintings
were made of the great men who found and worked on it, and three of those men
were later knighted by the king of England. Such is the stuff of glory. Ignored
was the report of a dentist in 1916 who said that the teeth had been filed down
by someone.
In 1953,
*Joseph Weiner and *Kenneth Oakley applied a recently developed fluorine test to
the bones—and found that Piltdown Man was a grand hoax!
Someone had taken an ape jaw and put it with a human skull, filed the teeth
somewhat, and then carefully stained it all so that the bones looked both
ancient and a matching set. Imported mammalian fossils and handcrafted tools
were placed nearby. It took 40 years to unravel that particular hoax. (Later in
this chapter, the story is discussed in more detail.)
CLICK TO ENLARGETHE
PIECES OF PILTDOWN MAN—It took several years to fabricate Piltdown Man.
*Dawson and his associates carefully worked on the bones, in order to only
provide certain pieces, so a half-ape, half-human appearance could be produced.
The dark portions represent the pieces of bone; the white portions are plaster
"reconstructions."
This
illustration, like all in this book, are taken from the author’s three-volume
Evolution Disproved Series.
"Careful
examination of the bone pieces [in 1953] revealed the startling information that
the whole thing was a fabrication, a hoax perpetrated by Dawson, probably, to
achieve recognition. The skulls were collections of pieces, some human and some
not. One skull had a human skull cap but an ape lower jaw. The teeth had been
filed and the front of the jaw broken off to obscure the simian [ape] origin.
Some fragments used had been stained to hide the fact that the bones were not
fossil, but fresh. In drilling into the bones, researchers obtained shavings
rather than powder, as would be expected in truly fossilized
bone."—Harold G. Coffin, Creation: Accident or Design? (1961), p. 221.
RHODESIAN
MAN—In 1921, Rhodesian Man was discovered in a cave. Anthropologists and
artists set to work turning him into a half-ape, half-human sort of creature.
But then a competent anatomist had the opportunity to examine it, and found
that this was just a normal human being.
Further
analysis revealed dental caries which modern diets tend to produce, and also a
hole through the skull made by a bullet or crossbow.
So Rhodesian Man was not so ancient after all.
TAUNG AFRICAN
MAN—Taung African Man was found in 1924 by *Raymond Dart, when he came across the
front face and lower jaw of an immature ape in a cave in the Taung limestone
quarry of South Africa. He rushed to report it, accompanied by extravagant
claims. A majority of scientists rejected this find, but the press loudly
proclaimed it to be the "the missing link." Today most experts
dismiss it as the skull of a young ape.
"Differences
due to age are especially significant with reference to the structure of the
skull in apes. Very pronounced changes occur during the transition from juvenile
to adult in apes, but not in Man. The skull of a juvenile ape is somewhat
different from that of Man. We may remember that the first specimen of
Australopithecus that was discovered by Raymond Dart, the Tuang ‘child,’ was
that of a juvenile [ape]. This juvenile skull should never have been compared to
those of adult apes and humans."—Duane Gish, Evolution: the Challenge of
the Fossil Record (1985), p. 178.
NEBRASKA
MAN—(*#7/2 Nebraska Man*) Nebraska Man was found in 1922. Well, not exactly. A
single molar tooth was found in 1922,—and called "Nebraska Man"!
Based on that one tooth, an artist was told to make a picture. He did so and it
went around the world. Nebraska Man was a key evidence at the Scopes trial in
July 1925 in Dayton, Tennessee. In 1928, it was discovered that the tooth
belonged to "an extinct pig"! In 1972, living specimens of the
same pig were found in Paraguay. *Grafton Smith, one of those involved in
publicizing "Nebraska Man" was knighted for his efforts in making
known this fabulous find.
*Henry F.
Osborn, a leading paleontologist, ridiculed William Jennings Bryan at the Scopes
Trial, declaring that the tooth was "the herald of anthropoid apes in
America," and that it "speaks volumes of truth" (*H.F. Osborn,
Evolution and Religion in Education, 1926, p. 103).
At the trial,
two specialists in teeth at the American Museum of Natural History, said that,
after careful study, the tooth was definitely from a species closer to man than
to the ape. (Science 55, May 5, 1927, p. 464).
PEKING
MAN—Peking Man emerged on the international scene in the 1920s. The finances
of *Davidson Black were just about running out, and he needed help, when in 1927
he found a tooth near Peking, China. The *Rockefeller Foundation stepped forward
and gave him $80,000 to continue research on this colossal find. So *Black
continued looking and came up with a skull, copies of which are displayed today
in biology laboratories. *Black named it Sinanthropus pekinensis ("China
man from Peking"), and received honors from all over the world for his
discovery. After his death in 1934, the Jesuit that helped prepare Piltdown Man
(*Teilhard de Chardin) took over the work at the site. Then *Franz Weidenreich
led out until all work stopped in 1936, because of the Japanese invasion of
China.This turned out to be some kind of town garbage dump. Although thousands
of animal bones were found in this pit near Peking, only a few human skulls
were found, and there was no evidence that they had evolved from anything else—even
though there was 150 feet of animal bones in the pit. These human bones totaled
14 skulls in varying conditions, 11 jawbones, 147 teeth and a couple small arm
bone and femur fragments, along with stone tools and carbon ash from fires.These
were human bones, but with a somewhat smaller brain capacity (1,000cc., which
some people today have), and with the prominent brow ridges which we find in
Neanderthals and Australopithecus. There are races today with larger brow
ridges, and some Philippine women have brow ridges,—which only men generally
have. Patterns vary, but the species remains one.
"The
heavy-boned [Peking] hominid skull featured prominent brow ridges and a somewhat
smaller braincase (about 1,000 cc.) than modern humans (1,500 cc.)."—*R.
Milner, Encyclopedia of Evolution (1990), p. 359.
A braincase
of 1,000cc. is not sub-human; people today vary between 1,000 and 2,000cc., with
an occasional low of 750cc., and an average of 1,500-1 ,600cc.All the skulls
disappeared during World War II, so we cannot now examine them with modern
methods to check their genuineness.
"Amidst
the uncertainties of war-torn Beijing [earlier called Peking], it proved
impossible to store them [Peking Man bones] safely with Chinese authorities, so
Weidenreich finally packed them for military shipment to the United States. They
were believed to be aboard the marine ship S.S. President Harrison, which was
sunk in the Pacific in mid-November 1941. So Peking man’s bones may now be
resting on the ocean’s bottom.
"However,
there have been sporadic reports that the crate never made it onto that
ill-fated ship, but was left behind in a railway station, where it was
confiscated by the Japanese, stolen by looters or simply lost in the
confusion."—*Ibid.
The evidence
indicates that this may have been a dining area or garbage dump, and that both
animals and people had been eaten.
"But
just what had been excavated? A living site? A burial ground? A place of ritual
cannibalism? . . Peking man was represented mainly by skulls—hardly any
postcranial material. Not a pelvis or a rib. Just skulls. And the openings at
their bases, the foramens magnums, had been widened and smashed, as if someone
had wanted to scoop out the brains."—*Ibid.
Twenty years
later, in the 1950s, *Ernst Mayr came up with a new name, Homo erectus, and then
put a variety of bone finds (Java Man, Peking Man, and several others) into it.
It is well to
keep in mind that all that remains of Peking Man are plaster casts in the United
States. But plaster casts cannot be considered reliable evidence.
AUSTRALOPITHECINES—(*#8/3
Ramapithecus*; #9/17 Australopithecus*) "Australopithecus"
("southern ape") is the name given to a variety of ape bones found
in Africa. After examining the bones carefully, anthropologists have gravely
announced that they come from an ancient race of pre-people who lived from 4 to
1 million years ago. These bones have been found at various African sites,
including Sterkfontein, Swartkrans, Koobi Fora, Olduvai, Hadar, and Orno River. The
Australopithecines, like modern apes, had a wide range of varieties. But they
are all apes.
One of the
most famous was named "Lucy," and
will be mentioned later on.
Some experts
believe that these apes, the Australopithecines, descended from another ape, the
"Ramapithecines" ("Ramapithecus" is the singular for this
word), which is supposed to have lived 12 million years ago.
"No
proven ancestor is known for any early Australopithecus, nor for any early Homo
[habilis]."—W. Mehlert, "The Australopithecines and (Alleged) Early
Man," in Creation Research Society Quarterly, June 1980, p. 25.
Homo
habilis is another ape. In the 1960s, *Louis Leakey found some teeth and skull
fragments at Olduvai. He dated them at 1.8 million years ago and decided they
belonged to the human family, therefore naming them Homo (people are
classified as Homo Sapien. But many experts, including *Brace and
*Metress have clearly shown that habilis was nothing more than a
large-brained Australopithecus.
Brain
sizes: Human beings have a brain size of about 1500 cc. (cubic
centimeters). In contrast, habilis was 660 cc. Other brain sizes would
be 800 cc. for Hadar, 900 cc. for Koobi Fora. Most other brain sizes are about
500 cc. The Taung and Sterkfontein skulls are around 430 cc. apiece, so an adult
of their species would only be 550-600 cc. Thus on the score of size of brain
case, these finds prove nothing.An excellent and detailed article on this,
which includes 13 charts and graphs, will be found in "Some Implications of
Variant Cranial Capacities for the Best-preserved Australopithecine Skull
Specimens," by Gerald Duffert (Creation Research Society Quarterly,
September 1983, pp. 96-104). The article reveals that there was evidence of
fraudulent measurements of those ancient African skulls. Repeatedly, when
initially measured a high cubic centimeter volume was announced for the skull,
but later remeasurements by other investigators disclosed much smaller
measurements!
"Overall,
the revisionary calculations of australopithecine skulls have led to reductions
of their calculated volumes. The total percentage differences amount
to—157.91."—*Op. cit., p. 100.
"The
hypothesis that brain enlargement marked the beginning of man was long popular,
but went out of fashion with the discovery that the endocranial volumes of the
australopithecine group were not larger than those of gorillas."—*Elwin
L. Simons, Primate Evolution: An Introduction to Man’s Place in Nature (1972),
p. 278.
Speaking of
the Australopithecines, *J.S. Weiner commented:
"The
ape-like profile of Australopithecus is so pronounced that its outline can be
superimposed on that of a female chimpanzee with a remarkable closeness of fit,
and in this respect and others it stands in strong contrast to modern
man."—*J.S. Weiner, The Natural History of Man (1973).
In 1957,
*Ashley Montagu, a leading U.S. anthropologist, wrote that these extremely
apelike creatures could not possibly have anything to do with man (*A. Montegu,
Man’s First Million Years).
After the
most careful research, *Oxnard and *Zuckerman have come to the conclusion that Australopithecus
is an ape, and not human, and not a transition between the two.
"Dr.
Charles Oxnard and Sir Solly Zuckerman were leaders in the development of a
powerful multivariate analysis procedure. This computerized technique
simultaneously performs millions of comparisons on hundreds of corresponding
dimensions of the bones of living apes, humans, and the australopithecines.
Their verdict, that the australopithecines are not intermediate between man and
living apes, is quite different from the more subjective and less analytical
visual techniques of most anthropologists. This technique, however, has not yet
been applied to the most recent type of australopithecine, commonly known as
‘Lucy.’ "—Walter T. Brown, In the Beginning (1989), p. 39.
LUCY—Lucy,
one of the most recent of the Australopithecus finds, was unearthed by
*Donald C. Johanson at Hadar, Ethiopia in 1975. He dated it at 3 million years
B.P. [Before Present]. In 1979, *Johanson and *White claimed that Lucy came
under an ape/man classification (Australopithecus afarensis). But even before
that startling announcement, the situation did not look too good for Lucy. In
1976, *Johanson said that "Lucy has massive V-shaped jaws in contrast to
man" (*National Geographic Magazine, 150:790-810). In 1981, he said that
she was "embarrassingly un-Homo like" (Science 81, 2(2):53-55). Time
magazine reported in 1977 that Lucy had a tiny skull, a head like an ape, a
braincase size the same as that of a chimp—450 cc. and "was surprisingly
short legged" (*Time, November 7, 1979, pp. 68-69).
*Dr. Yves
Coppens, appearing on BBC-TV in 1982, stated that Lucy’s skull was like that
of an ape.
In 1983,
*Jeremy Cherfas said that Lucy’s ankle bone (talus) tilts backward like a
gorilla, instead of forward as in human beings who need it so to walk
upright, and concluded that the differences between her and human beings are
"unmistakable" (*J. Cherfas, New Scientist, (97:172 [1982]).
*Susman and
*Stern of New York University carefully examined Lucy and said her thumb was
apelike, her toes long and curved for tree climbing, and "she probably
nested in the trees and lived like other monkeys" (Bible Science
Newsletter, 1982, p. 4).
Several
scientists have decided that the bones of Lucy come from two different sources.
Commenting on this, *Peter Andrews, of the British Museum of Natural History,
said this:
"To
complicate matters further, some researchers believe that the afarensis sample
[Lucy] is really a mixture of two separate species. The most convincing evidence
for this is based on characteristics of the knee and elbow
joints."—*Peter Andrews, "The Descent of Man," in New
Scientist, 102:24 (1984).
Regarding
those knee joints, *Owen Lovejoy, *Richard Leakey’s highly qualified associate
(an anatomist), declared at a 1979 lecture in the United States that a
multivariate analysis of Lucy’s knee joints revealed her to be an apeSo
whether Lucy’s bones belong to one creature or two, they are both apes.
*Johanson’s
theory about Lucy is based on an assumption linking two fossils 1,000 miles
[1,609 km] apart:
"Although
the Lucy fossils were initially dated at three million years, *Johanson had
announced them as 3.5 million because he said the species was ‘the same’ as
a skull found by *Mary Leakey at Laetoli, Tanzania. By proposing *Mary
Leakey’s find as the ‘type specimen’ for Australopithecus afarensis, he
was identifying Lucy with another fossil 1,000 miles [1,609 km] from the Afar
[in northern Ethiopia] and half a million years older! *Mary thought the two not
at all the same and refused to have any part of linking her specimen with
[*Johanson’s] afarensis . . She announced that she strongly resented
Johanson’s ‘appropriating’ her find, her reputation and the older date to
lend authority to Lucy. Thus began the bitter, persistent feud between Johanson
and the Leakeys."—*R. Milner, Encyclopedia of Evolution (1990), p. 285.
*Johanson,
himself, finally decided that Lucy was only an ape.
"Johanson
himself originally described the fossils as Homo, a species of man, but soon
after changed his mind based on the assessment of his colleague, Tim White. They
now describe the bones as too ape-like in the jaws, teeth and skull to be
considered Homo, yet also sufficiently distinct from other, later
australopithecines to warrant their own species."—*Ibid.
Mehlert sums
it up.
"The
evidence . . makes it overwhelmingly likely that Lucy was no more than a variety
of pigmy chimpanzee, and walked the same way (awkwardly upright on occasions,
but mostly quadrupedal). The ‘evidence’ for the alleged transformation from
ape to man is extremely unconvincing."—A.W. Mehlert, news note, Creation
Research Society Quarterly, December 1985, p. 145.
NUTCRACKER
MAN—Nutcracker Man was found in 1959 by *Louis Leakey in the Olduvai Gorge in
East Africa, and is one of the Australopithecines, discussed above.
SKULL
1470—In 1972, *Richard Leakey announced what he thought to be a human-like
fossil skull, and gave it an astonishing date of 2.8 million years. The official
name of this find is KNM-ER 1470, but it is commonly known as "Skull
1470." If this is a human skull, then it would pre-date all the man/ape
bones said to be its ancestors.
Both Leakey
and other hominid experts think it looks essentially like a modern small-brained
person. It was pieced together from several fragments.
"In
1972, Bernard Ngeneo, of Richard Leakey’s ‘Hominid Gang,’ found a similar
but much more complete skull at East Turkana. It is generally known as the
‘1470’ skull, from its accession number at the Kenya National Museum.
"The
1470 skull was pieced together by Richard Leakey’s wife Meave and several
anatomists from dozens of fragments—a jig jaw puzzle that took six weeks to
assemble. Dated at 1.89 million years old, with a cranial capacity of 750cc.,
Leakey believes it is the oldest fossil of a true human ancestor. In his view,
the australopithecines and other hominid fossils were sidebranches
"Leakey
fought hard to win a place for his 1470 (along with the previous habiline
fragments found at Olduvai) because most anthropologists thought the skull was
simply ‘too modern-looking’ to be as ancient as he at first
claimed."—*R. Milner, Encyclopedia of Evolution (1990), p. 217.
Here was
*Leakey’s original announcement in regard to this skull:
"Either
we toss out this skull or we toss out our theories of early man . . [It] leaves
in ruins the notion that all early fossils can be arranged in an orderly
sequence of evolutionary change."—*Richard E. Leakey, "Skull
1470," National Geographic, June 1973, p. 819.
But it should
be understood that modern, living, small-brained (750cc.) human beings have
existed, so the finding of a 750cc. Skull 1470 is no reason to think it is an
"ancestor" of mankind.
"Human
qualities of mind, Keith proclaimed, can only appear when brain volume is at
least 750 cubic centimeters, a point nicknamed ‘Keith’s rubicon’ (dividing
line) . . How did he arrive at the ‘magic’ number of 750cc.? It was the
smallest functioning modern human brain anatomists had seen at the time [when
*Sir Arthur Keith, one of those involved in the Piltdown hoax, was alive earlier
in this century]."—*R. Milner, Encyclopedia of Evolution (1990), p. 249.
Early
comments on Skull 1470 included these:
"The
finding of ‘Skull 1470,’ which Richard Leakey says is nearly three million
years old and really human, will shatter the whole evolutionary story built upon
so-called hominoids, if anthropologists accept Leakey’s pronouncements. An
artist for the National Geographic Magazine obligingly painted a reconstruction
which is very human indeed. The only thing peculiar is the overly flat
nose—and the shape of the nose cannot be ascertained from a
skull."—News note, Creation Research Society Quarterly, September 1974,
p. 131.
"The
latest reports of Richard Leakey are startling, and, if verified, will reduce to
a shambles the presently held schemes of evolutionists concerning man’s
origins."—Duane T. Gish, Evolution: The Fossils Say No! (1973), p. 105.
After
considering the implications of the situation, the skull was carefully redated,
lest it be thought that human beings had lived 2.8 million years ago. The
experts did not want it to predate its ancestors!
"The
1470 Skull discovered by Richard Leakey in 1972 was originally ‘dated’ at
2.6 million years. However, many anthropologists objected because then the more
modern 1470 Skull would predate all its supposed ancestors. Thus 1470 was
‘redated’ until a more ‘acceptable’ estimate of 1.8 million years was
adopted."—John N. Moore, "Teaching About Origin Questions: Origin of
Human Beings," in Creation Research Society Quarterly, March 1986, p. 185.
This skull
may have been that of a microcephalic human, a teenage human, or an ape..
It lacks the
prominent eyebrow ridges common to Homo erectus (Java Man, etc.), many
Neanderthals, and Australopithecus. Some fossil apes had brow ridges; others
lacked them. The brow ridge slopes back abruptly as does that of simians
(apes), but it is somewhat more rounded.
The size of
the braincase is equivalent to that of a teenager, or a microcephalic, and
somewhat larger than an ape: 775 cc. A gorilla averages 500 cc., and an
australopithecus only 422 to 530 cc. The average brain size for modern man is
1450 cc. But there are exceptions to this:Microcephalics are human beings which
have brains as small as 775 cc. This condition is a birth defect which, though
unfortunate, occurs from time to time.
"Humans
with microcephaly are quite subnormal in intelligence, but they still show
specifically human behavioral patterns."—Marvin Lubenow,
"Evolutionary Reversals: the Latest Problem Facing Stratigraphy and
Evolutionary Phylogeny," in Bible-Science Newsletter, 14(1 1):1-4 (1976).
"None of
these early hominids had brains approaching the size of modern human ones. The
indices of encephalization show that australopithecines were only slightly above
the great apes in relative brain size and even the largest cranium [Skull 1470]
is about as close to apes as it is to humans."—*Henry M. McHenry,
"Fossils and the Mosaic Nature of Human Evolution," in Science
190(4213):425-431.
It is
significant that the lower jaw was not found. This would have told a lot. The
face of the skull, below the eyes, protrudes forward in the manner of apes. The
jaw and molars are somewhat larger than the average modern human’s, but not
larger than those of some people. There appears to be a lack of bony support
beneath the nostrils, such as is found in gorillas. Facial skeletons are
relatively larger in apes than the braincase size. Skull 1470 is about midway in
this category, and thus not like that of humans. It also has a long upper lip
area, such as apes have.
Viewing three
skulls from the rear (an adult human, Skull 1470, and Australopithecus) we find
that Skull 1470 has similarities to that of Australopithecus.
John Cuozzo,
in a 4-page report complete with two drawings and seven photographs (Creation
Research Society Quarterly, December 1977, pp. 173-176), provides intriguing
evidence for his contention that Skull 1470 may have been that of an early
teenage human being, and that damage to the skull after death caused the
ape-like characteristics in the nasal opening, etc.
Frankly,
there is not enough data available to say much more. There is no doubt that the
special human qualities of speech, etc., would not reveal themselves in a skull.
It is also a
fact that evolutionists eagerly desire evidence that man descended from an
ape-like ancestor. Yet over a hundred years of searching has not disclosed this,
even though, as we learned in the chapter on Fossils and Strata, millions of
fossils have been dug out of the ground and examined. If mankind had indeed
descended from another creature, there should be abundant fossil evidence. But
it is not there.
BONE
INVENTORY—(*#12 Major Hominid Discoveries*) Most all of these supposed
ancestral bones of man have been catalogued in a *Time-Life book, The Missing
Link, Volume 2 in the "Emergence of Man Series," published in 1972. It
has a complete listing of all the Australopithecine finds up to the end of
1971.
Although
over 1400 specimens are given, most are little more than scraps of bone or
isolated teeth. Not one complete skeleton of one individual exists. All
that anthropologists have in their ancestral closet are bits and pieces.
"The
fossils that decorate our family tree are so scarce that there are still more
scientists than specimens. The remarkable fact is that all the physical evidence
we have for human evolution can still be placed, with room to spare, inside a
single coffin!"—*Science Digest 90, May 1982, p. 44.
As listed in
the Ancient Man appendix on our website (*#12*), the number of bone pieces
which have been found worldwide is incredibly small! You will want to turn
to the appendix and look over the listing for yourself. There is little wonder
that each new piece of bone receives so many newspaper stories!
"The
entire hominid collection known today would barely cover a billiard table . .
The collection is so tantalisingly incomplete, and the specimens themselves
often so fragmentary and inconclusive, that more can be said about what is
missing than about what is present."—*John Reader, New Scientist 89,
March 26, 1981, p. 802.
"I
don’t want to pour too much scorn on paleontologists, but if you were to spend
your life picking up bones and finding little fragments of head and little
fragments of jaw, there’s a very strong desire there to exaggerate the
importance of those fragments."—*Greg Kirby, address at meeting of
Biology Teachers’ Association, South Australia, 1976 [Flinders University
professor].
"The
problem with a lot of anthropologists is that they want so much to find a
hominid that any scrap of bone becomes a hominid bone."—*Timothy White,
quoted in New Scientist 98, April 28, 1983, p. 199 [University of California
anthropologist].
WHAT IT ALL
MEANS—All the evidence from bones and fossils gives only one report:
Mankind did not evolve from any lower form of life. Evolutionists have found no
support anywhere for their theory that man came from apes, monkeys,
mollusks, germs, or anything else.Here are five special reasons why mankind did
not descend from apes. We cover several of these in detail in other chapters:
"1.
Abrupt appearance of fossil forms separated by systematic gaps between fossil
forms. 2. Distinctness of DNA, chemical components, and pattern (design) of
morphological similarities. 3. Laws of Mendel: combination, recombination always
results in easily recognized plant, animal forms; conclusive evidence of fixed
reproductive patterns (designs). 4. Distinctness of human self-conscious
awareness, and metaphysical concerns. 5. Distinctness of human personality
involving moral and ethical concern; reflective, symbolic, abstract, conceptual
thought."—John N. Moore, "Teaching about Origin Questions: Origin of
Human Beings," in Creation Research Society Quarterly, March 1986, p. 184
(emphasis his).
Anthropologists
maintain that man descended from an unknown ancestor, and *Darwin said it was an
ape. If we descended from an ape, why do we have a different number of
vertebrae in our backbones than apes have? Why is our cranial capacity
totally different? And, most important, why is our DNA distinctly
different than apes, monkeys, and all species of wildlife?
They say that
they have found the bones of our hominid ancestors. Why then have only a
table-top full of bones been found? There ought to be millions of bones, if
they lived for hundreds of thousands of years before us. And why do all those
bones look only like ape bones or human bones—and never like both?
They say that
modern evolutionary anthropology is based on the pioneering discoveries of
six men: * Eugene Dubois and his Java Man, *Charles Dawson’s Piltdown Man,
the 1921 Rhodesian Man, the 1922 Nebraska Man, *Raymond *Dart’s Taung African
Man, and *Davidson Black’s Peking Man. But the finds of *Dubois and *Dawson
were later discovered to be outright fakes. Rhodesian and Taung Man were found
to be apes. Nebraska Man turned out to be a pig tooth, and Peking Man was just
human bones.
And are not very old after all.
You have just
completed
Ancient Man
Natural
Selection
A fundamental
teaching of evolution is that every living thing in our world—whether it be a
plant, animal, or bird,—evolved from other creatures, which ultimately
originated from dust, rock, and water.
According to
Darwinian evolutionists, this ‘evolving’ was accomplished by "natural
selection." *Charles Darwin said that natural selection was the primary way
that everything changed itself from lower life-forms, and new species were
produced.
In the years that
have passed since Charles Darwin, this theory of "natural selection"
has continued as a mainstay of evolutionary theory.
In this chapter
we will carefully consider natural selection, what it can do and what it cannot
do. This is an important chapter; for, along with fossil evidence and
mutations , natural selection ranks at the top in the esteem of committed
evolutionists. Disprove the validity of these three, and the whole theory falls
apart.STILL DEFENDED BY SOME—(*#1/6 Evolutionists Defend Natural Selection*)
It is a remarkable fact that some evolutionists still defend their natural
selection theory. But we will discover why so many have abandoned it.THE BASIC
TEACHING—When a plant or animal produces offspring, variations appear. Some of
the offspring will be different than other offspring. Some evolutionists (Darwinian
evolutionists, also called "Darwinists") declare that it is these
variations—alone—which have caused all life-forms on our planet: pine trees,
jackals, clams, zebras, frogs, grass, horses.
"So far as
we know . . natural selection . . is the only effective agency of
evolution."—*Sir Julian Huxley, Evolution in Action, p. 36.
"Natural
selection allows the successes, but ‘rubs out’ the failures. Thus, selection
creates complex order, without the need for a designing mind. All of the fancy
arguments about a number of improbabilities, having to be swallowed at one gulp,
are irrelevant. Selection makes the improbable, actual."—*Michael
Ruse, Darwinism Defended (1982), p. 308.
In this chapter,
we will learn that this statement is wishful thinking in the extreme, with no
scientific support in its favor. On the face of it, the statement is false
merely from the fact that evolutionary theory requires change by random
action alone. If even half of the random changes were positive, the other half
would have to be damaging. But *Ruse views all changes as being selectively
positive. In addition he ignores other scientific facts, such as the powerful
one that the closest thing to natural selection (gene reshuffling) never goes
across the species barrier to produce a new species.
Not only is
natural selection said to have produced everything, but the entire process
was said to be entirely RANDOM! Therefore it is not "selection," for
nothing was selected! Just whatever happened next was accepted. Random
variations and chance accidents are said to have produced all the wonders around
us. Their theory should be called "natural randomness," not
"natural selection."
"Modern
evolutionary theory holds that evolution is ‘opportunistic,’ in the word of
paleontologist George Gaylord Simpson. At any point, it goes in the direction
that is advantageous, often reshaping old structures for new uses. It does not
know its destination, nor is it impelled to follow one particular
direction."—*R. Milner, Encyclopedia of Evolution (1990), p. 345.
How can total
randomness select only that which is better, and move only in advantageous
directions? Random occurrences never work that way. Yet
in the never-never land of evolutionary theory, they are said to do
so.NEO-DARWINISM—(*#2/38 Scientists Speak about Natural Selection*) Earlier
in this century, a large number of evolutionists rebelled against this theory,
saying that natural selection has never given evidence of being able to change
one species into another—and is not able to do it. They recognized that
so-called "natural selection" (actually random changes within the true
species) cannot produce cross-species change. These
"neo-Darwinists" decided that it is mutations that accomplish the
changes, and that natural selection only provided the finishing touches.
In this
chapter we will discuss natural selection; and, in the next, mutations. When
you have completed both chapters, you will have a fairly good understanding of
the subject.
Keep in mind
that, although evolutionists offer many theories and evidences, they admit
that the only mechanisms by which evolution can occur is natural selection and
mutations. There are no others! It matters not how many dinosaur bones, ape
skulls, and embryos are displayed in museums, if natural selection and/or
mutations cannot produce evolutionary change, then evolution cannot occur. It is
as simple as that.DEFINITION OF TERMS—(*#3/5 Natural Selection is a Useless
Concept*) Here are some basic definitions that are needed at this point:
1 - A plant or
animal evolves by natural selection when those processes enable it to cross the
species barrier, and produce a new—a different—species. But keep in mind
that changes within a species are not evolution.
2 - Species:
In these studies, we will generally refer to the word "species" as the
fundamental type, but there are instances in which such a basic type (the
"Genesis kind," see Genesis 1:12, 21, 25) might refer to genus instead
of species. Plant and animal classifications have been made by men and errors in
labeling can and do occur. There are about three dozen different breeds of
domesticated house cats, and a few taxonomists would list most of them as
different species. But it is generally recognized that they all are in the cat
family, Felidae, the genus Fells, and the single species F.
catus (some authorities call that species F. domesticus). In general,
all life-forms within a true species can interbreed.
There are over
a hundred different breeds of dogs, yet biologists uniformly recognize that they
are all in the same species.
Yet there are
exceptions even to that. In some instances, variant forms within an otherwise
almost identical species type will not interbreed, and are then classified as
sub-species.3 - Variations: Variations in the offspring of a creature can
occur by Mendelian genetics, that is by simple rearrangements or assortments of
the existing DNA molecules within genes. This is what neo-Darwinian
evolutionists refer to as "natural selection." All variations
always occur within basic types (species); they never go across those
types—and produce new types or species. Therefore no evolution occurs.
Producing new breeds or varieties is not evolution, because the species did not
change.
Some species
have a broad gene pool, and are thus able to produce many varieties or breeds (such
as dogs and chrysanthemums). Others have a small one (cheetahs have an extremely
small one). Changes in color, bill length or shape, etc., can occur within a
true species because it has a large gene pool. But the flower, bird, etc. does
not change into a new species.4 - Mutational changes: Occasionally
changes in offspring occur because of a mutational defect. Such alterations
always weaken the individual that has them. A mutational change is not a normal
variational reshuffling of the DNA code, but an actual change in one tiny item
in the code information. The result is that the perfection of the code has been
damaged. The resultant offspring are weaker and they are more likely to die off.
5 - Survival
of the fittest: Organisms damaged by mutations or otherwise tend to be culled out.
Evolutionists call that culling out process "survival of the fittest."
But all that actually occurred was that misfits produced by mutations or
accidents are eliminated, thus returning the species closer to its pure pattern.
"Survival of the fittest" accomplishes the opposite of evolution! The
hardships of life cull out the weakened forms of each species, and thus keep
each species very stable. There is nothing in this process that has anything to
do with evolution, which is evolving from one species to another.
First we will
consider examples put forward by evolutionists as evidences of evolution by
natural selection (1 - It Does Not Occur). Then we will turn our attention to the
reasons why natural selection cannot produce evolution (2 - Why it Cannot
Occur).1 - IT DOES NOT OCCUR
Species evolution
never occurs by means of natural selection. Evolutionists have ransacked the
plant and animal kingdoms for examples of cross-species evolution (by any means,
natural selection or otherwise!), and have been unable to find them. What they
have found are some interesting examples of variations WITHIN species. These
they present to the public and in schoolbooks as "evidences" of
evolution.
THE PEPPERED MOTH
CLICK TO ENLARGE
We will briefly
examine several of these evidences.
1 - PEPPERED
MOTH—The peppered moth in England is the most frequently discussed
evolutionary "proof" of natural selection. In fact, it is
mentioned ten times for every instance in which any other evidence is mentioned!
Therefore, it deserves special attention. The problem is that evolutionists
really have no proof, and the peppered moth surely is not one.
"This is the
most striking evolutionary change ever to have been witnessed by man."—*International
Wildlife Encyclopedia (1970 edition), Vol. 20, p. 2706.
Noting that
Darwin was plagued by his inability to demonstrate the evolution of even one
species, *Jastrow said:
"Had he
known it, an example was at hand which would have provided him with the proof he
needed. The case was an exceedingly rare one—the peppered moth."—*Robert
Jastrow, Red Giants and White Dwarfs, p. 235.
In his large
940-page book, Asimov’s New Guide to Science, *Isaac Asimov mentions that some
fools oppose evolution, saying it has never been proven; and then Asimov gives
us a single, outstanding evidence: the peppered moth. This is astounding—in
view of the fact that it is no evidence at all! Isaac Asimov is the leading
evolutionary science writer of the mid-twentieth century. If the peppered moth
is the best he can come up with in defense of evolution, surely evolutionists
have no case.
"One of the
arguments of the creationists is that no one has ever seen the forces of
evolution at work. That would seem the most nearly irrefutable of their
arguments, and yet it, too, is wrong. In fact, if any confirmation of Darwinism
were needed, it has turned up in examples of natural selection that have taken
place before our eyes (now that we know what to watch for). A notable example
occurred in Darwin’s native land. In England, it seems, the peppered moth
exists in two varieties, a light and a dark."—*Isaac Asimov,
Asimov’s New Guide to Science (1984), p. 780.
Before 1845 near
Birmingham, England, the peppered moth was primarily light-colored, but some had
darker wings. (These darker varieties were called the melanic or carbonaria
forms.) In accordance with Mendelian genetics, some peppered moth offspring
were always born with light-colored wings while others had darker wings. Thus it
had been for centuries. The little moths would alight on the light-colored
tree trunks; and birds, able to see the darker ones more easily, ate them and
tended to ignore the light-colored varieties. Yet both varieties continued to be
produced. But then the industrial revolution came and the trees became darker
from smoke and grime—and birds began eating the lighter ones. In the 1850s,
about 98% of the uneaten peppered moths were the light variety; because of
recessive and dominant genes, peppered moths regularly produced both varieties
as offspring.
By the 1880s in
the Manchester, England area, toxic gases and soot were killing the
light-colored lichen on the trees and darkened even more the tree trunks. The
changeover from light to dark moths began there also. The smoke and smog from
the factories darkened the trunks of the trees where the moths rested. This
darkening of the trees made the dark-hued moths difficult to see, and the
lighter ones quite easy for the birds to spot.
By the 1950s, 98%
of the peppered moths were the dark variety. All the while, the moths
continued to produce both dark and light varieties.
Evolutionists
point to this as a "proof of evolution," but it is NOT a proof of
evolution. We all know that there can be variation with species. Variation
within a species is not evolution.
There are dozens
of varieties of dogs, cats, and pigeons. But no new species have been produced.
They are still dogs, cats, and pigeons.
There can be
light peppered moths and dark peppered moths,—but they are all still peppered
moths. Even as Asimov admitted in the above quotation, they are but variations
within a single species. The name of the single species that includes them both
is Biston betularla. They are all peppered moths, nothing more and
nothing less.
When *Harrison
Matthews wrote the introduction for the 1971 edition of *Charles Darwin’s
Origin of the Species, he denied the possibility of evolution in several
respects, and made this accurate observation about the peppered moth:
"The
[peppered moth] experiments beautifully demonstrate natural selection—or
survival of the fittest—in action, but they do not show evolution in progress,
for however the populations may alter in their content of light, intermediate,
or dark forms, all the moths remain from beginning to end Biston
betularia."—*Harrison Matthews, "Introduction," to Charles
Darwin’s Origin of the Species (1971 edition), p. xi.
Let us consider
this matter a little more deeply:
Because of
dominant and recessive genes (Mendelian genetics), this little moth continued to
produce both light and dark offspring
for thousands of years, while the birds kept eating the dark varieties. Yet all
that time, dark ones continued to be born! This is proof of the stability of
the species, which is exactly the opposite of evolutionary "proof!"
For nearly a
century, the birds ate the lighter ones, but the darker ones kept being born. In
recent years, industrial pollution laws are making the air cleaner, and the
darker ones are more frequently eaten.
This is not
evolution, but simply a color change back and forth within a stable species.
"This is an
excellent demonstration of the function of camouflage, but, since it begins and
ends with peppered moths and no new species is formed, it is quite irrelevant as
evidence for evolution."—On CalI, July 2, 1973, p. 9.
In reality, the
peppered moth did not change at all. The dark-winged type is simply a
Mendelian recessive, and both types are continually produced. Birds ate one
kind and left the other. Mendelian genetic variations cannot produce evolution,
which is change across species.
Two leading
British evolutionary scientists, said this about evolutionary claims for the
peppered moth:
"We doubt,
however, that anything more is involved in these cases than the selection of
already existing genes."—*Fred Hoyle and *Chandra Wickramasinghe,
Evolution from Space (1981), p. 5.
*Grene adds this:
"The recent
work of H.B.D. Kettlewell on industrial melanism has certainly confirmed the
hypothesis that natural selection takes place in nature. This is the story of
the black mutant of the common peppered moth which, as KettlewelI has shown with
beautiful precision, increases in numbers in the vicinity of industrial centers
and decreases, being more easily exposed to predators, in rural areas. Here, say
the neo-Darwinians, is natural selection, that is, evolution, actually going on.
But to this we may answer: selection, yes; the color of moths or snails or mice
is clearly controlled by visibility to predators; but ‘evolution’? Do these
observations explain how in the first place there came to be any moths or snails
or mice at all? By what right are we to extrapolate the pattern by which color
or other such superficial characters are governed to the origin of species, let
alone of classes, orders, phyla of living organisms?"—Marjorie Grene,
"The Faith of Darwinism, "Encounter, November 1959, p. 52.
There is a
postscript to the peppered moth story.
The above description included data about the habits of peppered moths in
England, as cited by evolutionists. They have been telling us for years that the
variation in the wing color of the peppered moth was the fact that they rest on
the sides of trees, and the trees became darker. Well, it turns out that they
did not even get that story straight. Peppered moths do not alight on the sides
of trees! And the stock evolutionary "research photos" were made
of dead moths pasted on the sides of trees!2 - RESISTANT FLIES AND
BACTERIA—Another example of what evolutionists declare to be evolutionary
change by "natural selection," is the fact that certain flies have
become resistant to DDT, and some bacteria are now resistant to antibiotics. But
here again, the flies are still flies, and those bacteria are still bacteria;
no species change occurred. In reality, there were various strains of
flies and bacteria, and as certain ones were reduced by DDT, other resistant
strains reproduced more and became a majority. When DDT is stopped, after a
while the various strains bounce back. (Additional information on
"immune" flies and bacteria in chapter 10, Mutations.)3 -
PIGEONS—Pigeon breeding first became popular in Europe in the middle of the
nineteenth century. Pigeons can be bred to produce the most astonishing variety
of shapes and colors. There are dark pigeons, light pigeons, pigeons, that twirl
as they fly, and pigeons that have such showy wings they no longer can fly. But
they are all pigeons.
Since *Darwin did
not bring any live Galapagos finches home with him, he decided to work with
pigeons instead. He joined two pigeon clubs, learned how to breed pigeons and
then set to work. Studying them on the outside and inside as well, Darwin
learned that, although there are seven basic varieties of pigeons, all the
pigeons breed with one another. All were pigeons and sub-species of one basic
species type: the rock dove. Darwin was not able to get his pigeons to become
some other kind of species, although he tried very hard to do so.
If, after years
of effort, *Charles Darwin with his evolutionary brilliance could not change a
pigeon into something else, why should he imagine that the pigeon could do it by
itself?
Not only was the
barrier of fixity of species there, but Darwin sadly discovered that, if left to
themselves, all the pigeon varieties gradually returned toward the original
pigeon: the bluish rock pigeon (Columba livia). And that, itself, tells
us a lot.CHANGES BACK AND FORTH—Evolutionists strictly maintain, as part of
their creed, that the evolutionary process is not reversible. Part of this
irreversibility idea requires that when one creature has evolved into
another,—the new creature cannot evolve back into what it used to be!
Now that has
serious implications for our present study. Evolutionists present various
subspecies changes as their only actual evidence of evolution. Yet these are all
changes back and forth. This includes changes from white to dark peppered
moths—and back again, changes from one pigeon shape and color to another and
back again to the basic rock pigeon type, and changes back and forth in
bacteria. All these are supposed to prove evolution. But in each of these
instances, we only have changes within a species,—and we have changes back and
forth within that species.4 - GRAPES AND APPLES—An article in *World Book
Encyclopedia cites the 1849 discovery of the Concord variety of grape as an
example of evolution. Then it gives four other examples:
"Other
sports . . as such variations are called, have produced hornless cattle,
short-legged sheep, "double" flowers, and new varieties of
seeds."—*World Book Encyclopedia (1972 edition), Vol. 6, p. 332.
Obviously, all
the above examples are only variations within species; none go across species.
They are not caused by mutations. All of your children will look like you, but
each will vary in appearance from one another. That is variation within species,
not evolution across species. It is a reassortment of the DNA and genes, but
nothing more.
In the 1920s, a
man in Clay County, West Virginia discovered an apple tree in his back yard with
apples that tasted fantastic. He sent one to Stark Brothers Nursery,—and the Golden
Delicious was the result. Every Golden Delicious apple tree in the world
originated from seeds from that West Virginia tree.
Neither the
Concord grape, nor the Golden Delicious apple was a mutation. Both were the
result of naturally reshuffled genes. Both were "natural selection" at
its best, which is always, only, variation within species. If they had
been the result of mutations, the result would have been weakened stock whose
offspring would tend eventually to become sterile or die out.5 - GALAPAGOS
FINCHES—During *Charles Darwin’s five-year voyage on the H.M.S. Beagle,
he visited the Galapagos, a group of islands in the Pacific more than 600 miles
[965 km] from the mainland of South America. He found several different finches
(Geospizinae) on the Galapagos Islands. Although they all looked nearly alike,
they had developed a number of different habits, diet, and little crossbreeding
between these 14 (some say 13, others 17) finches occurred. Yet these
Galapagos finches were all still finches. When Darwin arrived back in
England, a friend urged him that this was very significant. So Darwin, knowing
nothing of modern genetics and the boundary imposed by DNA to changes across
basic types, imagined that perhaps these birds were all different types—and
evolution across types had indeed occurred.
If you will
personally examine all the Galapagos Island finches (often called Darwin
finches), you will find that they do indeed look just about alike. They are
sub-species of a single parent species that, at some earlier time, reached the
island from South America. (If hummingbirds can fly across the Gulf of Mexico,
finches ought to be able to be borne by storms to the Galapagos Islands.) An
excellent collection of all 14 of these finches is in the California Academy of
Science in San Francisco. One scientist, Walter Lammerts, who carefully examined
this collection, described their similar appearance (Walter Lammerts, "The
Galapagos Island Finches," in Why Not Creation? (1970), pp. 355, 360-361).
When he wrote his
book, Origin of the Species, *Charles Darwin gave many examples of
variation within species, and tried to use them to prove evolution outside of
true species. All this was before the discovery of Mendelian genetics, the
gene, the chromosome, DNA, and the DNA barrier to evolution across basic types.
In his ignorance Darwin wrote down his theory; and evolutionists today cling to
it, fearful to abandon it.
Scientists
acknowledge that all dogs descended from a common ancestor, and all are dogs.
Yet there are far greater differences among dogs than there are among Darwin
finches or than most other sub-species in the world. All biologists classify
dogs as being in the same species.
Many other
examples of variation within species could be cited. In south central Africa the
Pygmy and Masai tribes live not far from each other. One is the shortest group
of people in existence today; the other the tallest. Both are human beings; only
the height is different.
Pigeon fanciers
tell us there are more color variations among pigeons than among any other
animal or bird in the world. That is the result of only a couple centuries of
intensive breeding by fanciers in Europe and America. In spite of the
variations, they can all interbreed and are just pigeons.
Within 14 years
after writing Origin of the Species, *Darwin confessed to a friend:
"In fact the
belief in Natural Selection must at present be grounded entirely on general
considerations [faith and theorizing] . . When we descend to details, we can
prove that no one species has changed . . nor can we prove that the supposed
changes are beneficial, which is the groundwork for the theory. Nor can we
explain why some species have changed and others have not."—*Charles
Darwin, letter to Jeremy Bentham, in Francis Darwin (ed.), Charles Darwin, Life
& Letters, Vol. 3, p. 25.LAMARCKISM—(*#5/7 The Error of Lamarckism*)
An important 19th-century error was the theory of *Jean Baptist Lamarck
(1744-1829), later called "Lamarckism." It is the theory of
inheritance of acquired characteristics, and was solidly disproved by
*August Weismann in 1891, when he cut the tails off of 19 successive generations
of rats—and they and their offspring continued to grow tails! Later still,
when the inheritance of characteristics was found to depend on the DNA genetic
coding and not habits or environmental circumstances, the reason why Lamarckism
could not work was then understood.
Lamarckism
teaches that one animal grew an organ for some reason—or no reason at
all,—and then passed that organ on to the next generation, which was stuck
with it.
Here are several
additional examples of acquired traits, which were never passed on to offspring:
(1) Hebrews circumcised their boys for thousands of years, but never have boys
been born automatically circumcised as a result. (2) Chinese women bound the
feet of their infant girls for several thousand years, yet the feet of Chinese
women today are normal in size. (3) The Flat-head Indians of Northwest United
States bound the heads of their children to give them unusual shapes. After
hundreds of years of this practice, their babies continued to be born with
normal-shaped heads.
Within each
species there is a range of possible changes that can be made through gene
shuffling, within the gene pool of that species. That is why no two people look
exactly alike. But this variational range cannot cross the species barrier. The
DNA code forbids it.
Here is a very
important fact, which evolutionists do not want you to know: In a later book (Descent
of Man, 1871), *Darwin repudiated natural selection as hopeless, and
returned to Lamarckism (inheritance of acquired characteristics) as the cause of
evolution.—The one who gave us so-called "natural selection" as a
means of evolution, later gave up on it as a way to produce
evolution!INSTINCT—Before concluding this section, mention should be made of
the word, "instinct." This is a most wonderful word for
explaining away facts which are uncomfortable. The astounding migration of
birds, and the amazing flight paths they take—is explained away by calling it
merely "instinct." The mental abilities of tiny creatures,
which involve definite decision-making processes, is shrugged off as
"instinct." That only pushes back into the past something
evolutionists do not want to confront today. We will not take the space to
discuss this further, but think about all the wonders in nature which are
dismissed as merely "instinct."2 - WHY IT CANNOT OCCUR
NEVER ACROSS
TYPES—Plant scientists have bred unusual varieties of roses, corn,
chrysanthemums, etc., but never do any of their experiments go across basic
types. As we study wildlife, we find the same thing: Never does one basic
species change into another species.
Neither plants
nor animals produce new types, nor is man able to apply special breeding
techniques and produce from them something that crosses the species barrier. It
just cannot be done.
Modern molecular
biology with its many discoveries of DNA has added immense confirmation to the
great law of heredity. Normal variations can operate, but only within a certain
range specified by the DNA for that particular type of organism. Within this
range are all the possible variations to be found within each species.HORSE AND
MULE—Consider the horse. There are many types of horses: large horses, fast
horses, work horses, miniature horses,—but each one is obviously a horse.
Well, then, what about the mule? A mule is a cross between two species, the
horse and the donkey. In a few instances such crosses between two species can
occur. But it is a cross, not a crossover. The horse can reproduce more horses,
the donkey can reproduce more donkeys. But when a female horse and a male donkey
crossbreed, the mule that is produced is usually sterile. But in those rare
instances in which a female mule does have offspring, they revert back toward
the horse or donkey species. A horse and a donkey are very close to the same
species, and it is only for that reason that they can crossbreed and produce a
normally barren mule.There are several instances in which similar species are
crossbred:
"Domestic
and wild animals have produced interesting and sometimes useful (to man)
hybrids. Successful crosses have been made between cattle and bison
(‘beefalo’), turkeys and chickens (‘turkens’) and horses and zebras.
Usually, the male offspring of these unions are sterile, and the females are
either sterile, show reduced fertility or produce offspring that do not live
long."—*R. Milner, Encyclopedia of Evolution (1990), p. 231.
DNA, THE
BARRIER—Genetic scientists tell us that all variation occurs in living things
only within each type, and never from one type to another. It is the complicated
DNA code within each plant and animal type that erects the great wall, which
cannot be crossed.
There is no
evidence that at any time, in all the history of the world, even one new true
species has formed from other species. Yet evolutionary teachings require that
such dramatic new changes would have had to occur thousands and thousands of
times. More on this in the chapter on Fossils and Strata.
FIVE TYPES OF
EYES—Each of these eyes are totally different than the others, and
evolutionists say each evolved separately. The Compound Eye is most
commonly found in insects and provides maximum visibility in such a tiny
creature. The Scallop Eye of bivalve mollusks is many eyes on the edges
of the clam shells. Light hits a mirror-coated back which reflects it onto a
concave retina, next to the lens. The Macruran Eye is one of three
different types of compound eyes. Hundreds of mirror-lined tubes reflect the
light onto a central area. The Octopus Eye is similar to the Human Eye,
but instead of changing the shape of the lens, it changes the distance between
the lens and the retina. The Human Eye, of course, is also quite
complicated.
THE
HUMAN EYE
THE
COMPOUND EYE
THE
SCALLOP EYE
THE
MACRURAN CRUSTACIAN EYE
THE
HUMAN EYE
THE OCTOPUS EYE
THE HUMAN EYE
CLICK TO ENLARGE
THE AMAZING
EYE—(*#6/39 Those Marvelous Eyes*; cf. #7/21 and #10*) Men presume a
lot when they declare that evolution occurred. Not only new species would
have had to invent themselves, but also the organs within those different
species!
For a moment,
think of what is involved in the eye. This is a very remarkable structure, yet evolution
teaches that the eye slowly developed over millions of years,—and that this
miracle of random production of a complete eye occurred at least three times:
in the squid, the vertebrates (animals with backbones), and the arthropods
(insects).
"Consider
the eye ‘with all its inimitable contrivances,’ as Darwin called them, which
can admit different amounts of light, focus at different distances, and correct
spherical and chromatic aberration. Consider the retina, consisting of 150
million correctly made and positioned specialized cells. These are the rods [to
view black and white] and the cones [to view color]. Consider the nature of
light-sensitive retinal. Combined with a protein (opsin), retinal becomes a
chemical switch. Triggered by light, this switch can generate a nerve impulse .
. Each switch-containing rod and cone is correctly wired to the brain so that
the electrical storm (an estimated 1000 million impulses per second) is
continuously monitored and translated, by a step which is a total mystery, into
a mental picture."—*Michael Pitman, Adam and Evolution (1984), p. 215.
*Charles Darwin
had a difficult time trying to figure out his theory, and frequently admitted in
his books that it appeared impossible. He said that just to think about the eye
and how it could possibly have been produced by natural selection was enough to
make him ill. He also said this:
"To suppose
that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to
different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the
correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by
natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest
degree."—*Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species (1909 Harvard Classics
edition), p. 190.
"The eye
appears to have been designed; no designer of telescopes could have done
better."—*Robert Jastrow, The Enchanted Loom: Mind in the Universe
(1981), p. 98.
Then there is the
wing. Evolutionists tell us that the wing evolved four separate times: in
insects, flying reptiles, birds, and bats. And each time, they maintain, it was
an unplanned, random accident.SYNTROPY—In order for a creature to live,
eat, survive, and reproduce, it must be perfect. It cannot have only part of its
structure, but must have all of it. And that structure must be totally complete.
Of the millions of DNA codes within its cells, essentially all must be there in
perfect lettering and sequence in order for it to live and function. This coding
requirement is called syntropy, and it stands as another barrier to evolution
across basic species.
Natural selection
within a species may work fine,—but you have to have the traits to begin with!
These traits may adapt (and adapting traits to new situations is not
evolution), but the traits had to be there to start with.
"Evolution
cannot be described as a process of adaptation because all organisms are already
adapted . . Adaptation leads to natural selection, natural selection does not
necessarily lead to greater adaptation."—*Lewontin,
"Adaptation," in Scientific American, September, 1978.
Although it
occurs all the time within species, natural selection does not explain the
origin of species or traits, but only their preservation and more careful use.
*Lewontin is a
confirmed evolutionist, but he recognizes that natural selection could not
possibly produce evolution:
" ‘Natural
selection operates essentially to enable the organisms to maintain their state
of adaptation rather than to improve it.’ ‘Natural selection over the long
run does not seem to improve a species’ chances of survival, but simply
enables it to track, or keep up with, the constantly changing environment.’
"—*Ibid.
You cannot select
what is not there. If the trait is not already in the genes it cannot be
selected for use or adaptation. Selecting which trait will be used (which is
natural selection) is not evolution, for the trait was already at
hand.SUBSPECIES—Evolutionists reply by saying that there are instances in
which a species has divided into two separate species. For example, they tell us
of islands in the ocean where certain flies stopped breeding together—and thus
became two separate species.
Such flies have
not become separate species, but subspecies. Yet producing new subspecies is
not evolution. Evolution requires going across the species line, not developing
variations within it, such as an earlier-producing tomato or a higher-yield
corn. The tomatoes are still tomatoes, the corn is still corn, and the flies are
still flies.
Genuine evolution
requires new genes into the gene pool of a species. A reassortment of what is
already there is not evolution. If two fly colonies no longer interbreed, each
one has become more limited in its gene pool, and more restricted in its ability
to manage its environment. The long-term result might be extinction.
The test of
evolution is a practical one: The evolutionary scientists need to show us one
species that is changing into another. But, because of the DNA code barrier,
this cannot be done and never will be done.NATURAL SELECTION ELIMINATES
EVOLUTION—*C. H. Waddington explains that the processes of natural
selection work exactly opposite to those of theorized evolution. In fact,
natural selection would destroy evolutionary crossovers if they could occur!
A plant or animal can be selectively bred for greater beauty, etc.; but in so
doing, it has become less hardy than the wild, natural original. Variations are
never quite as hardy as the original.
"If by
selection we concentrate the genes acting in a certain direction, and produce a
sub-population which differs from the original one by greater development of
some character we are interested in (such as higher milk yield on production of
eggs), we almost invariably find that the sub-population has simultaneously
become less fit and would be eliminated by natural selection."—*C. H.
Waddington, "The Resistance to Evolutionary Change," in Nature, 175
(1955) p. 51.THERE SHOULD BE NO DISTINCT SPECIES—A confirmed evolutionist
has uncovered a powerful objection to evolution. *Gould, writing in the
respected journal, Natural History, said this:
"How could
the existence of a distinct species be justified by a theory [evolution] that
proclaimed ceaseless change as the most fundamental fact of nature?"—*Stephen
Jay Gould, in Natural History, August-September, 1979.
What Gould is
saying is that, if all life is constantly changing (evolving) as
evolutionists tell us, —then why are there any distinct species at all?
This is a very important point. *Darwin also recognized this problem, but he
finally tried to solve it—by denying that species existed! Yet such a solution
is merely to bury one’s head in the sand to avoid the evidence. Distinct
species are there, all about us; no doubt about that.NON-RESHUFFLEABLE
SPECIES—Interestingly enough, there are species that cannot reshuffle genes
enough to produce subspecies variations. How can evolutionary theory explain
this?
One of these is
the dandelion. Its seeds grow without being pollinated, since the pollination
factor is entirely sterile! Yet the lowly dandelion does just fine, without any
gene reshuffling, generation after generation. In temperate climates throughout
many parts of the world you will find these cheerful little yellow flowers among
the first to appear in the spring.
Something of a
similar situation concerns the cheetah, which lacks enough genetic material to
produce sub-species diversity. An in-depth analysis of the cheetah problem will
be found in "Genetics of Cheetahs," Creation Research Society
Quarterly, March 1987, pp. 178-179. Other species lacking genetic diversity
include giant pandas and elephant seals.
How could
evolutionary theory produce the dandelion or the cheetah?ORIGIN OF SEX—Evolutionists
are overwhelmed by the problem of sexual dimorphism. Why are there male and
female of most of the millions of species in the world? Evolutionists
complain that nature could have accomplished the task of producing offspring far
easier without it.
*Milner explains
some of the problems:
"[The many
problems] make the whole rigmarole seem downright maladaptive. Yet it is common,
while asexual reproduction is rare . . The origin of sex remains one of the most
challenging questions in [evolutionary] biology.
"Even
Charles Darwin thought natural selection could not account for peacocks’ tails
or similar fantastic structures so prominent in courtship displays. On the
contrary, elaborate appendages or tail feathers could easily get in the way when
animals had to escape enemies . . Still, if elaborate plumage makes the birds
more vulnerable to predators, why should evolution favor them?"—*R.
Milner, Encyclopedia of Evolution (1990), pp. 402-404.AN UNALTERABLE LAW—There
is a law existing among all living things that has no exception. The law is
stated in the first book in the Bible. It is the Law of the Genesis kinds:
"And the
earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree
yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind . . great whales, and
every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly,
after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind . . the beast of the
earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth
upon the earth after his kind."—Genesis 1:12, 21, 25.
This is the law
of fixity of basic kinds of living things. This phrase, "after his
kind," is used 30 times in the books of Moses, particularly in Genesis
(especially in chapters 1, 6, and 7), Leviticus 11, and Deuteronomy 14.
The Genesis kinds
were set up back in the beginning. From that time down to the present day, there
has been a wall of separation between different Genesis kinds.AN INTELLIGENT
PURPOSE—It is totally impossible to explain anything in plants, animals,
earth, or stars—apart from intelligent purpose. Randomness, accidents, and
chance will never answer the mystery of life and being, structure and function,
interrelationships and fulfilled needs that we find all about us. The food you
eat for breakfast, the flowers in the field, the bees busily working, the moon
circling above you—it all speaks of thoughtful purpose and intelligence of the
highest level. —And it is Intelligence acting upon the food, flowers, bees,
and moon; it is not intelligence within those objects and creatures. It is not
intelligence within nature that produces the wonders of nature. The Creator is
responsible for what we see about us, not the creature.
In stark
contrast, evolution speaks of crudity, confusion, accidents, mistakes, damage,
and errors; for that is all it has to offer in its mechanisms of natural
selection and mutations.KEEPING CLOSE TO THE AVERAGE—Because each species in the
world operates within the definite limits of the pool of possible traits in its
DNA, we should expect two effects: (1) a number of varieties can be bred, and
(2) when not specially guarded, the varieties will tend to move back toward the
average.
And this is what
we find in the world about us. Regarding the first point, most of us are all
acquainted with the accomplishments of plant and animal breeders.
As to the second,
there is a principle involved in intelligence and aptitude testing which is
never violated. Educational psychologists call it regression toward the mean.
According to this principle, some people may excel in certain skills, aptitudes,
or intellectual abilities. But, as a rule, their descendants will generally move
back toward the mean, or mathematical average. This is because mankind, like all
other species, has definite limitations determined by its gene pool.
(Keep in mind
that much of the excelling in life is done by commonplace people who work hard
to succeed. So do not worry about the averages; like the rest of us you may be
very ordinary, but you can personally succeed outstandingly in a worthwhile
work, and so fulfill God’s plan for your life. Honesty and hard work is of
more value than better intellectual ability without it.)
If everything
keeps moving back toward the average, there can be no evolution.
The principle of regression toward the mean rules out evolution. Variations may
and do occur within species, but there will be no moving out from the species to
form different species.
"Species do
indeed have a capacity to undergo minor modifications in their physical and
other characteristics, but this is limited and with a longer perspective it is
reflected in an oscillation about a mean [average]."—*Roger Lewin,
"Evolutionary Theory Under Fire," in Science, November 21, 1980, p.
884.BUMPUS’ SPARROWS—Hermon Bumpus was a zoologist at Brown University.
During the winter of 1898, he, by accident, produced one of the only field
experiments in survival by natural selection. One morning, in Providence, Rhode
Island, he found 136 stunned house sparrows on the ground. Bringing them to his
laboratory, he cared for them all, and 72 revived while 64 died. He then weighed
them and made careful measurements (length, wingspan, beak, head, humerus,
femur, skull, etc.) of each of the 136.
"Comparing
the statistics of the two groups, he found the measurements of the birds that
survived were closer to the mean of the group than were those of the birds that
died. This type of mortality, where extremes are eliminated, is referred to as
balanced phenotype, or stabilizing selection . . Even today, ‘Bumpus’
Sparrows’ continues to be quoted in about five published scientific articles
every year."—*R. Milner, Encyclopedia of Evolution (1990), p. 61.
In
"Bumpus’ Sparrows" we find yet another evidence of the fact that those
creatures which are the closest to the average of each species are the most
hardy. Yet, if that is true, then it would lock each species all the more
away from veering off and changing into another species. And there can be no
evolution within species crossover.AN OUTER WALL—There is an outer wall,
beyond which a species cannot go. Its internal genetic code forbids it to
change beyond certain limits. Even when highly trained scientists breed plants
or animals, they eventually reach that code barrier.
"Breeders
usually find that after a few generations, an optimum is reached beyond which
further improvement is impossible, and there has been no new species formed . .
Breeding procedures, therefore, would seem to refute, rather than support
evolution."—On Call, July 3, 1972, pp. 9.
ADENOSINE TRIPHOSPHATE (ATP)
HOW TO MAKE AN
ELECTRIC BATTERY—ATP is made in eleven steps. Twice in those steps it is
formed (two molecules formed at step 7 and two at step 10). Since two molecules
of ATP are used to prime the entire process (step 1) initiating the breakdown of
glucose, a net gain of only two molecules results from the entire eleven-step
process of breaking down glucose pyruvate.HOW TO MAKE AN ELECTRIC
BATTERY—Before concluding this chapter, we want to provide you with just one
example of the thousands of complicated processes which occur constantly within
your body.ATP (adenosine triphosphate) is a high-energy phosphate compound which
provides each cell in living tissue with all the energy it needs to carry on its
work. What is more, the cell manufactures the ATP out of raw materials. This ATP
is then stored in tiny bean-shaped structures within the cell, called
mitochondria. It is made in the leaves of plants and the cells of animals and
man.
If the cell can
do it, why can’t we do it also? ATP would solve all our energy problems. On
the chart on a nearby page, you will find what your body, "by merest
chance," regularly does. That extremely complicated formula is supposed to
be the result of "natural selection."
As you will
notice on the nearby chart, ATP is made in eleven steps. All the steps must
be completed in order to produce additional ATP. How long did the cells within
living creatures wait till the randomness of "natural selection"
devised this utterly complicated formula. If living plants and animals did
not make it constantly, they could not live; so, from the very beginning, ATP
had to be made.ONLY SEVEN WAYS—(*#9/15 Planned Breeding vs. Natural
Selection*) Looking a little deeper at this subject, there are only seven
ways in which change can occur within an organism:
1 - An
individual can change his attitudes. Instead
of being a sourpuss, he can start being cheerful about all the situations and
problems he must encounter daily.
But a change in
attitudes will not result in a change across a Genesis kind.
2 - An
individual can have a physical accident.
The result might be a loss of a limb. But losing a limb is not a basis for
evolution. One researcher tried cutting the tails off rats for nineteen
generations. The offspring continued to be born with tails.
3 - An
individual can suffer other environmental effects.
Such changes can cause marked effects in the appearance of individuals. If the
ears of sun-red corn are left enclosed within the husk while developing, the
kernels will be colorless. But if the husk is torn open so the sunlight contacts
the developing ears, a red pigment will develop within the kernels.
Appearance may
have been changed, but not the genes. The genes of the corn continue on from
generation to generation, and only those ears in any given generation that are
exposed to sunlight will have red kernels.
Environmental
effects may include differential feeding, light, training, and other things can
affect an individual; but these will not change his genes. As mentioned earlier,
the feet of Chinese women were for centuries kept small by tightly binding them.
Yet modern Chinese women, whose feet are no longer bound, are normal in size.
4 - One
type of hereditary variation is known as a recombination.
But it cannot produce new kinds, for it is only a reshuffling of genes already
present. Recombination is the combining of dominant and recessive genes. Here
are some examples:
Black-and-white
Holstein cattle are the result of a dominant gene. If a calf of this breed has
received a gene for black and white from even one parent, that calf will
generally be black and white. The other parent may be red and white, but the
calf will still be black and white. But in some cases, two recessive genes meet,
and then a red-and-white calf is born. But the calf will still grow up to be a
cow; the recessive gene will not have transformed him into a goat.
Another example
would be the genes for white and brown in sheep. White is dominant, so most
sheep are born white. But occasionally that recessive gene for brown will
produce a brown sheep. These effects are called reversions or
"throwbacks." But the result is still sheep. These hereditary
variations are part of Mendelian genetics.5 - A second type of hereditary
variation is called polyploidy (or ploidy). It is keyed to a variation
in the numbers of chromosomes and rearrangements of chromosomal material. But it
does not produce change across Genesis kinds.
Normal cells are diploid,
with double sets of similar chromosomes, but reproductive cells are haploid,
with only one set. Haploid male and haploid female cells unite in the zygote to
form a new diploid cell. But in polyploidy, found in many plants but rarely in
animals, three or more haploid sets of chromosomes are together in the cells of
an organism. Man can produce polyploid cells in plants in several ways,
including the use of such chemicals as coichicine.
Here are some
examples: The pink-flowered horse chestnut (Aesculus Camea) comes from two
parents, each of which had 20 chromosomes in their germ cells. The result is a
horse chestnut with 40, which has pink flowers! Geneticists call this ploidy,
but all that happened is a slightly different horse chestnut. It has not changed
into a maple tree.
There are also
ploidy squirrels and ploidy fruit flies. Each time, the creature is slightly
different in some way, but it always remains basically unchanged. The one is
still a squirrel and the other is still a fruit fly.
"Waltzing
mice" cannot run in straight lines, but only in circles. They are the
result of ploidy, or changes in their chromosomes. But they are still mice.
Sometimes these
new strains are called new "species," but it matters not. Names
wrongly applied do not change the facts. They remain the same Genesis kinds;
they are still mice, squirrels, chestnuts, or whatever their parents were.
Because no mutation is involved in polyploids, no new genetic material results
and no radical change in form occurs. So polyploidy cannot produce evolution.6 -
Hybridization can occur. This is a process by which men artificially
pollinate across species in a genus. Because the offspring are sterile,
hybridizing must continually take place. This is similar to breeding a horse and
donkey and getting a sterile mule.
"In the
process of hybridization, two different species of the same genus (in most
cases) are crossed in order to combine the good qualities of both . . Frequently
the new hybrid is stronger than either parent. The offspring are sterile and
require constant hybridizing."—*Biology for Today, p. 294.7 - Is
there nothing that can affect the genes?
Yes,
radiation, X-rays, atomic bombs, ultraviolet light, and certain chemicals,—for
they can produce mutations. With mutations we have come to something which can
make tiny changes within the genes.
The study of
mutations is so important that we will deal with it in detail in the next
chapter (chapter 10, Mutations). But we will here summarize part of it:
A mutation is a
change in a hereditary determiner, —a DNA molecule inside a gene. Genes, and
the millions of DNA molecules within them, are very complicated. If such a
change actually occurs, there will be a corresponding change somewhere in the
organism and in its descendants.
If the
mutation does not kill the organism, it will weaken it. But the mutation will
not change one species into another. Mutations are only able to produce changes within the
species. They never change one kind of plant or animal into another
kind.THINKING IN A CIRCLE—(*#4/5 Survival of the Fittest is Meaningless /
#8/6 Natural Selection is Based on Reasoning in a Circle*) The very
terms, "natural selection" and "survival of the fittest,"
are actually circular reasoning! They are tautologies. "Change is
caused by what causes change." "That which is fit survives, because it
is the fittest.""Those things which have succeeded were able to
succeed."
"It leads to
the justifiable criticism that the concept of natural selection is
scientifically superficial. T.H. Morgan, famous American geneticist, said that
the idea of natural selection is a tautology, a case of circular reasoning. It
goes something like this: If something cannot succeed, it will not succeed. Or,
to put it another way, those things which have succeeded were able to
succeed."—Lester J. McCann, Blowing the Whistle on Darwinism (1986),
p. 49."Those that leave the most offspring."
"For them
[the Darwinists], natural selection is a tautology which states a heretofore
unrecognized relation: The fittest—defined as those who will leave the most
offspring—will leave the most offspring."—*Gregory Alan Peasely,
"The Epistemological Status of Natural Selection," Laval Theologique
et Philosophique, Vol. 38, February 1982, p. 74.
"I tend to
agree with those who have viewed natural selection as a tautology rather than a
true theory."—*S. Stanley, Macroevolution (1979), p. 193."The
fittest leave the most offspring."
"Natural
selection turns out on closer inspection to be tautology, a statement of an
inevitable although previously unrecognized relation. It states that the fittest
individuals in a population (defined as those which leave the most offspring)
will leave the most offspring."—*C. Waddington, "Evolutionary
Adaptation," in Evolution After Darwin (1960), Vol. 1, pp. 381, 385.They
multiply, because they multiply.
"Thus we
have as the question: ‘why do some multiply, while others remain stable,
dwindle, or die out? To which is offered as answer: Because some multiply, while
others remain stable, dwindle, or die out. "The two sides of the equation
are the same. We have a tautology. The definition is meaningless."—*Norman
Macbeth, Darwin Retried (1971), p. 47."Anything that produces
change."
"[*George
Gaylord Simpson says:] ‘I . . define selection, a technical term in
evolutionary studies, as anything tending to produce systematic, heritable
change in population between one generation and the next’ [*G.G. Simpson,
Major Features of Evolution (1953), p. 138].
"But is such
a broad definition of any use? We are trying to explain what produces change.
Simpson’s explanation is natural selection, which he defines as what produces
change. Both sides of the equation are again the same; again we have a tautology
. . If selection is anything tending to produce change, he is merely saying that
change is caused by what causes change . . The net explanation is nil."—*Norman
Macbeth, Darwin Retried (1971), p. 49.
The survivors are
the fittest, and the fittest survive.
"Of one
thing, however, I am certain, and that is that ‘natural selection’ affords
no explanation of mimicry or of any other form of evolution. It means nothing
more than ‘the survivors survive.’ Why do certain individuals survive?
Because they are the fittest. How do we know they are the fittest? Because they
survive."—*E.W. MacBride, Nature, May 11, 1929, p. 713.
In the chapter
on fossils, we will discover that the fossil/strata theory is also entirely
based on circular reasoning!CONCLUSION—We
have found that natural selection does not produce evolution; that is, change
from one true species into another. It is useless for this purpose.
In fact, natural
selection is obviously is misnamed: It is "natural variation," not
"natural selection"—for it is only composed of simple
variations, or gene reshuffling, within an existing species. Or to be even
more accurate, it is "random variation."It is NOT
"selection."
"Selection"
requires a thinking mind, and evolutionists tell us no thinking mind is involved
in these random changes within species. Mindless activity results in variations;
it is only purposive activity by an intelligent agent that selects.
The phrase,
"natural selection," implies something that it is not true. It gives
the impression of thinking intelligence at work while, by the evolutionists’
own admission, only random activity is said to be doing this.
According to
*Macbeth, so-called "natural selection" just provides variation for
each creature within a given species, and then that creature dies,—and what
has natural selection accomplished?
"I think the
phrase [natural selection] is utterly empty. It doesn’t describe anything. The
weaker people die, a lot of stronger people die too, but not the same
percentage. If you want to say that is natural selection, maybe so, but that’s
just describing a process. That process would presumably go on until the last
plant, animal and man died out."—*Norman Macbeth, "What’s Wrong
with Darwinism" (1982), [paleontologist, American Museum].
EVOLUTION COULD NOT DO THIS
It all starts
with two termites, a king and queen. They lay eggs, but never teach their
offspring anything. How can they, when they have almost no brains and are all
blind? Working together, the young build large termite towers, part of which
rise as much as 20 feet in the air. Each side may be 12 feet across. The narrow
part lies north and south, so the tower receives warmth in the morning and late
afternoon, but less in the heat of midday. Scientists have discovered that they
build in relation to magnetic north. Because it rains heavily at times, the
towers have conical roofs and sides sloping from smaller at the top to larger at
the bottom.
The eaves of the
towers project outward, so the rain cascades off of them and falls away from the
base of the tower. That takes more thinking than a termite is able to give to
the project. When they enlarge their homes, they go up through the roof and add
new towers and minarets grouped around a central sphere. The whole thing looks
like a castle. In this tower is to be found floor after floor of nursery
sections, fungus gardens, food storerooms, and other areas, including the royal
chambers where the king and queen live. If termites were the size of humans,
their residential/office/building/factory complex would be a mile high.
Yet these are
tiny, blind creatures, the size and intelligence of worms. Then there is their
air-conditioning system. In the center of the cavernous below-ground floor is a
massive clay pillar, supporting the ceiling of this cellar. Here is where their
Central Air Conditioning System Processor is located. It consists of a spiral of
rings of thin vertical vanes, up to 6 inches deep, centered around the pillar,
spiraling outward. The coils of each row of the spiral are only an inch or so
apart. The lower edge of the vanes have holes to increase the flow of air around
them. The vanes cool the air, and a network of flues carries the hot air down to
the cellar.
From high up in
the tower these ventilating shafts run downward. But carbon dioxide must be
exchanged for oxygen, which the few, guarded entrances cannot provide. So the
top of the flues butt against special very porous earthen material in the top
walls of the tower, just inside the projecting eaves. Fresh air is thus carried
throughout the towers by the ventilating system.
STUDY AND REVIEW QUESTIONS
NATURAL SELECTION
GRADES 5 TO 12 ON A GRADUATED SCALE
1 - Could natural
selection produce the human eye?
2 - Write about
the peppered moth of England, and why it is not an evidence of evolution.
3 - Natural
selection is randomness in action. Place 24 marbles in a solid 3 x 3 square in
the center of a less-used room in your house. With a kick of your foot, apply
natural selection to the marbles. Return to the room six times a day for five
days and apply additional natural selection to the marbles. Under the title,
"Natural Selection in action," write notes on the highly integrated
structures produced by the marbles over a period of time. Did they form
themselves into a box? or a mouse?
4 - Write a
paragraph explaining what evolutionists mean by natural selection. Write a
second paragraph explaining why it is incapable of doing what they want it to
do.
5 - What is
reasoning in a circle? Why is natural selection actually this kind of circular
reasoning?
6 - How is
"survival of the fittest" merely circular reasoning?
7 - Why was
Herman Bumpus’ research study on those 136 sparrows so important?
8 - Explain the
difference between in-species or sub-species variations, and cross-species
changes.
9 - Select one of
the following, and explain why it is not an evidence of evolution (which
requires change across species): antibiotic-resistant flies, DDT-resistant
bacteria, new varieties of tomatoes.
10 - What was
Darwin’s error in thinking that the Galapagos finches were an evidence of
evolution?
11 - How does the
population principle of regression toward the mean rule out the
possibility of cross-species evolutionary change?
12 - Darwin later
gave up on natural selection as a method for cross-species change, and returned
to Lamarckism. What is Lamarckism and why is it unscientific?