CHALLENGING EVOLUTIONIST
By David Posey and W. Frank Walton
Skeptics are often fond of poking fun at bedrock doctrines of the Christian's faith, such as divine
creation. Organic evolutionists are so cocky as to say that the general evolutionary theory of natural
origins of life from non-life is a proven fact. University of California-Berkley paleontologist Kevin Padian,
President of the National Center for Science Education, said, "If I can say just one thing about the
teaching of evidence against evolution, there's a big secret: There is no evidence against evolution"
(Citizen Magazine, July 1996). We'll use an acronym, covering some arguments against evolution, that
will help you when discussing the subject of origins with an evolutionist. When confronting an evolutionist,
don't hide: F.A.C.E. it!
(F)OSSIL RECORD
If creatures evolved over time there should be as many fossils of the intermediate stages as the distinct
kinds themselves. We should find a series of fine gradations in the geologic record.
Charles Darwin acknowledged that the absence of transitional forms in
the fossil record was a serious flaw in his theory. "The number of
intermediate varieties, which have formerly existed on the earth,
[should] be truly enormous. Why then is not every geological formation
and every stratum full of such intermediate links? Geology assuredly
does not reveal any such graduated organic chain; and this, perhaps, is
the most obvious and gravest objection which can be urged against my theory"
(Origin of Species, First Edition Reprint, p. 292).
What we find in the
fossil record in the geologic column is: sudden appearance and statis. Virtually
all fossil groups "suddenly appear" all at once and fully developed. This is
called the "Cambrian explosion" of life in the Cambrian strata. "Statis"
refers to the fact that most kinds of fossilized organisms are "static", that is, they
change very little during their appearance throughout the fossil record. This is the exact opposite
from what Darwinism, if true, would show in the geologic record.
Indeed, we find large gaps. Not one fossil has been found that can be considered transitional
between major groups or phyla! Darwin was sure this would be remedied as more
fossils were found - but after 100 years, that hasn't occurred. In 1960, George Neville remarked in Science Progress that "the fossil record...continues
to be composed mostly of gaps." Professor N. Heribert-Nilsson of Lund University, Sweden,
says, "The fossil material is now so complete that the lack of transitional series cannot
be explained by the scarcity of the material. The deficiencies are real, they will never
be filled." (Life Magazine, April, 1982).
Despite this fatal blow to Darwin's theory, the "blind" faith of the die-hard evolutionists
persists. A. Lunn once wrote a humorous parody of their faith: "Faith is the substance of
fossil's hoped for; the evidence of links unseen."
(A)PE MEN
If anyone but "scientists" had tried to pull off what the evolutionists have in claims about
"ape-men" (a supposed intermediate stage of the evolution of man), they would be laughed off
as buffoons (if not baboons). Evolutionists believe we have evolved from the ape over a period
of 30 to 70 million years. If that's so, then there ought to be significant numbers of the
remains of creatures that lived between the ape and fully developed man. Instead, these
"scientists," with great fanfare, periodically trumpet the discovery of one case of proof of
the "missing link." You may be surprised at what they pawn off as proof.
Nebraska Man was discovered in 1922 and it generated a great deal of literature. It was used
by evolutionists in the famous Scopes evolution trial in Dayton, Tennessee in 1925. Television
and movie accounts of that trial have consistently portrayed the creationists as a bunch of
country bumpkins who couldn't distinguish science from corn-bread. So what was the amazing,
stupendous evidence for Nebraska Man? A single tooth. The scientists had examined this tooth
and declared the end of the quest for the missing link. However, years after the Scopes trial,
it was discovered that the tooth belonged to an extinct species of pig. The authorities had
created an entire theory of the human race from the tooth of a pig!
Java Ape-Man was another find that was supposed to settle the issue once and for all. It was
found in 1891 by Dr. Eugene Dubois, a staunch evolutionist. Scientists calmly tell us the
ape-man lived about 750,000 years ago and is proof of the transition between ape and man.
But there are several problems with their "scientific" conclusion.
In the first place, the total find consists of the top of a skull, afr agment of a left
thigh-bone and three molar teeth. While more than a single tooth, it is hardly a whole
skeleton, a conclusion you might reach if you read only their analysis of this scanty evidence.
There's more. The fragments were not found together, but collected from a range of about
seventy feet, discovered over the span of a year. Further-more, they were found in an old river
bed among the bones of many extinct animals. Even the experts differ about the identification
of the fragments. Professor Virchow of Berlin said: "There is no evidence at all that these bones
were part of the same creature." And Dubois himself finally decided that the bones were from some
sort of gibbon. Later, part of another "ape-man" was claimed to have been discovered in Java;
turned out it was the knee-bone of an extinct elephant!
Piltdown Man was allegedly discovered by an amateur fossilologist in 1912. He said he found the
remains in a gravel pit at Piltdown, Sussex, England. The remains, including a jawbone, were
confidently acclaimed by anthropologists to be about a million years old. Great volumes of
literature ensued and it was hailed as a remarkable find in textbooks and college classrooms.
Oops! In 1956, the hoax was discovered: the Piltdown bones were found to be fraudulent through
a newly discovered dating method. The jawbone turned out to belong to an ape that died only fifty
years earlier. "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools" (Rom. 1:22).
Then there's Lucy, a 40 percent complete skeleton. It was discovered in Ethiopia sometime between
1972-77. Proof was offered that she walked upright by describing how a knee-joint and thigh-bone
worked together. However, the knee-joint was found more than 200 feet below the strata of where
the thigh-bone was found and more than two miles away! Also, the knee-joint end of the femur was
severely crushed. Other scientists have shown that Lucy did not walk upright, at least not in the
same manner as humans. Not only that, but the chimpanzee walks upright at times and many scientists
have concluded that Lucy and her family were probably just a variety of apes. But there's another
problem for evolutionists: it is known that humans walked upright before Lucy. If that is so, then
she cannot be proof of a transitional form!
(C)HANCE
Time and chance are the Zeus and Mercury of evolutionists. Every formulation of their theory comes
back to this: strange things happened over millions of years, purely by chance. A philosophical
argument comes into play here: if everything evolved by chance, then our brains evolved by chance.
If our brains are a product of chance, then the thought patterns that determine our logic are
products of chance. If logic is a product of chance, we can't be sure it (brain and logic) evolved
properly So we can't even be sure we are asking the right questions!
But besides the fallacy of a mind that evolved by chance developing a sophisticated theory that
can be relied on, is it possible for the world and everything in it to have come into existence by
mere chance? Is that a "sensible" thing to believe? To use a popular example, what would be the
chance of a million monkeys producing, by chance, a Shakespearean drama? Here are the odds according
to Dr. Bolton Davidheiser: If the million monkeys could type 100 words a minute, 24 hours per day,
that would surely do it in a few years, wouldn't it? Well, to get the first four words of Hamlet
would take 284 billion years! (Evolution and the Christian Faith, p. 362). Dr. Harold Morowitz, a
Yale biophysicist, has calculated the odds of the spontaneous generation of a bacterium by chance as
being impossibly remote: "Random events cannot account for the origin of life" (Genesis and the Big
Bang, Gerald L. Schroeder, editor, 1990, p. 105). Scientist today, with the most sophisticated
technology, cannot even produce a living cell in a labratory on purpose! So much for chance in
producing the complexity of life.
(E)NTROPY
The first and second laws of thermodynamics deal a
crushing blow to evolution. The first law states that energy can be converted from one form to
another, but it can neither be created nor destroyed. The law teaches conclusively that the universe
could not have created itself! The second law, the Law of Energy Decay, states that every system left
to its own devices tends to move from a state of order to disorder. Material possessions deteriorate
and all living organisms eventually return to dust, a state of complete disorder. Dr. Isaac Asimov
observed, "Another way of stating the second law is, `The universe is constantly getting more
disorderly!'" (Smithsonian Institution Journal, June 1970, p. 6).
Evolution says everything is tending to become more orderly, in flat contradiction to this proven law
of physics. Evolution requires billions upon billions of years of consistent violations of the second
law of thermodynamics. Statistically, evolution is virtually impossible. Arthur Eddington said, "If your
theory is found to be against the second law of thermodynamics, I can give you no hope; there is nothing
for it but to collapse in deepest humiliation" (The Nature of the Physical World). Dr. Paul Davies,
English Physicists, said, "The greatest puzzle is where all the order in the universe came from
originally. How did the cosmos get wound up, if the Second Law of Thermodynamics predicts asymmetric unwinding toward disorder?" ("Universe in Reverse," Second Look, 1979, p. 27).
How much more reasonable to believe: "For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things
is God" (Hebrews 3:4). When dealing an evolutionist, don't turn away. Remember to FACE it!
If the Northside church of Christ can be of spiritual service to you, contact us at WFrankWalton@juno.com.
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