Scientific Facts that Annihilate Evolution Theories
The Evolution
Cruncher
Evolution
Facts, Inc.
BOX 300 - ALTAMONT, TN 37301
A BRIEF HISTORY OF EVOLUTIONARY
THEORY
How modern science got
into this problem
This chapter is based on pp. 895-934 (History of
Evolutionary Theory) and 1003-1042 (Evolution and Society) of Other
Evidence (Volume Three of our three-volume Evolution Disproved Series).
Not included in this chapter are at least 318 statements by scientists,
which you will find in the appendix to those chapters, plus much more,
on our website: evolution-facts.org.
This chapter is heavily condensed and omits many, many quotations by
scientists, historians, and evolutionists.
INTRODUCTION
Introduction: Stellar
evolution is based on the concept that nothing can explode and produce all
the stars and worlds. Life evolution is founded on the twin theories of spontaneous
generation and Lamarckism (the inheritance of acquired
characteristics);—yet, although they remain the basis of biological
evolution, both were debunked by scientists over a century ago.
Science is the study of the natural world. We are thankful for the many
dedicated scientists who are hard at work, improving life for us. But we
will learn, in this book, that their discoveries have provided no
worthwhile evidence supporting evolutionary theory.
Premises are important. These are the concepts by
which scientific facts are interpreted. For over a century, efforts have
been made to explain scientific discoveries by a mid-19th century theory,
known as "evolution." It has formed the foundation for many other
theories, which also are not founded on scientific facts!
Restating them again, here are the two premises on
which the various theories of evolution are based:
1 - This is the evolutionary formula for making a
universe:
Nothing + nothing = two elements + time = 92 natural
elements + time = all physical laws and a completely structured universe
of galaxies, systems, stars, planets, and moons orbiting in perfect
balance and order.
2 - This is the evolutionary formula for making life:
Dirt + water + time = living creatures.
Evolutionists theorize that the above two formulas can
enable everything about us to make itself—with the exception of man-made
things, such as automobiles or buildings. Complicated things, such as wooden
boxes with nails in them, require thought, intelligence, and careful
workmanship. But everything else about us in nature (such as hummingbirds
and the human eye) is declared to be the result of accidental mishaps,
random confusion, and time. You will not even need raw materials to begin
with. They make themselves too.
How did all this nonsense get started? We will begin this
paperback with a brief overview of the modern history of evolutionary
theory.
But let us not forget that, though it may be nonsensical,
evolutionary theory has greatly affected—and damaged—mankind in the 20th
century. Will we continue to let this happen, now that we are in the 21st
century? The social and moral impact that evolutionary concepts have had on
the modern world has been terrific.
Morality and ethical standards have been greatly reduced.
Children and youth are taught in school that they are an advanced level of
animals; there are no moral principles. Since they are just animals, they should
do whatever they want. Personal survival and success will come only by rivalry,
strife, and stepping on others.
Here is a brief overview of some of the people and events in
the history of modern evolutionary theory. But it is only a glimpse. Much more
will be found as you read farther in this paperback. And it is all
fascinating reading!
Only a few items are listed in this chapter, but they are
enough to provide you with a nice entry point to the rest of this paperback.
Keep in mind that you can look in the Index, at the back of this paperback, and
frequently find still more information on a given subject ("Linnaeus,"
"Thermodynamics," "Guadeloupe Woman," "Mendel,"
etc.).
1 - 18th AND 19th CENTURY SCIENTISTS
Prior to the middle of the 1800s, scientists were researchers
who firmly believed that all nature was made by a Master Designer. Those
pioneers who laid the foundations of modern science were creationists. They were
men of giant intellect who struggled against great odds in carrying on their
work. They were hard-working researchers.
In contrast, the philosophers sat around, hardly stirring
from their armchairs and theorized about everything while the scientists,
ignoring them, kept at their work.
But a change came about in the 19th century, when the
philosophers tried to gain control of scientific endeavor and suppress research
and findings that would be unfavorable to their theories. Today’s
evolutionists vigorously defend the unscientific theories they thought up over a
century ago.
William Paley (1743-1805), in his 1802 classic, Natural
Theology, summarized the viewpoint of the scientists.
He argued that the kind of carefully designed structures we
see in the living world point clearly to a Designer. If we see a watch, we know
that it had a designer and maker; it would be foolish to imagine that it made
itself. This is the "argument by design." All about us is the
world of nature, and over our heads at night is a universe of stars. We can
ignore or ridicule what is there or say it all made itself, but our scoffing
does not change the reality of the situation. A leading atheistic scientist of
our time, *Fred Hoyle, wrote that, although it was not difficult to disprove
Darwinism, what Paley had to say appeared likely to be unanswerable (*Fred
Hoyle and *Chandra Wickramasinghe, Evolution from Space, 1981, p. 96).
It is a remarkable fact that the basis of evolutionary theory
was destroyed by seven scientific research findings,—before *Charles Darwin
first published the theory.
Carl Linn (Carolus Linnaeus, 1707-1778) was a scientist
who classified immense numbers of living organisms. An earnest creationist, he
clearly saw that there were no halfway species. All plant and animal species
were definite categories, separate from one another. Variation was possible
within a species, and there were many sub-species. But there were no cross-overs
from one species to another (*R. Milner, Encyclopedia of Evolution, 1990, p.
276).
First Law of Thermodynamics (1847). Heinrich von
Helmholtz stated the law of conservation of energy: The sum total of all
matter will always remain the same. This law refutes several aspects of
evolutionary theory. *Isaac Asimov calls it "the most fundamental
generalization about the universe that scientists have ever been able to
make" (*Isaac Asimov, "In the Game of Energy and Thermodynamics You
Can’t Even Break Even," Journal of Smithsonian Institute, June 1970, p.
6).
Second Law of Thermodynamics (1850). R.J.E. Clausius stated the law of entropy: All systems will
tend toward the most mathematically probable state, and eventually become
totally random and disorganized (*Harold Blum, Time’s Arrow and Evolution,
1968, p. 201). In other words, everything runs down, wears out, and goes to
pieces (*R.R. Kindsay, "Physics: to What Extent is it
Deterministic," American Scientist 56, 1968, p. 100). This law totally
eliminates the basic evolutionary theory that simple evolves into complex.
*Einstein said the two laws were the most enduring laws he knew of (*Jeremy
Rifkin, Entropy: A New World View, 1980, p. 6).
Guadeloupe Woman Found (1812). This is a
well-authenticated discovery which has been in the British Museum for over a
century. A fully modern human skeleton was found in the French Caribbean island
of Guadeloupe inside an immense slab of limestone, dated by modern geologists at
28 million years old. (More examples could be cited.) Human beings, just like
those living today (but sometimes larger), have been found in very deep levels
of strata.
Gregor Mendel (1822-1884) was a creationist who lived and worked near
Brunn (now Brno), Czechoslovakia. He was a science and math teacher. Unlike the
theorists, Mendel was a true scientist. He bred garden peas and studied the
results of crossing various varieties. Beginning his work in 1856, he concluded
it within eight years. In 1865, he reported his research in the Journal of
the Brunn Society for the Study of Natural Science. The journal was
distributed to 120 libraries in Europe, England, and America. Yet his research
was totally ignored by the scientific community until it was rediscovered in
1900 (*R.A. Fisher, "Has Mendel’s Work Been Rediscovered?" Annals
of Science, Vol. 1, No. 2, 1936). His experiments clearly showed that one
species could not transmute into another one. A genetic barrier existed that
could not be bridged. Mendel’s work laid the basis for modern genetics, and
his discoveries effectively destroyed the basis for species evolution (*Michael Pitman, Adam and
Evolution, 1984, pp. 63-64).
Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) was another genuine scientist.
In the process of studying fermentation, he performed his famous 1861
experiment, in which he disproved the theory of spontaneous generation. Life
cannot arise from non-living materials. This experiment was very important; for,
up to that time, a majority of scientists believed in spontaneous generation.
(They thought that if a pile of old clothes were left in a corner, it would
breed mice! The proof was that, upon later returning to the clothes, mice would
frequently be found there.) Pasteur concluded from his experiment that only God
could create living creatures. But modern evolutionary theory continues to be
based on that out-dated theory disproved by Pasteur: spontaneous generation
(life arises from non-life). Why? Because it is the only basis on which
evolution could occur. As *Adams notes, "With spontaneous generation
discredited [by Pasteur], biologists were left with no theory of the origin of
life at all" (*J. Edison Adams, Plants: An Introduction to Modern
Biology, 1967, p. 585).
August Friedrich Leopold Weismann (1834-1914) was a German biologist who
disproved *Lamarck’s notion of "the inheritance of acquired
characteristics." He is primarily remembered as the scientist who cut off
the tails of 901 young white mice in 19 successive generations, yet each new
generation was born with a full-length tail. The final generation, he reported,
had tails as long as those originally measured on the first. Weismann also
carried out other experiments that buttressed his refutation of Lamarckism. His
discoveries, along with the fact that circumcision of Jewish males for 4,000
years had not affected the foreskin, doomed the theory (*Jean Rostand, Orion
Book of Evolution, 1960, p. 64). Yet Lamarckism continues today as the
disguised basis of evolutionary biology. For example, evolutionists still teach
that giraffes kept
stretching their necks to reach higher branches, so their
necks became longer! In a later book, *Darwin abandoned natural selection as
unworkable, and returned to Lamarckism as the cause of the never-observed change
from one species to another (*Randall Hedtke, The Secret of the Sixth
Edition, 1984).
Here is a brief, partial overview of what true scientists
were accomplishing in the 18th and 19th centuries. All of them were
Creationists:
Louis Agassiz (1807-1873): glacial geology,
ichthyology.
Charles Babbage (1792-1871): actuarial tables, calculating machine,
foundations of computer science.
Francis Bacon (1561-1626): scientific method of research.
Robert Boyle (1627-1691): chemistry, gas dynamics.
Sir David Brewster (1781-1868): optical mineralogy, kaleidoscope.
Georges Cuvier (1769-1832): comparative anatomy, vertebrate
paleontology.
Sir Humphry Davy (1778-1829): thermokinetics.
Jean Henri Fabre (1823-1915): entomology of living insects.
Michael Faraday (1791-1867): electric generator, electro-magnetics,
field theory.
Sir John A. Fleming (1849-1945): electronics, thermic valve.
Joseph Henry (1797-1878): electric motor, galvanometer.
Sir William Herschel (1738-1822): galactic astronomy, double stars.
James Joule (1818-1889): reversible thermodynamics.
Lord William Kelvin (1824-1907): absolute temperature scale, energetics,
thermodynamics, transatlantic cable.
Johannes Kepler (1571-1630): celestial mechanics, ephemeris tables,
physical astronomy.
Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778): classification system, systematic biology.
Joseph Lister (1827-1912): antiseptic surgery.
Matthew Maury (1806-1873): hydrography, oceanography.
James C. Maxwell (1831-1879): electrical dynamics, statistical
thermodynamics.
Gregor Mendel (1822-1884): genetics.
Samuel F.B. Morse (1791-1872): telegraph.
Isaac Newton (1642-1727): calculus, dynamics, law of gravity,
reflecting telescopes.
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662): hydrostatics, barometer.
Louise Pasteur (1822-1895): bacteriology, biogenesis law,
pasteurization, vaccination, and immunization.
Sir William Ramsey (1852-1916): inert gases, isotropic chemistry.
John Ray (1827-1705): natural history, classification of plants and
animals.
John Rayleigh (1842-1919): dimensional analysis, model analysis.
Bernhard Riemann (1826-1866): non-Euclidean geometry.
Sir James Simpson (1811-1870): chloroform, gynecology.
Sir George Stokes (1819-1903): fluid mechanics.
Rudolph Virchow (1821-1902): pathology.
2 - 18th AND 19th CENTURY EVOLUTIONISTS
And now we will view the armchair philosophers. Hardly one of
them ever set foot in field research or entered the door of a science
laboratory, yet they founded the modern theory of evolution:
*Emmanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) was a do-nothing
expert. In his 1734 book, Principia, he theorized that a rapidly rotating
nebula formed itself into our solar system of sun and planets. He claimed that
he obtained the idea from spirits during a séance. It is significant that the
nebular hypothesis theory originated from such a source.
*Comte de Buffon (1707-1788) was a dissolute philosopher who, unable to improve on the work of Linnaeus,
spent his time criticizing him. He theorized that species originated from one
another and that a chunk was torn out of the sun, which became our planet. As
with the other philosophers, he presented no evidence in support of his
theories.
*Jean-Baptist Lamarck (1744-1829) made a name for
himself by theorizing. He accomplished little else of significance. He laid the
foundation of modern evolutionary theory, with his concept of "inheritance
of acquired characteristics," which was later given the name Lamarckism.
In 1809, he published a book, Philosophie zoologique, in which he
declared that the giraffe got its long neck by stretching it up to reach the
higher branches, and birds that lived in water grew webbed feet. According to
that, if you pull hard on your feet, you will gradually increase their length;
and, if you decide in your mind to do so, you can grow hair on your bald head,
and your offspring will never be bald. This is science?
*Lamarck’s other erroneous contribution to evolution was
the theory of uniformitarianism. This is the conjecture that all earlier
ages on earth were exactly as they are today, calm and peaceful with no
worldwide Flood or other great catastrophes.
*Robert Chambers (1802-1883) was a spiritualist who
regularly communicated with spirits. As a result of his contacts, he wrote the
first popular evolution book in all of Britain. Called Vestiges of Creation
(1844), it was printed 15 years before *Charles Darwin’s book, Origin of
the Species.
*Charles Lyell (1797-1875). Like *Charles Darwin, Lyell inherited
great wealth and was able to spend his time theorizing. Lyell published his Principles
of Geology in 1830-1833, and it became the basis for the modern theory of
sedimentary strata,—even though 20th-century discoveries in radiodating,
radiocarbon dating, missing strata, and overthrusts (older strata on top of more recent strata) have nullified the theory.
In order to prove his theory, Lyell was quite willing to
misstate the facts. He learned that Niagara Falls had eroded a seven-mile [11
km] channel from Queenston, Ontario, and that it was eroding at about 3 feet [1
m] a year. So Lyell conveniently changed that to one foot [.3 m] a year, which
meant that the falls had been flowing for 35,000 years! But Lyell had not told
the truth. Three-foot erosion a year, at its present rate of flow, would only
take us back 7000 to 9000 years,—and it would be expected that, just after the
Flood, the flow would, for a time, have greatly increased the erosion rate.
Lyell was a close friend of Darwin, and urged him to write his book, Origin
of the Species.
*Alfred Russell Wallace (1823-1913) is considered to
be the man who developed the theory which *Darwin published. *Wallace was deeply
involved in spiritism at the time he formulated the theory in his Ternate
Paper, which *Darwin, with the help of two friends (*Charles Lyell and
*Joseph Hooker), pirated and published under his own name. *Darwin, a wealthy
man, thus obtained the royalties which belonged to Wallace, a poverty-ridden
theorist. In 1980, *Arnold C. Brackman, in his book, A Delicate Arrangement,
established that Darwin plagiarized Wallace’s material. It was arranged that a
paper by Darwin would be read to the Royal Society, in London, while Wallace’s
was held back until later. Priorities for the ideas thus having been taken care
of, Darwin set to work to prepare his book.
In 1875, Wallace came out openly for spiritism and Marxism,
another stepchild of Darwinism. This was Wallace’s theory: Species have
changed in the past, by which one species descended from another in a manner
that we cannot prove today. That is exactly what modern evolution teaches. Yet
it has no more evidence supporting the theory than Wallace had in 1858 when he
devised the theory while in a fever.
In February 1858, while in a delirious fever on the island of Ternate in the Molaccas, Wallace conceived the
idea, "survival of the fittest," as being the method by which
species change. But the concept proves nothing. The fittest; which one is
that? It is the one that survived longest. Which one survives longest?
The fittest. This is reasoning in a circle. The phrase says nothing about
the evolutionary process, much less proving it.
In the first edition of his book, Darwin regarded
"natural selection" and "survival of the fittest" as
different concepts. By the sixth edition of his Origin of the Species, he
thought they meant the same thing, but that "survival of the fittest"
was the more accurate. In a still later book (Descent of Man, 1871),
Darwin ultimately abandoned "natural selection" as a hopeless
mechanism and returned to Lamarckism. Even Darwin recognized the theory was
falling to pieces. The supporting evidence just was not there.
*Charles Darwin (1809-1882) was born into wealth and
able to have a life of ease. He took two years of medical school at Edinburgh
University, and then dropped out. It was the only scientific training he ever
received. Because he spent the time in bars with his friends, he barely passed
his courses. Darwin had no particular purpose in life, and his father planned to
get him into a nicely paid job as an Anglican minister. Darwin did not object.
But an influential relative got him a position as the unpaid
"naturalist" on a ship planning to sail around the world, the Beagle.
The voyage lasted from December 1831 to October 1836.
It is of interest that, after engaging in spiritism, certain men in history
have been seized with a deep hatred of God and have then been guided to devise
evil teachings, that have destroyed large numbers of people, while others have
engaged in warfare which have annihilated millions. In connection with this, we
think of such known spiritists as *Sigmund Freud and *Adolf Hitler. It is not
commonly known that *Charles Darwin, while a naturalist aboard the Beagle,
was initiated into witchcraft in South America by nationals. During horseback travels into the
interior, he took part in their ceremonies and, as a result, something
happened to him. Upon his return to England, although his health was
strangely weakened, he spent the rest of his life working on theories to destroy
faith in the Creator.
After leaving South America, Darwin was on the Galapagos
Islands for a few days. While there, he saw some finches which had blown in from
South America and adapted to their environment, producing several sub-species.
He was certain that this showed cross-species evolution (change into new
species). But they were still finches. This theory about the finches was the
primary evidence of evolution he brought back with him to England.
Darwin, never a scientist and knowing nothing about
the practicalities of genetics, then married his first cousin, which resulted in
all seven of his children having physical or mental disorders. (One girl died
after birth, another at 10. His oldest daughter had a prolonged breakdown at 15.
Three of his children became semi-invalids, and his last son was born mentally
retarded and died 19 months after birth.)
His book, Origin of the Species, was first published
in November 1859. The full title, On the Origin of the Species by Means of
Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for
Life, reveals the viciousness of the underlying concept; this concept led
directly to two of the worst wars in the history of mankind.
In his book, Darwin reasoned from theory to facts, and
provided little evidence for what he had to say. Modern evolutionists are
ashamed of the book, with its ridiculous arguments.
Darwin’s book had what some men wanted: a clear
out-in-the-open, current statement in favor of species change. So, in spite of
its laughable imperfections, they capitalized on it. Here is what you will find
in his book:
• Darwin would cite authorities that he did not mention. He repeatedly said
it was "only an abstract," and "a fuller edition" would come
out later. But, although he wrote other books, try as he may he never could find
the proof for his theories. No one since has found it either.
• When he did name an authority, it was just an opinion
from a letter. Phrases indicating the hypothetical nature of his ideas were
frequent: "It might have been," "Maybe,"
"probably," "it is conceivable that." A favorite of his was:
"Let us take an imaginary example."
• Darwin would suggest a possibility, and later refer back
to it as a fact: "As we have already demonstrated previously."
Elsewhere he would suggest a possible series of events and then conclude by
assuming that proved the point.
• He relied heavily on stories instead of facts. Confusing
examples would be given. He would use specious and devious arguments, and spent
much time suggesting possible explanations why the facts he needed were not
available.
Here is an example of his reasoning: To explain the fossil
trans-species gaps, Darwin suggested that species must have been changing
quickly in other parts of the world where men had not yet examined the strata.
Later these changed species traveled over to the Western World, to be found in
strata there as new species. So species were changing on the other side of the
world, and that was why species in the process of change were not found on our
side!
With thinking like this, who needs science? But remember that
Charles Darwin never had a day of schooling in the sciences.
Here is Darwin’s explanation of how one species changes into another: It is
a variation of *Lamarck’s theory of inheritance of acquired characteristics
(*Nicholas Hutton III, Evidence of Evolution, 1962, p. 138). Calling it pangenesis,
Darwin said that an organ affected by the environment would respond by giving
off particles that he called gemmules. These particles supposedly helped
determine hereditary characteristics. The environment would affect an organ; gemmules would drop out of the organ; and
the gemmules would travel to the reproductive organs, where they would affect
the cells (*W. Stansfield, Science of Evolution, 1977, p. 38). As
mentioned earlier, scientists today are ashamed of Darwin’s ideas.
In his book, Darwin taught that man came from an ape, and
that the stronger races would, within a century or two, destroy the weaker ones.
(Modern evolutionists claim that man and ape descended from a common ancestor.)
After taking part in the witchcraft ceremonies, not only was
his mind affected but his body also. He developed a chronic and incapacitating
illness, and went to his death under a depression he could not shake (Random
House Encyclopedia, 1977, p. 768).
He frequently commented in private letters that he recognized
that there was no evidence for his theory, and that it could destroy the
morality of the human race. "Long before the reader has arrived at this
part of my work, a crowd of difficulties will have occurred to him. Some of them
are so serious that to this day I can hardly reflect on them without in some
degree becoming staggered" (*Charles Darwin, Origin of the Species,
1860, p. 178; quoted from Harvard Classics, 1909 ed., Vol. 11). "Often
a cold shudder has run through me, and I have asked myself whether I may have
not devoted myself to a phantasy" (*Charles Darwin, Life and Letters,
1887, Vol. 2, p. 229).
*Thomas Huxley (1825-1895) was the man *Darwin called
"my bulldog." *Darwin was so frail in health that he did not make
public appearances, but remained secluded in the mansion he inherited. After
being personally converted by Darwin (on a visit to Darwin’s home), Huxley
championed the evolutionary cause with everything he had. In the latter part of
the 19th century, while *Haeckel labored earnestly on the European continent,
Huxley was Darwin’s primary advocate in England.
The *X Club was a secret society in London which worked to further evolutionary thought and suppress
scientific opposition to it. It was powerful, for all scientific papers
considered by the Royal Society had to be first approved by this small group of
nine members. Chaired by *Huxley, its members made contacts and powerfully
affected British scientific associations (*Michael Pitman, Adam and
Evolution, 1984, p. 64). " ‘But what do they do?’ asked a curious
journalist. ‘They run British science,’ a professor replied, ‘and on the
whole, they don’t do it badly’ " (*R. Milner, Encyclopedia of
Evolution, 1990, p. 467). In the 20th century, U.S. government agencies,
working closely with the *National Science Federation and kindred organizations,
have channeled funds for research to universities willing to try to find
evidence for evolution. Down to the present day, the theorists are still trying
to control the scientists.
The Oxford Debate was held in June 1860 at Oxford
University, only seven months after the publication of *Darwin’s Origin of
the Species. A special meeting of the British Association for the
Advancement of Science, it marked a major turning point in England,—just as
the 1925 Scopes Trial would be the turning point in North America. Scientific
facts had little to do with either event; both were just battles between
personalities. In both instances, evolutionists won through ridicule. They dared
not rely on scientific facts to support their case, because they had none.
Samuel Wilberforce, Anglican bishop of Oxford University, was
scheduled to speak that evening in defense of creationism. *Huxley had lectured
on behalf of evolution in many English cities and was not planning to attend
that night. But *Chambers, a spiritualist adviser to Huxley, was impressed to
find and tell him he must attend.
Wilberforce delivered a vigorous attack on evolution for half an hour before
a packed audience of 700 people. His presentation was outstanding, and the
audience was apparently with him. But then Wilberforce turned and rhetorically
asked Huxley a humorous question, whether it was through his grandfather or his grandmother that Huxley
claimed descent from an ape.
Huxley was extremely sharp-witted and, at the bishop’s
question, he clasped the knee of the person sitting next to him, and said,
"He is delivered into my hands!"
Huxley arose and worked the audience up to a climax, and then
declared that he would feel no shame in having an ape as an ancestor, but would
be ashamed of a brilliant man who plunged into scientific questions of which he
knew nothing (John W. Klotz, "Science and Religion," in Studies in
Creation, 1985, pp. 45-46).
At this, the entire room went wild, some yelling one thing
and others another. On a pretext so thin, the evolutionists in England became a
power which scientists feared to oppose. We will learn that ridicule heaped on
ridicule, through the public press, accomplished the same results for American
evolutionists in Dayton, Tennessee, in 1925.
The Orgueil Meteorite (1861) was one of many hoaxes
perpetrated, to further the cause of evolution. Someone inserted various dead
microbes, and then covered it over with a surface appearing like the meteorite.
The objective was to show that life came from outer space. But the hoax was
later discovered (*Scientific American, January 1965, p. 52). A
remarkable number of hoaxes have occurred since then. Men, working desperately,
have tried to provide scientific evidence that does not exist. In the mid-1990s,
a meteorite "from Mars" with "dead organisms" on it was
trumpeted in the press. But ignored were the conclusions of competent
scientists, that the "discovery" was highly speculative.
*Sir Francis Galton (1822-1911). Galton was *Charles Darwin’s cousin
who amplified on one of the theory’s logical conclusions. He declared that the
"science" of "eugenics" was the key to humanity’s
problems: Put the weak, infirm, and aged to sleep. *Adolf Hitler, an ardent
evolutionist, used it successfully in World War II (*Otto Scott, "Playing God," in Chalcedon
Report, No. 247, February 1986, p. 1).
*Wallace’s Break with *Darwin. Darwin’s close friend,
Russell Wallace, eventually separated from Darwin’s position—a position
he had given Darwin—when Wallace realized that the human brain was far too
advanced for evolutionary processes to have produced it (Loren C. Eiseley,
"Was Darwin Wrong about the Human Brain?" Harpers Magazine, 211:66-70,
1955).
*Herbert Spencer (1820-1903), along with certain other
men (*Friedrich Nietzche, *Karl Marx, *Sigmund Freud, *John Dewey, etc.),
introduced evolutionary modes and morality into social fields (sociology,
psychology, education, warfare, economics, etc.) with devastating effects on the
20th century. Spencer, also a spiritist, was the one who initially invented the
term, "evolution" (*R. Milner, Encyclopedia of Evolution,
1990, p. 159; cf. 424). Spencer introduced sociology into Europe, clothing
it in evolutionary terms. From there it traveled to America. He urged that the
unfit be eliminated, so society could properly evolve (*Harry E. Barnes,
Historical Sociology, 1948, p. 13). In later years, even the leading
evolutionists of the time, such as Huxley and Darwin, became tired of the fact
that Spencer could do nothing but theorize and knew so little of real-life
facts.
Archaeopteryx (1861, 1877). These consisted of several
fossils from a single limestone quarry in Germany, each of which the quarry
owner sold at a high price. One appeared to possibly be a small dinosaur
skeleton, complete with wings and feathers. European museums paid high prices
for them. (As we will learn below, in 1985 Archaeopteryx was shown to be a
fake.)
*Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919), a teacher at the University of Jena in
Germany, was the most zealous advocate of Darwinism on the continent in the 19th
century. He drew a number of fraudulent charts (first published in
1868) which purported to show that human embryos were almost
identical to those of other animals. Reputable scientists repudiated them within
a few years, for embryologists recognized the deceit. (See chapter 16, Vestiges
and Recapitulation on our website for the charts.) *Darwin and *Haeckel had
a strong influence on the rise of world communism (*Daniel Gasman, Scientific
Origins of National Socialism: Social Darwinism in Ernst Haeckel and the German
Monist League, 1971, p. xvi).
*Marsh’s Horse Series (1870s). *Othniel C. Marsh
claimed to have found 30 different kinds of horse fossils in Wyoming and
Nebraska. He reconstructed and arranged them in a small-to-large evolutionary
series, which was never in a straight line (*Encyclopedia Britannica, 1976
ed., Vol. 7, p. 13). Although displayed in museums for a time, the great
majority of scientists later repudiated this "horse series" (*Charles
Deperet, Transformations of the Animal World, p. 105; *G.A. Kerkut, Implications
of Evolution, 1960, p. 149).
*Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900). *Nietzsche was a
remarkable example of a man who fully adopted Darwinist principles. He
wrote books declaring that the way to evolve was to have wars and kill the
weaker races, in order to produce a "super race" (*T. Walter
Wallbank and *Alastair M. Taylor, Civilization Past and Present, Vol. 2, 1949
ed., p. 274). *Darwin, in Origin of the Species, also said that this
needed to happen. The writings of both men were read by German militarists and
led to World War I. *Hitler valued both Darwin’s and Nietzche’s books. When
Hitler killed 6 million Jews, he was only doing what Darwin taught.
It is of interest, that a year before he defended *John Scopes’ right to
teach Darwinism at the Dayton "Monkey Trial," *Clarence Darrow
declared in court that the murderous thinking of two young men was caused by
their having learned *Nietzsche’s vicious Darwinism in the public schools (*W.
Brigan, ed., Classified Speeches).
*Asa Gray was the first leading theistic evolutionary
advocate in America, at the time when Darwin was writing his books. Gray, a
Presbyterian, worked closely with *Charles W. Eliot, president of Harvard, in
promoting evolution as a "Christian teaching," yet teaching long ages
and the book of Genesis as a fable.
The Challenger was a British ship dispatched to find
evidence, on the ocean bottom, of evolutionary change. During its 1872-1876
voyage, it carried on seafloor dredging, but found no fossils developing on the
bottom of the ocean. By this time, it was obvious to evolutionists that no
fossils were developing on either land or sea, yet they kept quiet about the
matter. Over the years, theories, hoaxes, false claims, and ridicule favoring
evolution were spread abroad; but facts refuting it, when found, were kept
hidden.
*Karl Marx (1818-1883) is closely linked with
Darwinism. That which *Darwin did to biology, Marx with the help of others did
to society. All the worst political philosophies of the 20th century emerged
from the dark cave of Darwinism. Marx was thrilled when he read Origin of the
Species and he immediately wrote Darwin and asked to dedicate his own major
work, Das Kapital, to him. Darwin, in his reply, thanked him but said it
would be best not to do so.
In 1866, Marx wrote to *Frederick Engels, that Origin of the Species
contained the basis in natural history for their political and economic system
for an atheist world. Engels, the co-founder of world communism with Marx and
*Lenin, wrote to Karl Marx in 1859: "Darwin, whom I am just now reading, is
splendid" (*C. Zirkle, Evolution, Marxian Biology, and the Social Scene,
1959, p. 85). In 1861, Marx wrote to Engels: "Darwin’s book is very
important and serves me as a basis in natural selection for the class struggle
in history" (*op. cit., p. 86). At
Marx’s funeral, Engles said that, as Darwin had discovered
the law of organic evolution in natural history, so Marx had discovered the law
of evolution in human history (*Otto Ruhle, Karl Marx, 1948, p. 366).
As Darwin emphasized competitive survival as the key to
advancement, so communism focused on the value of labor rather than the
laborer. Like Darwin, Marx thought he had discovered the law of development.
He saw history in stages, as the Darwinists saw geological strata and successive
forms of life.
*William Grant Sumner (1840-1910) applied evolutionary
principles to political economics at Yale University. He taught many of America’s
future business and industrial leaders that strong business should succeed and
the weak perish, and that to help the unfit was to injure the fit and accomplish
nothing for society (*R. Milner, Encyclopedia of Evolution, 1990, pp. 59,
446, 72). Millionaires were, in his thinking, the "fittest."
Modern laissez-faire capitalism was the result (*Gilman M. Ostrander,
The Evolutionary Outlook: 1875-1900, 1971, p. 5).
*William James (1842-1910) was another evolutionist
who influenced American thinking. His view of psychology placed the study of
human behavior on an animalistic evolutionary basis.
Tidal Hypothesis Theory (1890). *George Darwin, son of
*Charles Darwin, wanted to come up with something original, so he invented the
theory that four million years ago the moon was pressed nearly against the
earth, which revolved every five hours.—Then one day, a heavy tide occurred
in the oceans, which lifted it out to its present location! Later proponents
of George’s theory decided that the Pacific Basin is the hole the moon left
behind, when those large ocean waves pushed it out into space.
3 - 1898 TO 1949
Bumpus’ Sparrows (1898). Herman Bumpus was a zoologist at Brown University. During the winter of 1898, by
accident he carried out one of the only field experiments in natural selection.
One cold morning, finding 136 stunned house sparrows on the ground, he tried to
nurse them back to health. Of the total, 72 revived and 64 died. He weighed and
carefully measured all of them, and found that those closest to the average
survived best. This frequently quoted research study is another evidence that
the animal or plant closest to the original species is the most hardy.
Sub-species variations will not be as hardy, and evolution entirely across
species (if the DNA code would permit it) would therefore be too weakened to
survive (*R. Milner, Encyclopedia of Evolution, 1990, p. 61).
*Hugo deVries (1848-1935) was a Dutch botanist and one
of the three men who, in 1900, rediscovered Mendel’s paper on the law of
heredity.
One day while working with primroses, deVries thought he had
discovered a new species. This made headlines. He actually had found a new
variety (sub-species) of the primrose, but deVries conjectured that perhaps his
"new species" had suddenly sprung into existence as a "mutation."
He theorized that new species "saltated" (leaped), that is,
continually spring into existence. His idea is called the saltation theory.
This was a new idea; and, during the first half of the 20th
century, many evolutionary biologists, finding absolutely no evidence supporting
"natural selection," switched from natural selection ("Darwinism")
to mutations ("neo-Darwinism") as the mechanism by which the
theorized cross-species changes occurred.
Later in this book, we will discover that mutations cannot
produce evolution either, for they are always harmful. In addition, decades of
experimentation have revealed they never produce new species.
In order to prove the mutation theory, deVries and other researchers
immediately began experimentation on fruit flies; and it has continued ever
since—but totally without success in producing new species.
Ironically, deVries’ saltation theory was based on an
observational error. In 1914 *Edward Jeffries discovered that deVries’
primrose was just a new variety, not a new species.
Decades later, it was discovered that most plant varieties
are produced by variations in gene factors, rarely by mutations. Those caused by
gene variations may be strong (although not as strong as the average original),
but those varieties produced by mutations are always weak and have a poor
survival rate. See chapter 10, Mutations, for much, much more on the
mutation problem.
*Walter S. Sutton and *T. Boveri (1902)
independently discovered chromosomes and the linkage of genetic characters. This
was only two years after Mendel’s research was rediscovered. Scientists were
continually learning new facts about the fixity of the species.
*Thomas Hunt Morgan (1886-1945) was an American
biologist who developed the theory of the gene. He found that the genetic
determinants were present in a definite linear order in the chromosomes and
could be somewhat "mapped." He was the first to work intensively with
the fruit fly, Drosophila (*Michael Pitman, Adam and Evolution, 1984, p. 70).
But research with fruit flies, and other creatures, has proved a total
failure in showing mutations to be a mechanism for cross-species change
(*Richard B. Goldschmidt, "Evolution, as Viewed by One Geneticist,"
American Scientist, January 1952, p. 94).
*H.J. Muller (1990-1967). Upon learning of the 1927 discovery that
X-rays, gamma rays, and various chemicals could induce an extremely rapid
increase of mutations in the chromosomes of test animals and plants, Muller
pioneered in using X-rays to greatly increase the mutation rate in fruit flies.
But all he and the other researchers found was that mutations were always
harmful (*H.J. Muller, Time, November 11, 1946, p. 38; *E.J. Gardner,
Principles of Genetics, 1964, p. 192; *Theodosius Dobzhansky, Genetics and the Origin of the Species, 1951, p.
73).
*Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
was deeply indebted to the
evolutionary training he received in Germany as a young man. He fully accepted
it, as well as *Haeckel’s recapitulation theory. Freud began his Introductory
Lectures on Psychoanalysis (1916) with Haeckel’s premise: "Each
individual somehow recapitulates in an abbreviated form the entire development
of the human race" (*R. Milner, Encyclopedia of Evolution, 1990, p. 177).
Freud’s "Oedipus complex" was based on a theory
of "primal horde" he developed about a "mental complex" that
caveman families had long ago. His theories of anxiety complexes, and
"oral" and "anal" stages, etc., were based on his belief
that our ancestors were savage.
*H.G. Wells (1866-1946), the science fiction pioneer based
his imaginative writings on evolutionary teachings. He had received a science
training under Professor *Thomas H. Huxley, *Darwin’s chief defender.
*Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930), like a variety of other
evolutionist leaders before and after, was an avid spiritist. Many of his
mystery stories were based on evolutionary themes.
*George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)
was so deeply involved in
evolutionary theory, that he openly declared that he wrote his plays to teach
various aspects of the theory (*R. Milner, Encyclopedia of Evolution, 1990, p.
461).
Piltdown Man (1912). In 1912,
parts of a jaw and skull were found in England
and dubbed "Piltdown Man." News of it created a sensation. The report
of a dentist, in 1916, who said someone had filed down the teeth was
ignored. As
we will learn below, in 1953 the fact that it was a total hoax was
uncovered.
This, like all the later evidences that our ancestors were part
ape, has been questioned or repudiated by reputable scientists.
See chapter 13, Ancient Man.
World War I (1917-1918).
Darwinism basically taught that
there is no moral code, our ancestors were savage, and civilization only
progressed by violence against others. It therefore led to extreme nationalism,
racism, and warfare through Nazism and Fascism. Evolution was declared to
involve "natural selection"; and, in the struggle to survive, the
fittest will win out at the expense of their rivals. *Frederich von Bernhard, a
German military officer, wrote a book in 1909 extolling evolution and appealing
to Germany to start another war. *Heinrich von Treitsche, a Prussian militarist,
loudly called for war by Germany in order to fulfill its "evolutionary
destiny" (*Heinrich G. von Treitsche, Politics, Vol. 1, pp. 66-67). Their
teachings were fully adopted by the German government, and it only waited for a
pretext to start the war (*R. Milner, Encyclopedia of Evolution, 1990, p. 59).
Communist Darwinism. *Marx and *Engels’ acceptance of
evolutionary theory made *Darwin’s theory the "scientific" basis of
all later communist ideologies (*Robert M. Young, "The Darwin Debate,"
in Marxism Today, Vol. 26, April 1982, p. 21).
Communist teaching declared that
evolutionary change, which taught class struggle, came by revolution and violent
uprisings. Communist dogma declares that Lamarckism (inheritance of acquired
characteristics) is the mechanism by which this is done. Mendelian genetics was
officially outlawed in Russia in 1948, since it was recognized as disproving
evolution. Communist theorists also settled on "synthetic speciation"
instead of natural selection or mutations as the mechanism for species change (*L.B.
Halstead, "Museum of Errors," in Nature, November 20, 1980, p. 208).
This concept is identical to the sudden change theory of *Goldschmidt and
*Gould, which we will mention later.
*John Dewey (1859-1952)
was another influential thought leader. A vigorous Darwinist, Dewey founded and led
out in the "progressive education movement" which so greatly affected
U.S. educational history. But it was nothing more than careful animal training
(*Samuel L. Blumenfeld, NEA: Trojan Horse in American Education, 1984, p. 43).
The purpose was to indoctrinate the youth into evolution, humanism, and
collectivism. In 1933, Dewey became a charter member of the American Humanist
Association and its first president. Its basic statement of beliefs, published
that year as the Humanist Manifesto, became the unofficial framework of teaching
in most school textbooks. The evolutionists recognized that they must gain
control of all public education (*Sir Julian Huxley, quoted in *Sol Tax and
*Charles Callender, eds., Evolution after Darwin, 3 vols., 1960).
Historically,
American education was based on morals and standards; but Dewey declared that,
in order to be "progressive," education must leave "the
past" and "evolve upward" to new, modern concepts.
The Scopes Trial (July 10 to July 21, 1925)
was a powerful
aid to the cause of evolution, yet scientific discoveries were not involved.
That was fortunate, since, except for a single tooth (later disproved), and a
few other frauds, the evolutionists had nothing worthwhile to present (*The
World’s Most Famous Court Trial: A Complete Stenographic Report, 1925).
The ACLU (*American Civil Liberties Union)
had been searching for someone
they could use to test the Butler Act, which forbade the teaching of evolution
in the public schools in Tennessee. *John Scopes (24 at the time) volunteered
for the job. He later privately admitted that he had never actually taught
evolution in class, so the case was based on a fraud; he spent the time teaching
them football maneuvers (*John Scopes, Center of the Storm, 1967, p. 60). But no
matter, the ACLU wanted to so humiliate the State of Tennessee, that no other
state would ever dare oppose the evolutionists. The entire trial, widely
reported as the "Tennessee Monkey Trial," was presented to the public
as something of a comic opera. (A trained ape was even sent in, to walk around
on a chain in the streets of Dayton.) But the objective was deadly serious, and
they succeeded very well. Although the verdict was against Scopes, America’s
politicians learned the lesson: Do not oppose the evolutionists.
The Scopes trial, the first event nationally broadcast over the radio, was a
major victory for evolutionists throughout the world. Ridicule, side issues,
misinformation, and false statements were used to win the battle.
SCOPES
TRIAL—Evolutionists turned the Dayton trial into ridiculous circus in order to
frighten later State governments into banning creationism from their school
curicula.
Nebraska Man Debunked
(1928). In 1922 a single molar tooth was found and named
Hesperopithecus, or "Nebraska Man." An artist was told to make an
"apeman" picture based on the tooth, which went around the world. Nebraska
Man was a key evidence at the Scopes trial in July 1925 (The evolutionists had
little else to offer!). *Grafton Smith, one of those involved in publicizing
Nebraska Man was knighted for his efforts in making known this fabulous find.
When paleontologists returned to the site in 1928, they found the rest of the
skeleton,—and discovered the tooth belonged to "an extinct pig"!
(*R. Milner, Encyclopedia of Evolution, 1990, p. 322). In 1972, living
specimens of the same pig were found in Paraguay.
George McCready Price
(1870-1963) had a master’s level degree, but not in science.
Yet he was the staunchest opponent of evolution in the first half of the 20th
century. He produced 38 books and numerous articles to various journals.
Price was the first person to carefully research into the accumulated findings
of geologists, and he discovered that they had no evidence supporting their
claims about strata and fossils. Since his time, the situation has not
changed (*R. Milner, Encyclopedia of Evolution,
1990, p. 194).
Along with mutations,
the study of fossils and strata ranks as the leading potential evidences
supporting evolutionary claims. But no transitional species have been found.
Ancient species (aside from the extinct ones) were like those
today, except larger, and strata are generally missing and at times
switched—with "younger" strata below "older." Because there is no
fossil/strata evidence supporting evolution, the museums display dinosaurs and
other extinct animals as proof that evolution has occurred. But extinction
is not an evidence of evolution. Much more on this in chapter 12, Fossils and
Strata.
*Oliver Wendel
Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935), powerfully affected the U.S. Supreme Court in
both viewpoint and legal precedents. He was forceful in his positions and a
leading justice for 30 years. The prevalent view
since his time is that law is a product of evolution and should continually
evolve in accord with social policy. But this, of course, keeps taking America
further and further from the U.S. Constitution.
*Vladimir (Nikolai) Lenin
(1870-1924) and *Josef Stalin (1879-1953). Lenin was an ardent
evolutionist who, in 1918, violently overthrew the Russian government and
founded the Soviet Union.
According to *Yaroslavsky, a
close friend of his, at an early age, while attending a Christian Orthodox
school, Stalin began to read *Darwin and became an atheist (*E.
Yaroslavsky, Landmarks in the Life of Stalin, 1940, pp. 8-9). Stalin was
head of the Soviet Union from 1924 to 1953. During those years, he was
responsible for the death of millions of Russians who refused to yield to his
slave-state tactics. The Soviet Union under Stalin was an outstanding
example of Darwinist principles extended to an entire nation.
*Austin H. Clark
(1880-1954), an ardent evolutionist, was on the staff of the Smithsonian
Institute from 1908 to 1950 and a member of several important scientific
organizations. A prominent scientist, he authored several books and about 600
scientific articles. But, after years of honestly trying to deal with the
fact that there is no evidence of cross-species change, in 1930 he wrote an
astounding book, The New Evolution: Zoogenesis. In it, he cited fact
after fact, disproving the possibility that major types of plants and animals
could have evolved from one another. The book was breathtaking and could not be
answered by any evolutionist. His alternate proposal, zoogenesis, was
that every major type of plant and animal must have evolved—not from one
another—but directly from dirt and water! (*A.H. Clark, The New
Evolution: Zoogenesis, 1930, pp. 211, 100, 189, 196, 114). The evolutionary
world was stunned into silence, for he was an expert who knew all the reasons
why trans-species evolution was impossible.
*Richard Goldschmidt
(1878-1958). The same year that *Clark wrote his book (1930), Goldschmidt
gave up also. An earnest evolutionist, he had dedicated his life to proving
it by applying X-rays and chemicals to fruit flies at the University of
California, Berkeley, and producing large numbers of mutations in them. After
25 exhausting years, in which he had worked with more generations of fruit flies
than humans and their ape ancestors are conjectured to have lived on our planet,
Goldschmidt decided that he must figure out a different way that cross-species
evolution could occur. For the next ten years, as he continued his fruit fly
research, he gathered more evidence of the foolishness of evolutionary
theory;—and, in 1940, he wrote his book, The Material Basis of Evolution,
in which he exploded point after point in the ammunition box of the theory.
He literally tore it to pieces (*Norman Macbeth, Darwin Retried, 1974, p.
152). No evolutionist could answer him. Like them, he was a confirmed
evolutionary atheist, but he was honestly facing the facts. After soundly
destroying their theory, he announced his new concept: a megaevolution in
which one life-form suddenly emerged completely out of a different one! He
called them "hopeful monsters." One day a fish laid some eggs, and
some of them turned into a frog, a snake laid an egg, and a bird hatched from
it! Goldschmidt asked for even bigger miracles than A.H. Clark had proposed!
(*Steven M. Stanley, Macroevolution: Pattern and
Process, 1979, p. 159).
American Humanist
Association (1933). "Humanism" is the
modern word for "atheism." As soon as it was formed in 1933, the AHA
began working closely with science federations, to promote evolutionary theory,
and with the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union), to provoke legal action in
the courts forcing Americans to accept their evolutionary beliefs.
Signatories included *Julian Huxley (*T.H. Huxley’s grandson), *John Dewey,
*Margaret Sanger, *H.J. Muller, *Benjamin Spock, *Erich Froom, and *Carl Rogers
(*American Humanist Association, promotional
literature).
*Trofim Lysenko
(1893-1976) rose to power in the 1930s in the USSR by convincing the government
that he could create a State Science that combined Darwinian evolution theory
in science, animal husbandry, and agriculture with Marxist theory. With
*Stalin’s hearty backing, Lysenko became responsible for the death of thousands,
including many of Russia’s best scientists. Lysenko banned Mendelian genetics
as a bourgeois heresy. He was ousted in 1965 when his theories produced
agricultural disaster for the nation. (He claimed to be able to change winter
wheat into spring wheat, through temperature change, and wheat into rye in one
generation.)
*Adolf Hitler
(1889-1945) was chancellor of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. He carefully
studied the writings of *Darwin and *Nietzsche. Hitler’s book, Mein
Kampf, was based on evolutionary theory (*Sir Arthur Keith, Evolution and
Ethics, 1947, p. 28). The very title of the book ("My Struggle" [to
survive and overcome]) was copied from a Darwinian expression. Hitler
believed he was fulfilling evolutionary objectives by eliminating "undesirable
individuals and inferior races" in order to produce Germany’s "Master Race"
(*Larry Azar, Twentieth Century in Crisis, 1990, p. 180). (Notice that
the "master race" people always select the race they are in as the best one.)
*Benito Mussolini
(1883-1945), the Italian Fascist dictator, was also captivated by *Darwin
and *Nietzsche; and Neitzsche said he got his ideas from Darwin
(*R.E.D. Clark, Darwin: Before and After, 1948, p. 115). Mussolini
believed that violence is basic to social transformation
(*Encyclopedia Britannica, 1962, Vol. 16, p. 27).
Coelacanth Discovered
(1938). It was once an "index fossil, used to date a
sedimentary strata. Evolutionists declared it as having been dead for 70
million years. If their strata theory was correct, no living specimens
could occur, since no coelacanth fossils had been found in the millions of years
of higher strata. But then, on December 25, 1938, a trawler fishing off South
Africa brought up one that was 5 feet in length. More were found later. Many
other discoveries helped disprove the evolutionists’ fossil/strata theories.
Even living creatures like the trilobite have been found!
(*"Living Fossil Resembles Long-extinct Trilobite," Science
Digest, December 1957).
Hiroshima
(1945), is an evolutionist’s paradise; for it is filled
with people heavily irradiated, which—according to evolutionary mutation
theory—should be able to produce children which are new, different, and a more
exalted species. But this has not happened. Only injury and death resulted
from the August 6, 1945, nuclear explosion. Mutations are always harmful and
frequently lethal within a generation or two
(*Animal Species and Evolution, p. 170, *H.J. Muller, Time, November 11, 1946,
p. 38).
First Mechanism
Changeover (1940s). *Darwin originally
wrote that random activity naturally selects itself into improvements (a
concept which any sensible person will say is totally impossible). In a
later book (Descent of Man, 1871), Darwin abandoned "natural selection"
as hopeless, and returned to Lamarckism (the scientifically discredited
inheritance of acquired characteristics; if you build strong muscles, your son
will inherit them). But evolutionists remained
faithful to Darwin’s original mechanism (natural selection) for decades. They
were called "Darwinists." But, by the 1940s, many were switching over to
mutations as the mechanism of cross-species change. Its advocates were called
"neo-Darwinists." The second changeover would come in the 1980s.
Radiocarbon dating
(1946). *Willard Libby and his associates discovered
carbon-14 (C-14) as a method for the dating of earlier organic materials. But
later research revealed that its inaccuracy increases in accordance with the
actual age of the material (*C.A. Reed,
"Animal Domestication in the Prehistoric Near East," in Science, 130, 1959, p.
1630; University of California at Los Angeles, "On the Accuracy of Radiocarbon
Dates," in Geochronicle, 2, 1966 [Libby’s own laboratory]).
Big Bang Hypothesis
(1948) Astronomers were totally buffaloed as to where matter
and stars came from. In desperation, *George Gamow and two associates dreamed
up the astonishing concept that an explosion of nothing produced hydrogen and
helium, which then shot outward, then turned and began circling and pushing
itself into our present highly organized stars and galactic systems.
This far-fetched theory has repeatedly been opposed by a number of scientists
(*G. Burbidge, "Was There Really a Big Bang?" in Nature 233, 1971, pp. 36, 39).
By the 1980s, astronomers which continued opposing the theory began to be
relieved of their research time at major observatories ("Companion Galaxies
Match Quasar Redshifts: The Debate Goes On," Physics Today, 37:17, December
1984). In spite of clear evidence that the theory is unscientific and
unworkable, evolutionists refuse to abandon it.
Steady State Universe
Theory (1948). In 1948, *Fred Hoyle, working
with *Hermann Bondi and *Thomas Gold, proposed this theory as an alternative to
the Big Bang. It declared that matter is continually "blipping" into
existence throughout the universe (*Peter Pocock and *Pat Daniels,
Galaxies, p. 114; *Fred Hoyle, Frontiers of Astronomy, 1955, pp. 317-318).
We will learn that in 1965, the theory was abandoned. *Hoyle said it disagreed
with several scientific facts.
4 - 1949 - PRESENT
Chinese Communism
(1949-). When the communists took control of China in
1949, the first new text introduced into all the schools was neither Marxist nor
Leninist, but Darwinian. Chinese communist leaders eagerly grasped
evolutionary theory as a basic foundation for their ideology. The government
established the Paleontological Institute in Beijing, with a large staff of
paleontologists.
*Sir Julian S. Huxley
(1887-1975). Grandson of *Darwin’s "bulldog" (*Thomas Huxley), *Julian Huxley
was the leading spokesman for evolution by natural selection in the mid-20th
century. Upon being named the first director-general of UNESCO, he was able
to make evolution the keystone of United Nations scientific policy. He saw it
as his opportunity to extend evolutionary thinking to the nations of the world,
and he made the most of it (*Julian Huxley, UNESCO
pamphlet).
Piltdown Skull
Debunked (1953). This piece of skull and
separate jaw was the only clear evidence that man was descended from an apelike
creature. In 1953, *Kenneth Oakley (British Museum geologist), *Joseph
Weiner (Oxford University anthropologist), and *Le Gros Clark (anatomy professor
at Oxford) managed to get their hands on the Piltdown skull and jaw—and
proved it a total forgery. The newly developed fluorine test revealed the
bones to be quite recent. Additional research showed the bones had been stained
with bichromate, to make them appear aged. Drillings into the bone produced
shavings instead of powder. The canine tooth was found to have been filed and
stained. Weiner published a book about the Piltdown forgery in 1955
(*William L. Straus, Jr., "The Great Piltdown Hoax," Science,
February 26, 1954; *Robert Silverberg, Scientists and Scoundrels: A Book of
Hoaxes, 1965).
Amino Acid Synthesis
(1953). When *Stanley Miller produced a few amino acids
from chemicals, amid a continuous small sparking apparatus, newspaper headlines
proclaimed: "Life has been created!" But evolutionists hid the truth: The
experiment had disproved the possibility that evolution could occur.
The amino acids were
totally dead, and the experiment only proved that a synthetic production of
them would result in equal amounts of left- and right-handed amino acids. Since
only left-handed ones exist in animals, accidental production could never
produce a living creature (*R. Milner,
Encyclopedia of Evolution, 1990, p. 274).
Discovery of DNA
(1953). *Rosiland Franklin took some special photographs
which were used in 1953 by *Francis Crick and *James Watson (without giving her
credit), to develop the astounding helix model of the DNA molecule. DNA has
crushed the hopes of biological evolutionists, for it provides clear evidence
that every species is locked into its own coding pattern. It would be impossible
for one species to change into another, since the genes network together so
closely. It is a combination lock, and it is shut tight. Only sub-species
variations can occur (varieties in plants, and breeds in animals). This is
done through gene shuffling (*A.I. Oparin, Life:
Its Nature, Origin and Development, 1961, p. 31; *Hubert P. Yockey, "A
Calculation of Probability of Spontaneous Biogenesis by Information Theory,"
Journal of Theoretical Biology, Vol. 67, 1977, p. 398).
The odds of accidentally
producing the correct DNA code in a species or changing it into another viable
species are mathematically impossible (*J Leslie,
"Cosmology, Probability, and the Need to Explain Life," in Scientific American
and Understanding, pp. 53, 64-65; *E. Ambrose, Nature and Origin of the
Biological World, 1982, p. 135).
Five Polls about
Evolution (1954). (1) The general public supports the teaching of
creation in public schools, not just evolution, by a massive majority of 86%
to 8% (AP-NBC News poll). (2) A national poll of attorneys agree
(56% to 26%) and find dual instruction constitutional (63% to 26%, American
Bar Association-commissioned poll). (3) A majority of university students
at two secular colleges also agree (80% at Ohio State, 56% at Oberlin,
Fuerst, Zimmerman). (4) Two-thirds of public school board members agree
(67% to 25%, American School Board Journal poll). (5) A substantial
minority of public school teacher favor creation over evolution (Austin
Analytical Consulting poll; source: W.R. Bird,
Origin of Species Revisited, 1954, p. 8).
Courville’s Research
(1956). After 15 years of careful research, Donovan A.
Courville, a Loma Linda University biochemist, published an important book,
Exodus Problem and Its Ramifications. Courville correlated ancient
Egyptian and Bible events and dates, providing us with one of the best ancient
chronologies available. He showed that Manetho’s king-list overlapped,
resulting in a major reduction in the duration of Egypt’s dynastic history and a
placement of its first double-ruler dynasty at around 2150 B.C. This study,
along with others reviewed in chapter 21, Archaeological Dating, shows
that archaeological dating does correlate closely with Bible history.
(Due to a lack of space, as we neared publishing time we had to omit most of
this chapter; but it is on our website.)
*Thompson’s Attack on
*Darwin (1956). W.R. Thompson, a leading evolutionary
scientist, was asked to write the Introduction to the 1956 reprint
edition of Darwin’s Origin of the Species. In it, Thompson
scathingly attacked Darwin’s theories on every essential point as worthless
(*W.R. Thompson, Introduction to Charles Darwin,
Origin of the Species, 1956 edition).
Children’s Books
(1958). While evolutionists secretly recognize that their
theory is falling through the floor, to the gullible public it is praised more
and more as the scientifically proven answer to the mystery of life and matter.
In 1958, the Wonderful Egg was published and immediately recommended
by the *American Association for the Advancement of Science as a
worthwhile science guide for little children. Two major NEA affiliates (the
*American Council on Education and the *Association for Childhood
Education International) gave it their highest recommendation. The book
tells about a mother dinosaur who laid a "wonderful egg" which hatched into a
baby bird—"the first baby bird in the whole world! And the baby bird grew up
. . with feathers . . the first beautiful bird that ever sang a song high in the
tree tops . . of long, long ago" (quoted in H.
Morris and G. Parker, What is Creation Science? p. 148).
Geoscience Research
Institute (1958). This creationist
organization, now located in Loma Linda, California, was organized specifically
to carry on research work, in the area of
creationism, and produce educational materials for scientists and science
teachers.
Darwinian Centennial
Celebration (1959). As the year 1959
approached, evolutionists saw it as a splendid opportunity to ballyhoo the
glories of evolutionary theory. As the 100th anniversary of Darwin’s Origin
of the Species approached, a flood of books and articles appeared.
The largest meeting was held at the University of Chicago,
where *Julian Huxley gave the keynote address, focusing his attention on a
triumphant, total repudiation of God.
The same year, two major
books attacking evolutionary theory in great detail were released:
The first was *Gertrude Himmelfarb’s Darwin and the
Darwinian Revolution. Holding a doctorate from the University of Chicago,
her book was a powerful exposé on the havoc the theory has wrought on the modern
world. The second in-depth book was by *Jacques Barzun, history professor and
dean of the Graduate Faculties at Columbia University. His book, Darwin,
Marx, Wagner, declared that evolutionary theory was directly responsible for
European wars from 1870 to 1945.
Biological Sciences
Curriculum (1959). Another significant event
that year was the establishment of a standardized Biological Sciences
Curriculum Study (BSCS) for public secondary schools. The stated
objective was the teaching of evolution, sex education, racial problems, and the
need for legalizing abortion (*A.B. Grobman, Biological Science: An
Inquiry into Life, p. xv). BSCS quickly received a $7 million grant from the
National Science Foundation, to develop this new series.
Shortly afterward, a
second major textbook revision project, Man: A
Course of Study, was given $7 million by the National Science Foundation.
It was filled with humanism and morally
objectionable interpretations of personal and social life.
Revolt in France
(early 1960s). A large number of French biologists and taxonomists (species
classification experts) rebelled against the chains of the evolutionary creed
and declared that they would continue their research, but would no longer try to
prove evolution, which they considered an impossible theory. Taxonomists who
joined the revolt took the name "cladists"
(*Z. Litynski, "Should We Burn Darwin?" in Science Digest,
Vol. 51, January 1961, p. 61).
First Quasar
Discovered (1962). Telescopes found a
mysterious object, which was named 3C273, which had a spectrum that was
unintelligible. This peculiar object radiated most strongly in the far blue and
ultraviolet fringes of the visible spectrum. It was a total mystery until
February 1963, when *Jesse Schmidt recognized that the problem was that
it had a radical 16% shift toward the red. If the speed
theory of redshift, promoted by evolutionists, was correct,—that meant the
object was moving away from us at 16% of the speed of light—and was a massive 3
billion light-years from earth!
As more—and apparently
"faster"—quasars were discovered, the situation kept worsening. Ultimately,
their existence debunked the evolutionist’s speed theory of redshift. Yet the
redshift and background radiation were the only two "evidences" of
an earlier Big Bang! For example, in 1977, a quasar was found which,
according to the redshift theory, was moving faster (eight times faster) than
the speed of light! Of course, scientists know it is impossible for anything to
travel faster than the speed of light (*George
Abell, Exploration of the Universe, 1973, p. 409; *Time-Life, Cosmic Mysteries,
1990, pp. 68-69; *Sky and Telescope 53, 1977, p. 1702).
Creation Research
Society (1963). This important creation
research organization was founded by doctoral scientists, with the express
purpose of conducting research into creation-evolution topics and publishing
regular reports on them. Its reports have been of a high scientific caliber.
Background Radiation
(1965). Using a sensitive radio astronomy telescope, *A.A.
Penzias and *R.W. Wilson (researchers at Bell Laboratories), discovered
low-energy microwave radiation coming from outer space. Big Bang theorists
immediately claimed that this proved the Big Bang! They said it was the last
part of the explosion. But further research disclosed that it came from every
direction instead of only one; that it was the wrong temperature; and that it
was too even. Even discoveries in the 1990s have failed to show that this
radiation is "lumpy" enough (their term) to have produced stars and planets.
Steady State Universe
Theory Abandoned (1965). *Fred Hoyle
abandoned the steady state theory entirely in a public announcement at a
meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. He listed
five scientific reasons why it was impossible
(Nature, October 9, 1965, p. 113).
The Switzerland
Meeting (1965). It was not until the 1960s
that the neo-Darwinists (those who had given up on natural selection and
believed that mutations were the mechanism of cross-species change) began
fighting with one another in earnest. At this meeting of mathematicians and
biologists, mathematical doubts were raised about the possibility of evolution
having occurred. At the end of several hours of heated discussion, it was
decided to hold another meeting the next year.
The Wistar Institute
Symposium (1966). A milestone meeting was the
four-day Wistar Institute Symposium, held in Philadelphia in April 1966. A
number of mathematicians, familiar with biological problems, spoke—and clearly
refuted neo-Darwinism in several ways. An important factor was that large
computers were by this time able to work out immense calculations—showing
that evolution could not possibly occur, even over a period of billions of
years, given the complexities of DNA, protein, the cell, enzymes, and other
factors.
We will cite one
example here: *Murray Eden of MIT explained
that life could not begin by "random selection." He noted that, if randomness is
removed, only "design" would remain,—and that required purposive planning by an
Intelligence. He showed that it would be impossible for even a single ordered
pair of genes to be produced by DNA mutations in the bacteria, E. Coli
(which has very little DNA), with 5 billion years in which to produce it. Eden
then showed the mathematical impossibility of protein forming by chance. He also
reported on his extensive investigations into genetic data on hemoglobin (red
blood cells). Hemoglobin has two chains, called alpha and beta. A minimum of 120
mutations would be required to convert alpha to beta. At least 34 of those
changes require changeovers in 2 or 3 nucleotides. Yet, Eden pointed out, if a
single nucleotide change occurs through mutation, the result ruins the blood and
kills the organism! For more on the Wistar Institute, read the following book:
*Paul Moorhead and *Martin Kaplan (eds.),
Mathematical Challenges to the Neo-Darwinian Interpretation of Evolution, Wistar
Institute Monograph No. 5.
Antelope Springs
Tracks (1968). Trilobites are small marine
creatures that are now extinct. Evolutionists tell us that trilobites are one
of the most ancient creatures that have ever lived on Planet Earth, and they
lived millions of years before there were human beings. *William J. Meister,
Sr., a non-Christian evolutionist, made a hobby of searching for trilobite
fossils in the mountains of Utah. On June 1, 1968, he found a human footprint
and trilobites in the same rock, and the footprint was stepping on some of the
trilobites! The location was Antelope Springs, about 43 miles [69 km] northwest
of Delta, Utah.
Then, breaking off a large,
two-inch thick piece of rock, he hit it on edge with a hammer, and it fell open
in his hands. To his great astonishment, he found on one side the footprint
of a human being, with trilobites right in the footprint itself! The other half
of the rock slab showed an almost perfect mold of a footprint and fossils.
Amazingly, the human was wearing a sandal! To make a longer story short,
the find was confirmed when scientists came and found more sandaled footprints.
Meister was so stunned that he became a Christian. This was Cambrian strata,
the lowest level of strata in the world; yet it had sandaled human footprints!
("Discovery of Trilobite Fossils in Shod Footprint
of Human in ‘Trilobite Beds,’ a Cambrian Formation, Antelope, Springs, Utah," in
Why Not Creation? 1970, p. 190).
The Alpbach Institute
Symposium (1969). A follow-up meeting of
scientists was held and given the title, "Beyond Reductionism." But it
only resulted in fruitless discussions by scientists who had carefully
researched the problems, with men who were desperately trying to defend
evolutionary theories, against an ever-growing mountain of evidence to the
contrary.
First Moon Landing
(1969). By the 1950s, scientists were able to predict that,
if the moon was billions of years old, it would have a thick layer of dust
many miles thick. This is due to the fact, as *R.A. Lyttleton explained, the
lunar surface is exposed to direct sunlight and strong ultraviolet light and
X-rays from the sun gradually destroying the surface layers of exposed rock,
reducing them to dust at the rate of a few ten-thousandths of an inch per year.
In 5 to 10 billion years, this would produce 20-60 miles [32-97 km] of dust
(*R.A. Lyttleton, quoted in R. Wysong,
Creation-Evolution Controversy, p. 175).
Because of this, NASA first sent
an unmanned lander, which made the discovery that there is very little dust on
the moon’s surface. In spite of that, Neil Armstrong feared that he and Edwin
Aldrin might suffocate when they landed. But because the moon is young, they had
no problem. Landing on July 20, 1969, they found not over 2 or three
inches [5.08 or 7.62 cm] of dust on its surface. That is the amount one
would expect if the moon were about 6000-8000 years old.
In *Isaac Asimov’s first
published article (1958), he predicted that the first rocket to land on the moon
would sink ingloriously in the dust, and everyone inside would perish
(Article mentioned in *Isaac Asimov, Asimov on Science: A
Thirty-Year Retrospective, 1989, pp. xvi-xvii).
Bone Inventory
(1971). A complete listing of all the Australopithecine
finds, up to the end of 1971, was printed in a new book. This included all
the African bones of our "half-ape, half-human ancestors" (*Time-Life, The
Missing Link, Vol. 2). Although over 1400 specimens are described, most
are little more than scraps of bone or isolated teeth. Not one complete skeleton
of one individual exists. When parts of bones are found, they, of course,
can be moved into various positions and be interpreted as belonging to different
creatures with very different skull and jaw shapes. To this day, there is no
real evidence of any genuine non-human ancestor of ours. Chapter 13 explains
why reputable scientists question or reject the various finds by
anthropologists.
*Matthews Attacks Darwinism
(1971). By the latter part of the 20th century, even though the ignorant public
continued to be told that evolution was a triumphant, proven success, it was
difficult to find any scientist who would defend Darwin’s theories before his
peers. *L. Harrison Matthews, another distinguished scientist, was asked
to write a new introduction to Darwin’s Origin of the Species, to replace
*Thompson’s 1956 Introduction which scathingly attacked Darwinism.
In his Introduction, Matthews said that Thompson’s attacks on Darwin
were "unanswerable." Then Matthews proceeded to add more damaging facts
(*L. Harrison Matthews, Introduction to Charles Darwin, Origin of the Species,
1971 edition). The evolutionary theory must have run into hard times, when
book publishers cannot find a reputable scientist who is appreciative either of
its basic teachings or its founder.
Nice Symposium
(1972). By the early 1970s, not only were biological
evolutionists in turmoil, but cosmologists (astronomical evolutionists) were
also. The Nice Symposium met in April 1972, to summarize what had been
accomplished and list what was still unknown. The unanswered questions included
just about every aspect of evolution in outer space! (See "Nice" in Index
for a number of the questions.) How did hydrogen clouds form themselves into
stars? How did linear momentum from the theorized Big Bang change itself into
angular momentum—and begin circling. How did the planets and moons form? The
entire list is mind-boggling. After all these years, the astronomers still do
not have answers to any of the basic evolutionary problems
(Review of the Nice Symposium, in R.E. Kofahl and K.L.
Segraves, The Creation Explanation, pp. 141-143).
Institute for
Creation Research (1972). Henry Morris and
associates founded the Institute for Creation Research (ICR) this year. It
has since become the leading anti-evolution organization in the world and is
located in El Cajon, California.
Return of the Hopeful
Monster (1972). *Stephen Jay Gould, a highly
respected paleontologist at Harvard; *Niles Eldredge, the head paleontologist at
the American Museum of Natural History in New York City; and *Steven M. Stanley,
of Johns Hopkins University, have led out in resuscitating *Richard
Goldschmidt’s "hopeful monster" theory—and demanding that the community of
evolutionary scientists consider it as the only possible mechanism for
trans-species changeovers.
It was first revived in
a cautious science paper presented by *Gould
and *Eldredge in 1972 (Punctuated Equilibria: An Alternative to
Phyletic Gradualism, 1972), but it was not until 1977 that an article by
Gould brought it back to center stage ("Return of the Hopeful Monsters," in
Natural History, June-July, 1977). The increasing despondency among
evolutionists, over their inability to use natural selection or mutations, to
provide even the slightest evidence of cross-species evolution, eventually led
large numbers of scientists, in the 1980s, to switch over to this astoundingly
ridiculous concept that millions of beneficial
mutations occur once every 50,000 years to two creatures, a male and female who
are living near each other—thus producing a new species pair!
Poll of Citizens and
Parents (1973). A survey of 1346 homes found
that 89% said creation should be taught in the public schools. In a
separate poll of 1995 homes, 84% said scientific evidence for creation should
be presented along with evolution ("A
Comparison of Students Studying . . Two Models," in Decade of Creation, 1981,
pp. 55-56).
Dudley’s Radiodating
Research (1975). Radiodating of the
sedimentary rocks, based on uranium, thorium, and other chains, had become
relied on heavily to provide the "millions of years" dates. But a broad
variety of research data repeatedly demonstrated that these methods are
extremely unreliable (much more on this in chapter 6, Inaccurate Dating
Methods). *H.C. Dudley, one of these researchers, found that using
pressure, temperature, electric and magnetic fields, stress in monomolecular
layers, etc., he could change the decay rates of 14 different radioisotopes.
The implications of this are astounding. The strata were laid down under
great pressure, and samples would vary widely to temperature and other changes.
Such discoveries, along with the fact that the dates never agree with one
another, greatly reduce the value of radiodating uranium, thorium, and other
rocks (*H.C. Dudley, "Radioactivity Re-Examined,"
in Chemical and Engineering News, April 7, 1975, p. 2).
*Leakey’s Footprints
(1977). Throughout the 20th century, human footprints have been found in
supposedly ancient rock, sometimes with dinosaur prints. We will mention
only a couple examples in this chapter (see chapter 13, Ancient Man, for
more). In approximately 1977, *Mary Leaky found at Laetoli in Africa, 30
miles [48 km] south of Olduvai Gorge, human footprints which, by the strata they
are on, evolutionists date at nearly 4 million years in the past. Yet they
are identical to modern human footprints. These and other footprints disprove
evolutionary theories, especially those in which dinosaur prints are found with
human footprints. Dinosaurs are said to be dated from 65 million to 135
million years ago; whereas man is said to have appeared far more recently
(National Geographic, April 1979; Science News,
February 9, 1980).
Plesiosaur Discovered
(1977). Scientists have wondered for decades whether an
"extinct" dinosaur would ever be found alive. Then, in April 1977, a
Japanese fishing vessel caught a 4000 pound [1814 kg], 10 meter [33 ft] creature
in its nets off the east coast of New Zealand. A qualified zoologist was on
board and photographed and examined it carefully and confirmed that, indeed,
it was a plesiosaur, a sea-dwelling dinosaur which supposedly had been
dead for 100 million years! They were so thrilled, that they published
scientific papers on it and issued a postage stamp! But, recognizing that the
creature would disprove their fossil/strata theory, Western scientists said it
must have been a sea lion! There was an almost total news blackout on this in
the West, with the exception of a few publications (*New York
Times, July 24, 1977; Nature, July 28, 1977). For more information and
pictures, turn to chapter 12, Fossils and Strata.
Chinese Characters
Explained (1979). Chinese is one of the
most ancient written languages in existence. Each Chinese character is a
combination of several different words. C.H. Kang and Ethel R. Nelson did
extensive research into Chinese words and discovered the characters contain
the story of Creation, the Garden of Eden, the fall of Adam and Eve, and the
Flood story. For example, the word, "boat," is made up of two words: vessel
and eight (Genesis 7:7, 13:8:13). Tempter is devil, cover, and tree (Genesis
3:1-6). In chapter 14, Effects of the Flood, will be found several more
examples, plus an illustration of what some of them look like
(C.H. Kang and Ethel R. Nelson, The Discovery of Genesis: How
the Truths of Genesis Were Found Hidden in the Chinese Language, 1979).
Poll of University
Students (1979). A poll of students at Bowling
Green State University, Ohio, found a clear majority of both undergraduate
and graduate students taking biology classes favored the teaching of both
creation and evolution in the schools. Undergraduate students: 91%, graduate
students: 71.8% (Jerry Bergman, "Attitude of
University Students toward the Teaching of Creation and Evolution in the
Schools, Origins, Vol. 6, 1979, pp. 64-66).
Polystrate Mystery
Solved (1980). Upright (polystrate) tree
trunks, 10-30 ft [31-95 dm] in length, have often been found in coal beds. Yet
the coal beds were supposed to have been laid down over millions of years. Why
are vertical tree trunks in them? Just after the Mount St. Helens explosion in
May 1980, analysis of nearby Spirit Lake revealed many vertical, floating tree
trunks in it. During the Flood, such tree trunks could easily have quickly been
surrounded by sediments and buried (*Edward L.
Hold, "Upright Trunks of Neocalamites form the Upper Triassic," Journal of
Geology, 55:511-513, 1947; Steven A. Austin, "Mount St. Helens and
Catastrophism," in Impact, July 1986, pp. 1-3).
Sunderland Interviews
the Experts (1980-1981). Over a one-year
period, and with their permission, Luther Sunderland tape-recorded interviews
with three of the most important paleontologists in the world, who are in charge
of at least 50 percent of the major fossil collections on the planet, covering
every basic fossil discovery in the past 150 years. He found that not one
of them could name a single missing link, a halfway species between our
regular species (L.D. Sunderland, Darwin’s Enigma, p. 89). There are no
transitional forms. For more on this, see chapter 12, Fossils and Strata.
Chicago Evolution
Conference (1980). While the newspapers,
popular magazines, and school textbooks emblazoned evolutionary theory as being
essentially proven scientifically in so many ways, the evolutionary scientists
were discouraged. They knew the truth. The Switzerland, Wistar, and Alpbach
meetings had clearly shown them theirs was a losing cause. However, in yet
another futile effort, in October 1980, 160 of the world’s leading
evolutionary scientists met again, this time at the University of Chicago. In
brief, it was a verbal explosion. Facts opposing evolution were presented,
and angry retorts and insults were hurled in return. The following month,
*Newsweek (November 3, 1980) reported that a large majority of
evolutionists at the conference agreed that the neo-Darwinian mechanism (of
mutations working with natural selection) could no longer be regarded as
scientifically valid or tenable. Neither the origin nor diversity of living
creatures could be explained by evolutionary theory (*Roger Lewin,
"Evolutionary Theory Under Fire," in Science, November 21, 1980; *G.R. Taylor,
Great Evolution Mystery, 1983, p. 55). Why is the public still told that
evolution is essentially proven and all the scientists believe it,—when both
statements are far from the truth?
New York City
Evolution Conference (1981). The following
year, another important meeting was held, this one at the American Museum of
Natural History in New York City. *Colin Patterson, senior paleontologist at
the British Museum of Natural History, read a paper in which he declared that
evolution was "positively anti-knowledge" and added, "All my life I had been
duped into taking evolution as revealed truth." Yet Patterson is in charge
of millions of fossil samples, and he is well-acquainted with the collection.
Commenting on the crisis, another scientist, *Michael Ruse, wrote that the
increasing number of critics included many with "the highest intellectual
credentials" (*Michael Ruse, "Darwin’s Theory: An
Exercise in Science," in New Scientist, June 25, 1981, p. 828).
Panspermia
(1981). Amid the cries of desperation and despair, arising
from evolutionary scientists, one of the most famous scientists of the 20th
century, a Nobel Prize winner, came up with a new theory. In 1981, *Francis
Crick, the co-discoverer of the structure of the DNA molecule, published a book,
declaring that "directed panspermia" was responsible for life on earth.
According to this theory, people from another planet sent a rocket down here,
with living creatures on it, in order to populate our planet! Crick admits
that this does not explain how nearly all our plant and animal species came into
existence. Nor does it explain the transportation problem. Centuries of
travel through the cold of outer space would be required. This theory is a
desperate, gasping effort to provide a solution to the question of how living
creatures originated, a puzzle which thousands of scientists in 150 years of
diligent work have not been able to solve. Very few intellectuals have accepted
panspermia.
Cambridge Evolution
Conference (1984). Desperate for a solution,
at a 1984 seminar held at Cambridge University, *Stephen Gould’s "hopeful
monster" theory was discussed (the wild idea that a lizard laid an egg, one day,
and a bird hatched). *Karl Popper’s theory of science was also discussed.
Popper is the leading expert on the philosophy of science. His position is that
a theory must be testable. Evolution, of course, does not meet the test. (See
chapter 37, Philosophy of History, on our website.)
Second Mechanism
Changeover (1980s). The utterly unscientific
"hopeless monster" theory, which *Richard Goldschmidt’s proposed in the 1930s,
totally astounded the evolutionary world. Yet, as the years passed and a
great mountain of evidence surfaced against both natural selection and mutations
as mechanisms of cross-species change, the experts felt desperate. —There was
nothing left but the theory of sudden, miraculous "million mutation," beneficial
changes once every 50,000 years, which *Gould, *Stanley, and their associates
were increasingly urging. Just as astronomers had, in desperation, accepted
the ridiculous Big Bang explosion theory 20 years before as the cause of a
universe of orderly galactic systems, so the biological evolutionists now went
farther out on their own evolutionary limb.
Geneticists, biologists, and paleontologists recognized that the evolution of
one species out of another was impossible otherwise. Evolutionists, feeling
hopeless, returned to the hopeful monster.
Answers in Genesis
(1980s). Ken Ham started Answers in Genesis, a creationist
organization now located in Florence, Kentucky. It has rapidly become a
powerful voice in unveiling evolutionary errors in meetings on college and
university campuses and elsewhere. For every one creationist organization
now in operation, there ought to be a hundred.
*Halton C. Arp
Eliminated (1983). A leading astronomer and president of the
Astronomical Society of the Pacific in the early 1980s, Arp carried on research
for over 30 years, including extensive research time at Palomar and Mount Wilson
Observatories. He studied over 260 galaxies in more than 80 groups and tabulated
24 main galaxies and 38 discordant redshift companions, plus much more. All
of this refutes the speed theory of redshift which, along with background
radiation, was the crutch that evolutionists leaned on to defend the Big Bang
(*Halton Arp, Quasars, Redshifts and Controversies, 1987, p. 5, plus
many scientific articles). Threatened with disbarment from U.S.
observatories, if he did not stop tearing down one of the two Big Bang pillars,
he refused. A few eminent astronomers, including the renowned
astrophysicist, *Geoffrey Burbidge, made impassioned pleas for everyone to keep
an open mind, but to no avail. In 1983, Caltech’s telescope allocation
committee decided that Arp’s line of research was not worthy of support and
he was to receive no more time for his work at the telescopes of the Mount
Wilson and Palomar observatories. Refusing to switch over to politically
acceptable studies, he left Caltech for a position at the Max Planck Institute
in Munich, where he continued to pursue his ideas. Referring to his abrupt and
ignoble ouster, Burbidge later wrote, ‘No responsible scientist I know,
including many astronomers who were strongly opposed to Arp’s thesis, believes
justice was served’ " (*Time-Life, Cosmic Mysteries
(1990), pp. 67-68).
Orce Man Debunked
(1984). Thrilling news! At last one of our half-ape ancestors
had been found in the Andalusia region of Spain. Certified as the "oldest man
in Europe" by a distinguished team of paleontologists, it made the headlines
as invitations were mailed to scientists throughout the continent to attend a
meeting, where they could deliver learned papers about the matter.
But then scientists in
Paris discovered that it was a skull fragment of a four-month-old donkey.
Spanish officials had to quickly mail 500 letters canceling
the meeting ("Ass Taken for Man," *London Daily
Telegraph, May 14, 1984).
Archaeopteryx
Debunked (1985). Although no cross-species
(half of one species and half of another) had ever been found, something close
to it had been discovered. As mentioned earlier, in 1861 a fossilized feather
was found in the limestone deposits in Solnhofen, Germany (near Eichstatt). It
was considered valuable since it reportedly came from the late Jurassic
strata—and there were not supposed to be any birds back then. Soon another
fossil was offered for sale (always from the owners of the same quarry). It was
a bird with feathers, with the head and neck missing. The British Museum paid a
lot for it. So, in 1877, another bird with feathers
was offered for sale—and this one looked like it might have the head of a small
dinosaur!
In 1985, six leading
scientists, including *Fred Hoyle, examined the fossil—and found it to be a
hoax. For details, see chapter 17, Evolutionary
Showcase.
Arkansas Creation
Trial (1981). In December 1981 at the Federal
District Court in Little Rock, Arkansas, Judge William Overton presided over
a trial to decide whether the State of Arkansas could place concepts about
creation in public school textbooks. The courtroom of 200 was packed with
reporters. The ACLU had over 50 lawyers and paralegals working on the case. In
contrast, the Arkansas Attorney General’s office could only commit three of its
attorneys to the case. One ACLU witness, *Francisco J. Ayala, testified that the
origin of living creatures from dirt and water, though it occurred, was not part
of evolution! That nicely took that evolutionary puzzle out of the court trial.
At any rate, on the basis of a variety of dodges and misstatements by the
plaintiffs, the judge ruled against Arkansas State. It is a known fact that
the ACLU has advised every state legislature, considering enactment of a law
permitting equal time for both views, that the ACLU will give them another
full-blown "monkey trial," as they did at Dayton, Tennessee in 1925. The
evolutionists never defend their position with scientific facts, for they do not
have any. Instead, they use ridicule and lawsuits
(Norman Geisler, The Creator and the Courtroom, 1982; Robert Gentry, Creation’s
Tiny Mystery, 1986).
Radioactive Halos
Disprove Molten Earth Theory (1986). Robert V.
Gentry carried on research into radiohalos in granite for years, but was
discharged from Oak Ridge Research Laboratory in 1982 because he testified in
defense of Arkansas State at the above-mentioned trial. He then put his years of
research findings and professional articles into a book (Creation’s Tiny
Mystery, 1986). In brief, billions upon billions of polonium 218
radiohalos are in granite, yet each halo was formed in less than 3 minutes.
There is no way the halos could get in there after the granite was formed, yet
the granite had to be solid when the halos formed. This means the granite was
created solid in less than three minutes! Since granite is the basement
rock under every continent, it would be impossible for the earth to once have
been a molten mass as conjectured by the evolutionists. Interestingly
enough, granite can be melted; but it will reform into rhyolite, never into
granite. See chapter 3, Origin of the Earth, for a brief summary of data
on this; go to our website for a complete study on the subject.
Poll of Biology
Teachers (1988). A survey, conducted by the
University of Texas, found that 30% of 400 high- school biology teachers
believe in Biblical creation and only 19% believe in evolution
(Waco Tribune-Herald, September 11, 1988).
Chernobyl
(1990) is another evolutionist’s paradise. Since mutations
are today thought to be the leading mechanism for achieving evolutionary change
for the better, the intense radiation which the people received on April 27,
1990, should have brought them great benefit because of all the mutations it
induced. They should be stronger, healthier, have improved organs, and produce
children which are higher forms of life. But this has not happened.
Scientists know that even Marie Curie and her daughter died as a result of
working with radiation. Mutations result in harm and death, never in
evolutionary change (*Isaac Asimov, Asimov’s New Guide to Science, 1984, pp.
691-692).
"I have often thought how little I should
like to have to prove organic evolution in a court of law."—*Errol White,
Proceedings of the Linnean Society, London (1966) [an ichthyologist (expert
on fish) in a 1988 address before a meeting of the Linnean Society in
London].
"I doubt if there is any single individual within the
scientific community who could cope with the full range of [creationist]
arguments without the help of an army of consultants in special fields."—*David
M. Raup, "Geology and Creation," Bulletin of the Field Museum of Natural
History, Vol. 54, March 1983, p. 18.
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