I AM FEARFULLY AND WONDERFULLY
MADE
Lesson 5
IF NOT EVOLUTION BY NATURAL SELECTION, THEN WHAT?
It is a fairly recent event that evidence opposed
to evolution has been acknowledged by (some) of the scientific community.
So much evidence against Darwinian evolution by natural selection has been
uncovered that scientists have written books discussing these very challenges
and how to possibly overcome them.
To paraphrase Steven Jay Gould, "Darwin was
wrong. Darwin said that evolution occurred over a long period of time
through very small steps and stages. We know that evolution is a fact,
but if it was occurring slowly we should be able to find many transitional
forms, and we don't. Therefore, evolution must have occurred quickly".
To again paraphrase Mr. Gould, "Populations
are in equilibrium (meaning that they don't change for long periods of
time), and then some kind of environmental stress occurs which ‘punctuates'
the population and causes the population to evolve very quickly".
When reviewing Mr. Gould's theory of Punctuated
Equilibrium, one must examine the evidence that lead him to postulate
it. The primary evidence for Punctuated Equilibrium is surprisingly, no
transitional forms. In other words, the lack of fossil evidence is "proof"
that evolution must have occurred quickly. Unfortunately for Mr. Gould's
theory, geneticists who have studied it have concluded that, again, harmful
mutations would accumulate so rapidly that the mutated population would
be wiped out quickly, before any benefit happened.
Although vastly oversimplified, this theory also
requires the scientist to believe in one of the original explanations
for the variation found in nature, that of "Hopeful Monsters".
(For more information on this phenomena, please look for the article The
Return of Hopeful Monsters, Natural History, Vol. 86, by Steven Jay Gould.)
A Hopeful Monster is a phenomenon where, in one generation, a viable mutant
rises from the existing species and is able to survive and breed more
of the same "monsters". As an example, a reptile lays an egg
and out pops a chicken. One problem with this theory is the requirement
for two or more of the same monsters to be produced for viability of the
new species.
One more option concerning our origins still remains,
that of extra-terrestrials. There are many who believe that in the past,
aliens swooped down on our planet and injected new DNA codes into existing
species to bring about evolution. This is a theory that requires no evidence,
only faith.
One may ask, if you can believe in ET, why can't
you believe in God?
The choice is everyone's to make: you can worship
the god called chance, who by luck brought you and all other creatures
about; the god called ET, who is of unknown motives; or the God who lovingly
and knowingly created you with specific purpose.
NEXT...
Part 5 THE ORIGIN OF LIFE
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