"If a house be divided against itself,
that house cannot stand" (Mark 3:25). Evolutionists
ardently defend their house against outsiders, but squabble
vigorously with each other inside the house. In this article
we present a collage of recent quotes from evolutionists attacking
different aspects of their own basic theory. Lest we be accused
of out-of-context quoting, we emphasize that each person quoted
is a committed evolutionist, even though his remarks may make
him sound like a creationist.
COSMIC EVOLUTION
The standard evolutionary concept for the origin
of the universe is the Big Bang theory, but many eminent astronomers
flatly reject it.
Both the 'Big Bang' model and the theoretical
side of elementary particle physics rely on numerous highly
speculative assumptions.1 But if there was no
Big Bang, how and when did the universe begin? ... (Hannes)
Alfven replies: "It is only a myth that attempts to
say how the universe came into being.... 2
One argument for the Big Bang is the "red
shift," but Halton Arp and other leading astronomers
say "no."
(Arp) maintains that quasars, for example,
whose large red shifts suggest they are the most distant
objects in the universe, are actually no more distant than
galaxies….3
EVOLUTION OF LIFE FROM NON-LIFE
It is commonly asserted that life evolved from
non-living chemicals by purely naturalistic processes. However,
a leading scientist in this field says:
At present all discussions on principle theories
and experiments in the field either end in stalemate or
in a confession of ignorance.... The problem is that the
principal evolutionary processes from prebiotic molecules
to progenotes have not been proven by experimentation and
that the environmental conditions under which these processes
occurred are not known.4
EVOLUTION OF SPECIES
The standard Darwinian and neo-Darwinian theories
of evolution argue that new species are developed by natural
selection of random variations to fit changing environments.
Many evolutionists today, however, are rejecting Darwinism,
even though they still cling to evolution. One such scientist
is Kenneth Hsu.
The law of natural selection is not, I will
maintain, science. It is an ideology, and a wicked one,
and it has as much interfered with our ability to perceive
the history of life with clarity as it has interfered with
our ability to see one another with tolerance.... The law
of the survival of the fittest may be, therefore, a tautology
in which fitness is defined by the fact of survival, not
by independent criteria that would form the basis for prediction.5
EVOLUTION OF HUMAN LIFE
Much ado has been made about the Laetoli fossil
footprints in Tanzania, dated at 3.5 million years ago, supposedly
proving that the australopithecine ancestors of man walked
erect.
But the first detailed study of the gaits
and footprints of modern people who walk barefooted indicated
the Laetoli prints are much like those of Homo sapiens
and were probably not produced by Lucy's relatives,
reports Russell H. Tuttle of the University of Chicago.6
It should be obvious that these footprints were made by
true human beings; the only reason for rejecting this fact
is the assumed 3.5-million year age, a time long before
man is supposed to have evolved.
THE FOSSIL EVIDENCE
The fossil record has traditionally been considered
the best evidence for evolution, but the utter absence of
true transitional forms continues to be an embarrassment.
If we were to expect to find ancestors to or intermediates
between higher taxa, it would be in the rocks of late Precambrian
to Ordovician times, when the bulk of the world's higher
animal taxa evolved. Yet transitional alliances are unknown
or unconfirmed for any of the phyla or classes appearing
then.7
"We conclude that ... neither of the contending
theories of evolutionary change at the species level, phyletic
gradualism or punctuated equilibrium, seem applicable to
the origin of new body plans.8
EXTINCTION VERSUS SPECIATION
Evolutionists seem unable to realize the anomaly
in the slow rate of speciation versus the high rate of species
extinction.
Today's rate (of extinction) can be estimated
through various analytical techniques to be a minimum of
1000, and possibly several thousand species per year ....
It normally takes tens of thousands of years for a new terrestrial
vertebrate or a new plant species to emerge fully, and even
species with rapid turnover rates, notably insects, usually
require centuries, if not millennia, to generate a new species.9
So far as ever observed, no new species are now being
formed. It seems that evolution, if there is such a thing,
is going in the wrong direction!
UNIFORMITARIANISM
Although the history of the earth and life has
long been interpreted by the uniformitarian maxim, "the
present is the key to the past," more and more geologists
are returning to catastrophism.
Our science is too encumbered with uniformitarian
concepts that project the modern Earth/Life system as the
primary model for interpretation of evolution and extinction
patterns in ancient ecosystems. Detailed paleoenvironmental
data tell us that the past is the key to the present, not
vice versa.10
One of the key evidences for great age is the
uniformitarian interpretation of "evaporites," but
this very term is misleading.
In referring to "evaporite" … the term
begs the question as it implies desiccation. For clarity,
geology needs a new term; namely "precipitate,"
rock created by precipitation. Hence rocks of the evaporitic
facies could be … precipitites, deposited by precipitation
from a supersaturated solution.11
Precipitation is, of course, a much more rapid
process than evaporation.
SOCIAL HARMFULNESS OF EVOLUTION
Evolutionists strongly complain when creationists
point out the historically evil influence of evolutionism.
Many evolutionists, however, do recognize this fact.
... we were victims of a cruel social ideology
that assumes that competition among individuals, classes,
nations or races is the natural condition of life, and that
it is also natural for the superior to dispossess the inferior.
For the last century and more this ideology has been thought
to be a natural law of science, the mechanism of evolution
which was formulated most powerfully by Charles Darwin in
1859.... 12
(Robert Proctor) shows how the major German
societies of physical anthropologists collaborated with the
SS program of race hygiene, helping to make racial policy
.... Eugene Fischer, the most distinguished of German physical
anthropologists, regarded by many as the founder of human
genetics, was particularly helpful in these efforts .... But
surely American physical anthropologists spoke out clearly
against the Nazi perversion of their science? They did not.13
SCIENTIFIC BIGOTRY
Creationists are not the only ones who find
it difficult to get a hearing from the scientific establishment.
Even evolutionists who do not conform to the majority viewpoint
in evolutionary dogma at a given time encounter this same
bigotry, through the so-called "peer review" process.
One of the most distinguished modern astronomers is Nobel
prizewinner Hannes Alfven, who espouses an alternative cosmology
to the Big Bang. Here is his testimony (even Nobel laureates
must defer to the scientific establishment!).
... it has given me a serious disadvantage. When
I describe the phenomena according to this formalism, most
referees do not understand what I say and turn down my papers.
14
But the argument "all knowledgeable people
agree that…." (with the tacit addition that by not
agreeing you demonstrate that you are a crank) is not a
valid argument in science. If scientific issues always were
decided by Gallup polls and not by scientific arguments,
science will very soon be petrified forever.15
For reasons of space, these quotes have been
somewhat abbreviated, but they do represent quite fairly (if
incompletely) the opinions of the respective authors. It is
obvious that evolutionists argue vigorously among themselves,
even though they present a solid front when arguing against
creationists. Just possibly, the combination of outside attack
by creationists with the in-fighting among evolutionists will
eventually cause the collapse of the straw house of evolution
itself. After all, no one has ever seen real evolution in
action, and no one knows how it works, so its foundation is
very weak. One day it will be said: " … the winds blew,
and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall
of it" (Matthew 7:27).
REFERENCES
1. R.L Oldershaw, "The continuing
Case for a Hierarchial Cosmology," Astrophysics
and Space (v. 92, 1983), p. 354.
2. E.J. Lerner, "The Big Bang Never Happened,"
Discover (v. 9, June 1988), p. 78. Swedish astronomer
Alfven, who has a Nobel Prize in Physics, maintains the
universe has always been essentially the same.
3. John Horgan, "Big-Bang Bashers,"
Scientific American (v. 257, September 1987), p.
22.
4. Dose, Prof. Dr. Klaus, "The Origin of
Life; More Questions than Answers," Interdisciplinary
Science Reviews (v. 13, no. 4, 1988), p. 348. Dose is
Director, Institute for Biochemistry, Gutenberg University,
West Germany.
5. Kenneth J. Hsu, "Is Darwinism Science?"
Earthwatch (March 1989), p. 17. Hsu is Earth Science
Head at the Swiss Institute of Earth Sciences.
6. Bruce Bower, "A Walk Back through Evolution,"
Science News (v. 135, April 22, 1989), p.
251.
7. J.W. Valentine and D.H. Erwin, "The
Fossil Record," in Development as an Evolutionary
Process (Uas, 1987), p. 84.
8. Ibid, p. 96. Valentine is a geologist
at U.C. Santa Barbara, Erwin at Michigan State.
9. Norman Myers, "Extinction Rates Past
and Present," Bioscience (v. 39, January 1989),
p. 39.
10. Eric Kauffman, "The Uniformitarian Albatross,"
Palaios (v. 2, no. 6, 1987), p. 531.
11. Robert S. Dietz and Mitchell Woodhouse, "Mediterranean
Theory May Be All Wet," Geotimes (v. 33, May
1988), p. 4.
12. Kenneth J. Hsu, op cit, p. 15.
13. Matt Cartmill, "Misdeeds in Anthropology,"
Review of Bones, Bodies, Behavior: Essays on Physical
Anthropology (Wisconsin University Press, 1988). Science
(v. 244, May 19, 1989), P. 858.
14. Hannes Alfven, "Memoirs of a Dissident Scientist,"
American Scientist (v. 76, May-June 1988),
P. 250.
15. Ibid, p. 251.
* Dr. Morris is Founder and President
Emeritus of the Institute for Creation Research.
