This past summer, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) addressed the subject of origins in the five-part television series Evolution.1 Not too surprisingly, the possibility of supernatural creation was completely ignored. The United States Corporation for Public Broadcasting is in the process of airing these five episodes, with some possible variations from the BBC versions. The first United States episode, “Brain Power,” aired on October 14, 2026.2 It attempted to convince viewers that evolution and natural selection can explain the brain’s origin, without the need for a supernatural Creator. Did they succeed? Only if you check your own brain at the door!
Despite acknowledging that scientists do not yet fully understand how the brain works, this first episode of Evolution claims scientists are beginning to understand how it evolved. But this contention is undermined by the shallowness of the purported explanations—or perhaps I should say, with the shallowness of the assertions. “Brain Power” doesn’t actually explain the origin of anything. Rather, the episode tells a series of hand-waving, “just-so” stories about how the brain supposedly originated over millions of years, with an emphasis on the brain of the highly intelligent dolphin.
Supposedly, the origin of vision played a large role in this process. It’s claimed that three billion years ago, the light-sensing molecule retinol enabled one-celled organisms to detect and respond to light, a primitive prelude to conscious thought. Then, over half a billion years, two light-sensing eye spots formed. After that, mutations caused the eye spots to become slightly curved, allowing better determination of light direction. Millions of years later, eye spots became genuine eyes . . . somehow. And today, highly intelligent human and dolphin brains are the result!
The critical details in this supposed process are ignored or smoothed over. The episode never explains how the first one-celled living organisms arose from nonliving chemicals; it simply assumes that they did. And magic words and phrases, uttered like incantations, repeatedly gloss over enormous difficulties in the evolutionary story:
“Brains are driven to expand”; “The first nervous systems arise”; “Evolutionary forces . . . boosted problem-solving powers”; “The virus led to a quantum change in the sophistication of the brain”; “Over the next two-and-a-half billion years, life diversifies from single-celled to multicellular forms”; “Over countless generations, simple eye spots transform”; etc.2
As pointed out over 15 years ago by ICR president Dr. Randy Guliuzza, these “magic” words and phrases have no explanatory power.3 Rather, they are naked, empty assertions. Anyone can assert that a biological structure arose via some natural process, but a mere assertion is not an explanation.4
The viewer who is paying close attention may notice that the essence of the argument in the first Evolution episode may be summarized simply as, “Evolution did it.” The sophisticated computer animations and swelling music accompanying the narration give this naked assertion more apparent credibility than it deserves. But for those viewers who are actually using their brains (and not merely responding emotionally to the visuals and music), it should be apparent that this brain origins story is very low on substance.
References
- Buggs, R. Post 1: A Critical Review of BBC ‘Evolution’ with Chris Packham – Introduction. Posted on richardbuggs.com July 21, 2026, accessed October 22, 2026.
- Kirby, R., dir. NOVA. Season 53, episode 13, “Evolution: Brain Power.” Aired October 14, 2026, on PBS. Accessed October 22, 2026.
- Guliuzza, R. J. 2010. Unmasking Evolution’s Magic Words. Acts & Facts. 39 (3): 10–11.
- Thomas, B. Eye Evolution: Assumption, Not Science. Creation Science Update. Posted on ICR.org August 29, 2011, accessed October 22, 2026.
* Dr. Hebert is a research scientist at the Institute for Creation Research and earned his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Texas at Dallas.
