If Only Darwin Knew Then What We Know Today

By: Greg Hoffman

     I have talked to a number of people, including professing Christians, read a number of books and watched a number of documentaries that have unequivocally proclaimed that Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection was beyond any reasonable doubt, a known and accepted fact.  Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection is certainly taught as a fact to our students in the public school and at all secular and many faith based Universities.  The problem is that Darwin would have never proposed his theory if he knew then what we know today about the fossil record and cellular biology to name a few disciplines.

     Darwin lived at a time, nearly 150 years ago, when scientist knew very little about the fossil record and even less about cellular biology.  Darwin himself believed the fossil record to be one of the greatest challenges facing his infant theory.  The fossil record simply shows complex life (multi-cellular plants, insects, vertebrate and non-vertebrate animals) appearing rather suddenly in a layer of rock known as the Cambrian layer.  This is known as the Cambrian explosion, since nearly every presently existing plant and animal can be found in this layer much the same as it is today.  There is no evidence in the fossil record of animals slowly evolving into their present form.  

    The fossil record has been described as an encyclopedia containing tens of thousands of pages of information.  The problem is that scientists keep finding the same ten or so pages.  The truth of the matter is that they keep finding the same ten or so pages because that is all there is.  The Fossil record does not even hint at “the fact” that man arose from a secession of changes starting from a single cell organism, then a simple multi-cell animal that eventually took on the traits of a mammal, was further refined as a primate and eventually man.  

     But as daunting as these problems would have been for Darwin, modern cellular biology would certainly have nailed the coffin tightly closed on Natural Selection, if Darwin would have known what we know today.   The reason for this is simple.  When Darwin lived they believed that cells were very simple structures.   They noticed that you could put certain liquids like milk out in the sun for a couple of days and that liquid would change colors.  When they looked at the liquid under a microscope they found thousands upon thousands of single cell organisms in the liquid and assumed that those cells arose as a natural consequence from the liquid.  In other words, life spontaneously arose from the liquid because a cell was just a sac filled with cytoplasm at least that is what they believed based on their observations. 

     Today, with the advent of the electron microscope, we now know that cells are extremely complex machines composed of extremely complex molecular machines that build, transport, duplicate, recycle, and dispose of unneeded proteins, worn out or damaged cell structures such as cilium and lysosome  and other complex compounds that are necessary for the life of the cell.  Cells don’t just automatically form when a liquid is left out.   Cells can only come from other cells.

     The cell literally builds complex protein molecules at the molecular level and then assembles them into such structures as the cilium, which consists of over 200 different proteins.  Cilium is used by many single cell organisms and sperm for movement.  In multi-cellular organisms thousands of cilium beating together is often used to move small objects.  An example can be found in the lining of our respiratory tract.  Hundreds of thousands of cilium beat together to help move foreign objects such as dust caught in the mucus lining out through the throat. 

     Darwin held that life evolved through a series of mutations.  To Darwin the cell was basic, simple and because of the flawed observations at the time, common.  Scientist believed that life arose spontaneously when the right materials were present.  They also believed that insects were very simple creatures that arose spontaneously from rotting meat.  This was a basic assumption of Darwin in which his whole system rested upon and is clearly false.

     Michael Behe calls this “Darwin’s Black Box.”  The cell was a box that was completely mysterious to Darwin but one that contained a surprise, had Darwin known about it, that would have shattered his theory of natural selection, at least at the “macro” level before it would have even made it to the press.

     So why is Darwinism still dominant today?  Michael Denton, who wrote “Evolution, A Theory in Crisis” suggests it is simply because scientists don’t have a better theory.  To naturalistic secular scientists, God can’t be the answer to life’s origins and their simply are no other viable alternatives.  Denton makes an astonishing comparison between the Ptolemaic model of our solar system and modern day evolution.  The Ptolemaic model basically stated that the earth was the center of the Universe and that everything revolved around the earth.  This model worked and seemed to fit the observable facts for a while; however, as scientists continued to observe the movements of the planets, the model began to breakdown.  Instead of discarding this model they added additional features to try to make it work, which made it exceedingly complicated.  According to Denton, the scientists suspected, even knew that the model was incorrect; however, they were unwilling to discard it because they didn’t have another viable option until it was proposed that the sun was actually the center of our solar system.  This sparked the Copernican revolution.      Darwinism is equivalent to the Ptolemaic model that many suspect to be false; however, I wouldn’t expect a new Copernican revolution simply because it would require the scientific community to concede that life is the result of an intelligence/God.

     I have talked to a number of people, including professing Christians, read a number of books and watched a number of documentaries that have unequivocally proclaimed that Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection was beyond any reasonable doubt, a known and accepted fact.  Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection is certainly taught as a fact to our students in the public school and at all secular and many faith based Universities.  The problem is that Darwin would have never proposed his theory if he knew then what we know today about the fossil record and cellular biology to name a few disciplines.

     Darwin lived at a time, nearly 150 years ago, when scientist knew very little about the fossil record and even less about cellular biology.  Darwin himself believed the fossil record to be one of the greatest challenges facing his infant theory.  The fossil record simply shows complex life (multi-cellular plants, insects, vertebrate and non-vertebrate animals) appearing rather suddenly in a layer of rock known as the Cambrian layer.  This is known as the Cambrian explosion, since nearly every presently existing plant and animal can be found in this layer much the same as it is today.  There is no evidence in the fossil record of animals slowly evolving into their present form.  

    The fossil record has been described as an encyclopedia containing tens of thousands of pages of information.  The problem is that scientists keep finding the same ten or so pages.  The truth of the matter is that they keep finding the same ten or so pages because that is all there is.  The Fossil record does not even hint at “the fact” that man arose from a secession of changes starting from a single cell organism, then a simple multi-cell animal that eventually took on the traits of a mammal, was further refined as a primate and eventually man.  

     But as daunting as these problems would have been for Darwin, modern cellular biology would certainly have nailed the coffin tightly closed on Natural Selection, if Darwin would have known what we know today.   The reason for this is simple.  When Darwin lived they believed that cells were very simple structures.   They noticed that you could put certain liquids like milk out in the sun for a couple of days and that liquid would change colors.  When they looked at the liquid under a microscope they found thousands upon thousands of single cell organisms in the liquid and assumed that those cells arose as a natural consequence from the liquid.  In other words, life spontaneously arose from the liquid because a cell was just a sac filled with cytoplasm at least that is what they believed based on their observations. 

     Today, with the advent of the electron microscope, we now know that cells are extremely complex machines composed of extremely complex molecular machines that build, transport, duplicate, recycle, and dispose of unneeded proteins, worn out or damaged cell structures such as cilium and lysosome  and other complex compounds that are necessary for the life of the cell.  Cells don’t just automatically form when a liquid is left out.   Cells can only come from other cells.

     The cell literally builds complex protein molecules at the molecular level and then assembles them into such structures as the cilium, which consists of over 200 different proteins.  Cilium is used by many single cell organisms and sperm for movement.  In multi-cellular organisms thousands of cilium beating together is often used to move small objects.  An example can be found in the lining of our respiratory tract.  Hundreds of thousands of cilium beat together to help move foreign objects such as dust caught in the mucus lining out through the throat. 

     Darwin held that life evolved through a series of mutations.  To Darwin the cell was basic, simple and because of the flawed observations at the time, common.  Scientist believed that life arose spontaneously when the right materials were present.  They also believed that insects were very simple creatures that arose spontaneously from rotting meat.  This was a basic assumption of Darwin in which his whole system rested upon and is clearly false.

     Michael Behe calls this “Darwin’s Black Box.”  The cell was a box that was completely mysterious to Darwin but one that contained a surprise, had Darwin known about it, that would have shattered his theory of natural selection, at least at the “macro” level before it would have even made it to the press.

     So why is Darwinism still dominant today?  Michael Denton, who wrote “Evolution, A Theory in Crisis” suggests it is simply because scientists don’t have a better theory.  To naturalistic secular scientists, God can’t be the answer to life’s origins and their simply are no other viable alternatives.  Denton makes an astonishing comparison between the Ptolemaic model of our solar system and modern day evolution.  The Ptolemaic model basically stated that the earth was the center of the Universe and that everything revolved around the earth.  This model worked and seemed to fit the observable facts for a while; however, as scientists continued to observe the movements of the planets, the model began to breakdown.  Instead of discarding this model they added additional features to try to make it work, which made it exceedingly complicated.  According to Denton, the scientists suspected, even knew that the model was incorrect; however, they were unwilling to discard it because they didn’t have another viable option until it was proposed that the sun was actually the center of our solar system.  This sparked the Copernican revolution.      Darwinism is equivalent to the Ptolemaic model that many suspect to be false; however, I wouldn’t expect a new Copernican revolution simply because it would require the scientific community to concede that life is the result of an intelligence/God.

     I have talked to a number of people, including professing Christians, read a number of books and watched a number of documentaries that have unequivocally proclaimed that Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection was beyond any reasonable doubt, a known and accepted fact.  Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection is certainly taught as a fact to our students in the public school and at all secular and many faith based Universities.  The problem is that Darwin would have never proposed his theory if he knew then what we know today about the fossil record and cellular biology to name a few disciplines.

     Darwin lived at a time, nearly 150 years ago, when scientist knew very little about the fossil record and even less about cellular biology.  Darwin himself believed the fossil record to be one of the greatest challenges facing his infant theory.  The fossil record simply shows complex life (multi-cellular plants, insects, vertebrate and non-vertebrate animals) appearing rather suddenly in a layer of rock known as the Cambrian layer.  This is known as the Cambrian explosion, since nearly every presently existing plant and animal can be found in this layer much the same as it is today.  There is no evidence in the fossil record of animals slowly evolving into their present form.  

    The fossil record has been described as an encyclopedia containing tens of thousands of pages of information.  The problem is that scientists keep finding the same ten or so pages.  The truth of the matter is that they keep finding the same ten or so pages because that is all there is.  The Fossil record does not even hint at “the fact” that man arose from a secession of changes starting from a single cell organism, then a simple multi-cell animal that eventually took on the traits of a mammal, was further refined as a primate and eventually man.  

     But as daunting as these problems would have been for Darwin, modern cellular biology would certainly have nailed the coffin tightly closed on Natural Selection, if Darwin would have known what we know today.   The reason for this is simple.  When Darwin lived they believed that cells were very simple structures.   They noticed that you could put certain liquids like milk out in the sun for a couple of days and that liquid would change colors.  When they looked at the liquid under a microscope they found thousands upon thousands of single cell organisms in the liquid and assumed that those cells arose as a natural consequence from the liquid.  In other words, life spontaneously arose from the liquid because a cell was just a sac filled with cytoplasm at least that is what they believed based on their observations. 

     Today, with the advent of the electron microscope, we now know that cells are extremely complex machines composed of extremely complex molecular machines that build, transport, duplicate, recycle, and dispose of unneeded proteins, worn out or damaged cell structures such as cilium and lysosome  and other complex compounds that are necessary for the life of the cell.  Cells don’t just automatically form when a liquid is left out.   Cells can only come from other cells.

     The cell literally builds complex protein molecules at the molecular level and then assembles them into such structures as the cilium, which consists of over 200 different proteins.  Cilium is used by many single cell organisms and sperm for movement.  In multi-cellular organisms thousands of cilium beating together is often used to move small objects.  An example can be found in the lining of our respiratory tract.  Hundreds of thousands of cilium beat together to help move foreign objects such as dust caught in the mucus lining out through the throat. 

     Darwin held that life evolved through a series of mutations.  To Darwin the cell was basic, simple and because of the flawed observations at the time, common.  Scientist believed that life arose spontaneously when the right materials were present.  They also believed that insects were very simple creatures that arose spontaneously from rotting meat.  This was a basic assumption of Darwin in which his whole system rested upon and is clearly false.

     Michael Behe calls this “Darwin’s Black Box.”  The cell was a box that was completely mysterious to Darwin but one that contained a surprise, had Darwin known about it, that would have shattered his theory of natural selection, at least at the “macro” level before it would have even made it to the press.

     So why is Darwinism still dominant today?  Michael Denton, who wrote “Evolution, A Theory in Crisis” suggests it is simply because scientists don’t have a better theory.  To naturalistic secular scientists, God can’t be the answer to life’s origins and their simply are no other viable alternatives.  Denton makes an astonishing comparison between the Ptolemaic model of our solar system and modern day evolution.  The Ptolemaic model basically stated that the earth was the center of the Universe and that everything revolved around the earth.  This model worked and seemed to fit the observable facts for a while; however, as scientists continued to observe the movements of the planets, the model began to breakdown.  Instead of discarding this model they added additional features to try to make it work, which made it exceedingly complicated.  According to Denton, the scientists suspected, even knew that the model was incorrect; however, they were unwilling to discard it because they didn’t have another viable option until it was proposed that the sun was actually the center of our solar system.  This sparked the Copernican revolution.      Darwinism is equivalent to the Ptolemaic model that many suspect to be false; however, I wouldn’t expect a new Copernican revolution simply because it would require the scientific community to concede that life is the result of an intelligence/God.