Happy Birthday Darwin!

What a great day this was!   Two hundred years ago, February 12^th 1809 Charles Darwin was born and the celebration in the news was deafening.  One article on MSN.com proclaimed the “Seven Signs of Evolution in Action.”   It certainly demonstrated that natural selection does play a factor in nature but that is a far cry from proving that Darwin’s theory of macro-evolution is in any way tenable.  Let us review one of their examples.   They claim that the medium ground finch that helped form Darwin’s theory has downsized its beak so it can feed on smaller seeds which are more readily available.  The obvious question is, was there a mutation that caused this downsizing of its beak or do the genetics of finches allow for some variety in beak size?  The simple answer is that the food supply has changed on the island and those born with smaller beaks have an advantage and tend to reproduce more, which translates into their offspring being more likely to have smaller beaks; however, if the food supply changes again, so will their beaks.  There was no mutation, no evolution.  The rest of their examples could be easily answered in the same way.  There was no example of any new mutations that benefited the finch, which is the heart of Darwin’s theory.

A second article also posted on MSN.com was “Fossil’s Reveal Truth about Darwin’s Theory.”  This article claims that scientist have effectively dismissed the “myth” that transitional species are missing from the fossil record.  What is interesting is that they continue to use a number of examples, such as the Archaeopteryx that have been largely debunked.  The truth of the matter is that Archaeopteryx, they claim it proves that dinosaurs evolved into modern birds, is a far cry from a modern bird and there are no transitional species between it and modern birds.  In fact there should be literally thousands (if not millions) of intermediate species that led up to it and thousands that led to modern birds.  They are conspicuously and conveniently missing.    There have been a number of authors that have demonstrated the insurmountable problems with Archaeopteryx such as Hugh Ross, William Dembski and Michael Denton.   I believe it is true that those who grasp for straws tend to hold on tightly to every blade no matter how small and shredded it might be.

A third article posted on Foxnews.com  “Scientist ask: What would Darwin do?” celebrates the “settled” issue of evolution within the scientific community.  The religious leaders of “Darwinism” have declared the debate over.   I once stopped a chess game that I was losing badly and declared myself the victor.  Of course a simple declaration hardly settles the point when the facts don’t match.   There are too many problems with evolution to “declare” it the victor.  The same fossil record that they claim as a proof for their claims becomes a major liability if you really honestly look at it.  Michael Behe riddles holes in the theory at the genetic level in his two books, “The Edge of Evolution” and “Darwin’s Black Box.”  As a matter of fact Darwinism doesn’t even pass as a theory, and certainly not as a fact.  I will need to expand on this idea in another article.  

The good news according to a recent Gallup poll reveals that only 39 percent of Americans believe in the theory of Evolution despite the full court press in the public schools, colleges, media, museums, scientific journals and a host of other venues.   Of course they would respond that most Americans are uneducated and unsophisticated.  I believe that many instinctively know that something doesn’t come from nothing and that order, beauty, complexity and life doesn’t “just happen by accident.” 

Of course this little article hardly settles the debate.    From my perspective I would say that they have stopped the chess game and declared themselves the winner despite the fact that they only have their king and a couple of pawns left against a queen, two bishops, a knight, two rooks and a half dozen pawns, not to mention the God of the Universe and He will ultimately declare the winner.