Is Evolution Weak during Evolution Week?

The 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin is Feb. 12th, 2009, so the week of Feb. 8-14 may be dubbed “Darwin Week” (I’m sure St. Valentine is rolling in his grave).

Recently the Texas State Board of Education has tentatively voted (the final decision is expected in March) to reject the requirement for public school teachers to present the weaknesses of evolution.

Many media outlets have made a great error by making a primary connection between doubting Darwin and Intelligent Design (or Creationism). Many evolutionists and atheists are also willing to admit that Darwinism has numerous weaknesses (missing links anyone?).

Pierre Grasse (d. 1985), considered the “most distinguished of French zoologists” by Theodosius Dobzhansky (a leading evolutionist), wrote the following in 1977 [1]:

Today, our duty is to destroy the myth of evolution, considered as a simple, understood, and explained phenomenon which keeps rapidly unfolding before us. Biologists must be encouraged to think about the weaknesses of the interpretations and extrapolations that theoreticians put forward or lay down as established truths. The deceit is sometimes unconscious, but not always, since some people, owing to their sectarianism, purposely overlook reality and refuse to acknowledge the inadequacies and the falsity of their beliefs (emphasis added).

Grasse was Chair of Evolution at Sorbonne University for thirty years and was ex-president of the French Academy of Sciences. Grasse’s book Evolution of Living Organisms is available from Amazon and was published by Academic Press (not an ID or creationist company).

One of the clearest weaknesses of evolution is the origin of life itself. The unexpected accident of life arising by chance has been compared to the creation of a jumbo jet due to a tornado plowing through a junk yard. Hubert Yockey, writing in the Journal of Theoretical Biology, said, “…contrary to the established and current wisdom, a scenario describing the genesis of life on earth by chance and natural causes which can be accepted on the basis of fact and not faith has not yet been written.” [2]

Well-known geologist Derek Ager (former president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science) concluded that “…nearly all the evolutionary stories I learned as a student … have now been debunked.” [3]

David Kitts was my History of Science professor at the University of Oklahoma and admitted that the gaps in the fossil record are real. Kitts had been a professor of Geology and had debated Duane Gish and Henry Morris (creationists). Kitts admitted that Aristotle’s biological essentialism (fixity of basic types of life) was a legitimate scientific stance. Hear my interview with Dr. Kitts at the top of this blog.

Consider the gap between dinos and birds. John Wilford, in an article in the New York Times, made the following striking confession: “Ornithologists… have long disputed the dinosaur-bird link, contending that dinosaurs and birds probably shared an ancestor among pre-dinosaur reptiles.” [4]

Physicist H.S. Lipson (fellow of the Royal Society), writing in Physics Bulletin, admits that, “I have always been slightly suspicious of the theory of evolution because of its [lack of] ability to account for any property of living beings (the long neck of the giraffe, for example). I have therefore tried to see whether biological discoveries over the last thirty years or so fit in with Darwin’s Theory. I do not think that they do … To my mind, the theory does not stand up at all.” [5]

Even atheists deny evolution and hold to stability of essential types of life. G. H. Harper is an example of this view and he was published in the UK’s School Science Review.

God tells us to speak to the earth, “But ask the animals what they think—let them teach you; let the birds tell you what’s going on. Put your ear to the earth—learn the basics. Listen—the fish in the ocean will tell you their stories. Isn’t it clear that they all know and agree that GOD is sovereign, that he holds all things in his hand — Every living soul, yes, every breathing creature?” (Job 12:7-10, The Message). This is a mandate for scientific investigation.

Notes:
1) Pierre Grasse, Evolution of Living Organisms (Academic Press, 1977), p. 8.
2) Hubert Yockey, “A Calculation of the Probability of Spontaneous Biogenesis by Information Theory,” Journal of Theoretical Biology, vol. 67 (1977): p. 396.
3) Derek Ager, “The Nature of the Fossil Record,” Proceedings of the British Geological Association, vol. 87, no.2 (1976): p. 133.
4) Nicholas Wade (ed.), The Science Times Book of Fossils and Evolution (The Lyons Press, 1998), pp. 66, 67.
5) H.S. Lipson, “A Physicist Looks at Evolution,” Physics Bulletin, vol.31 (1980): p. 138.

Notes 2, 3 and 5 were taken from Creative Defense by Nicholas Comninellis M.D. (Master Books, 2001), pp. 68, 217, 220.