Darwin wrote that: 'to suppose that the eye could have been formed by natural selection (Evolution) seems absurd in the highest possible degree.'
Oxford biologist Richard Dawkins, who believes that Darwin's theory of Evolution has the answer to all nature's complexities, is not daunted by this admission of his mentor. In his book, 'Climbing Mount Improbable', he agrees with Darwin that there are difficulties in believing in the evolution of the eye: 'An eye is made up of a large number of parts arranged in a very special way. The number of possible ways in which those parts could have been arranged comes to a stupefyingly large number. Moreover, of all the trillions of possible arrangements of the parts of an eye, only a tiny minority would see.'
To answer this possible objection to the theory of Evolution, Dawkins argues that, 'It is not difficult for rudimentary lens-like objects to come into existence spontaneously. Any old lump of half-way transparent jelly need only assume a curved shape (there are all sorts of reasons why it might) and it will immediately confer at least a slight improvement on a simple cup or pinhole. Lenses might have evolved in the first place from a vitreous mass that filled the whole eye'. According to calculations made by Swedish biologists he says that 'it would only take about 364,000 generations to evolve a good fish eye with a lens'.
Even if you accept this unlikely scenario, it does not tell us how long it would take to evolve a good human eye or how these blind or half blind creatures managed to stumble around for millions of years while they evolved their eyes. Nor does it tell us how something as wonderful and complex as the eye could have come together by chance, when all the evidence of the natural world is that left to themselves things become more random and disorganised, not more complex and developed (the Second Law of Thermodynamics).
Just as wonderful and complex as the eye is the reproductive system of different species. This raises an even more serious question for evolutionists. Species which reproduce sexually require a separate development of the male and the female form, which have to come together to produce the next generation. The problem for Evolution is that there is no possibility of 364,000 generations to make this development. In fact there is not even the possibility of two generations. If the reproductive system is not functioning perfectly there is only one generation of the evolving species.
Consider the complexity and diversity of the reproductive systems of birds, bees, butterflies, frogs, fish, kangaroos, whales and humans, just to give a few examples. Regarding human reproduction consider the process of puberty, male attraction to the female, the sexual union itself, the fertilisation of the female egg by the male sperm, the development of the unborn child in the womb, the birth process and the feeding of the new born child with the mother's milk. All these factors are incredibly complex and absolutely vital to the survival of the species. If any aspect of this amazing process is not functioning perfectly, there is no reproduction possible and therefore no new generations and no Evolution.
It makes far more sense to believe Genesis 1 that God instantly created fully developed and sexually mature creatures of 'distinct kinds', each able to reproduce 'after their own kind'. All such 'kinds' of creatures, such as 'dog-kind' and 'cat-kind', do have the genetic potential to produce limited variation within their own 'kind'. This ties up with what we can observe in nature. Usually a dog mates with another dog, although very occasionally a dog may interbreed with say a wolf. A dog never mates with a cat!
The fossil record too is what we should expect from created 'kinds'. All types appear distinct and there are no genuine transitional forms, to prove gradual Evolution of say cats and dogs or their evolution from reptiles. All the missing links are still missing. So Evolutionists have now come up with a new idea called 'Punctuated Equilibrium'. By this they mean that there were millions of years when there was little or no Evolution taking place (equilibrium). This period of equilibrium was punctuated by short bursts of intense evolutionary activity, producing the development of new species (though why these bursts of activity should have taken place remains a mystery). It is claimed that these bursts happened so quickly on the geological time scale that little or no fossil evidence was left in the rocks. Very convenient!
This idea has been seized upon by the New Age movement with people saying that a great leap forward in the evolutionary process is about to take place. This is described as the 'Quantum leap' into the New Age in which an elite of spiritually enlightened persons will discover their 'godhood' and develop extraordinary psychic powers. Those who resist this process will fail to survive the 'paradigm shift' into the New Age. In this 'spiritual survival of the fittest' they will be 'sent to other worlds to rethink their attitudes', while the New Age elite rule and reign in a 'millennium of love and light'.
The reality is that our generation which has denied God as the Creator is busy destroying his creation by polluting the Earth and wiping out millions of its life forms. As a result it is unlikely that we will survive long into the next millennium unless God intervenes to save us from destruction. Mankind is also tampering with the natural form of reproduction in ways which are extremely harmful to the future of life on Earth. One of the worst abuses is the worldwide use of abortion as a means of disposing of unwanted pregnancies. An estimated 40,000,000 babies a year are killed in the womb.
Other alarming developments are in the area of genetic engineering. The Daily Mail (7th March 1996) featured the cloning of sheep, born to different mothers but genetically identical, cloned from one embryo. The Scientists responsible say their technique could be used to ease food problems or fight disease. The paper raises the 'nightmare prospect, that in the wrong hands, such knowledge could be a major step towards creating a human master race'. Another alarming experiment involves the possibility of treating male infertility by growing human sperm in mice. Add all this to the use of animal organs in human transplants and we see how Science is developing techniques in which human beings are playing at God. This is another reason why we believe that our civilisation is coming to an end. As at the Tower of Babel, God has to intervene to put an end to human progress because 'nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them'. (Genesis 11.6).
The Psalmist showed more wisdom than most of the 'great minds' of our generation when he wrote:
"O Lord you have searched me and known me. ... for you have formed me in my inward parts; You have covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvellous are your works, and that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was made in secret". Psalm 139:1,13-15
DARWIN WAS RIGHT
[ Science & Evolution ]
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