Evolution

... there is about the fact of evolution no doubt at all. Evolution is a fact, as securely established as any in science, ...1

Is this actually true? You may have read, or heard, such claims about evolution: that it is a fact, that it is proven beyond doubt, and perhaps even that anyone who questions the truth of evolution is either uneducated, ignorant, deluded, or perhaps just not that bright.

• 1. Cosner L (2011 Aug 30) Dawkins calls Texas Governor a ‘fool’ for questioning the ‘fact’ of evolution < http://creation.com/perry-questions-evolution > Accessed 2011 Sep 19

Figure 1.

(Click the image above for a larger version.)

Three DNA research directions that scientists could embark on in light of the hallmark findings reported by Hughes et al. in 2010.

Scientific research has a tremendous influence on society today, not only in terms of advances in technology, but also in our world view. The conclusions of science are often highly regarded by the public and by scientists themselves, but the limitations of science are not always appreciated. Therefore, it is important to consider these limitations in order to evaluate the impact of science on human health and well-being and its effect on our world view, especially when the conclusions of science may contradict religious beliefs.

The objective of this article is to provide a review of some of the foundations of our beliefs as they apply to Biblical creation and creation science. Also, it is to help people come to faith in God, hold their faith if they have faith, and strengthen their faith to be effective with others in bringing faith in God to them. I first listed these foundations in the February 2005 issue of the TASC newsletter. From time to time it will be helpful to refocus on some of these foundations of our creation beliefs so that we may easily review and keep them in mind as we continue to address these foundations in our TASC newsletter articles and witness to others.

Click on image to see enlarged view

With support from the United States National Institutes of Health and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, scientists from several medical research laboratories in the United States and the Netherlands have recently completed a series of experiments designed to sequence the male-specific region of the Y chromosome (MSY) in the chimpanzee. 1 In their words, they achieved for the first time “levels of accuracy and completion previously reached for the human MSY.” They also compared the MSYs of humans and chimpanzees and found that “they differ radically

• 1. Hughes JF, Skaletsky H, Pyntikova T, Graves TA, van Daalen SKM, Minx PJ, Fulton RS, McGrath SD, et al. (2010) Chimpanzee and human Y chromosomes are remarkably divergent in structure gene content. Nature 463 (7280): 536-539

The central question evolutionary science has yet to answer is by what natural processes is novel information introduced into the biological world. Until this question is answered, evolution will remain an organized system of unproven speculations and “just so” stories. There are two main events in the evolutionary tale that need this type of explanation: the origin of life and the mechanism for macroevolution.

In The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins argues that morality is grounded in evolution rather than in God or religion. He explains morality through his concept of the “selfish gene” by which genes, through natural selection, ensure their own survival by selfishly encouraging altruistic behavior. He proposes four types of such behavior. First, a gene may program an organism to favor its genetic kin. Second, through reciprocal altruism an organism grants favors and receives favors in return. Third, through altruism an organism can acquire a reputation of being generous and kind and thereby benefit itself. Fourth, an organism can use generosity to demonstrate its superiority. Dawkins then asks why we are good to people we have never met and will probably never see again. He suggests that it is a byproduct of our distant past.¹

The Devil’s Tower Neanderthal child (model reconstruction)
http://www.ifi.uzh.ch/~zolli/CAP/Gib2.htm

The identity of the Neanderthals is a hotly debated question in anthropological circles nowadays. The question is whether Neanderthals and Homo sapiens interbred. Even in the church, the question of whether the Neanderthals were the descendants of Adam and Noah or genetically and spiritually separate species continues between young earth and progressive creationists. For those who take the scriptures in a straight-forward manner, the Neanderthals must have been a fully human post Flood people, whose unique morphological traits were erased through interbreeding with our ancestors.

The genome of organisms contains their genetic material, which largely determines how they will develop. Scientists are learning more and more about the genome of various organisms, which is revealing more and more about the amazing wisdom of God in their design and creation. It seems that our understanding of the functioning of life is always incomplete, and the genome is always more complex than we had thought. Will we ever fully understand the functioning of life, or will it always be a mystery to us?

Richard Dawkins, Oxford:

“…alleged human bones in the Carboniferous coal deposits. If authenticated as human, these bones would blow the theory of evolution out of the water.”¹

“If a single, well verified mammal skull were to turn up in 500 million year old rocks, our whole modern theory of evolution would be utterly destroyed. Incidentally, this is a sufficient answer to the canard, put about by creationist and their journalistic fellow travelers, that the whole theory of evolution is an ‘unfalsifiable’ tautology.”²

Steven M. Stanley, Johns Hopkins University: