Is evolution really based on science?

Source: Witness, 2008. 2 pages.

Evolution – Fact or Myth?

The popular scientific journal Nature recently stated: ‘Evolution is a scientific fact, and every organisation whose research depends on it should explain why’. Apparently they feel something must be done to counter the rise in belief in creation. But is evolution a scientific fact? Is there substantial evidence supporting it? Indeed, is it science at all?

The National Academy of Sciences defines science as ‘the use of evidence to construct testable explanations and predictions of natural phenomena’. Scientists deducing from observations and repeatable experiments produce general laws and theories which are viewed as objective knowledge but can be proved false. In this way many useful scientific discoveries have been made.

However evolution has to do with unobservable and unrepeatable past events. No humans were around when the world was formed. Observations produce general laws about what is happening now and can suggest what happened in the past, but they cannot tell us what did happen. To counter this, some scientists speak of the ‘Principle of uniformity’ – what happens today is basically what happened in the past. But this is a huge philosophical assumption; an unprovable presupposition. Evolution is based on this unprovable presupposition. The same can be said of historical geology. Both subjects are not scientific in the proper sense of the term and their explanations cannot be likened to the theory of gravity. Rather they are just stories based on huge assumptions. Biblical creationists readily acknowledge that their beliefs regarding origins are based on faith and presuppositions. Sadly, evolutionists steadfastly refuse to admit this.

Yet, observational science has a place when studying origins. It can be used to assess whether the historical inferences made by creationists and evolutionists are tenable. When this is done Creation is seen to be a much more reliable explanation of origins.

The Origin of DNA🔗

Consider DNA with its amazing genetic information. Just as software can never be made by computer hardware, so this information transcends matter and energy. The laws of physics, chemistry and information theory are against the appearance of DNA and genetic information without a Creator. Indeed Nobel Prize-winning biochemist Christian de Duve and information theorist Hubert Yockey (no friends of creation) have both recently considered the origin of DNA and genetic information and failed to come up with a scientific explanation for the origin of life. Yockey says, ‘It is a naturalistically undecidable question because there is no evidence of a naturalistic cause’. Evolutionists are not being objective scientists when they demand that we accept that amazingly sophisticated DNA arose by chance. No, it is blind faith. The evidence overwhelmingly favours Creation, not evolution.

Genetic Variations and Mutations🔗

Contrary to the claims of evolutionary biologists, changes caused by genetic variation or mutations cannot explain the origin of the bio-diversity seen in the world today. Though such variations are observed in creatures, there are no positive changes by such a process. Although experiments with fruit flies produce mutations such as wings where there should be eyes, no one has yet observed new functionality occurring in the laboratory. Thus reptiles evolving wings is not science but wishful thinking and no such programming is latent in the DNA. Often it is claimed that given enough time positive changes will appear. Yet as Michael Behe (who is not a Creationist) has shown, studies of HIV disprove this. HIV ‘mutates at the evolutionary speed limit’ and although it has produced some 1020 copies in the past decades, its basic genetics have changed very little. ‘Each and every possible single point mutation occurs between 10,000 and 100,000 times per day in an HIV-infected individual’. Yet this has produced no new basic machinery or functions. Behe concludes, ‘Our experience with HIV gives good reason to think that Darwinism doesn’t do that much – even with billions of years and all the cells in the world at our disposal’. There may be changes within certain limits but these limits are narrow. This fits well with the Biblical idea that God created various fixed kinds of creatures. According to this, the variety of cat types from lions to domestic cats has developed from one ‘cat’ kind through mutations and the loss of genetic material from the original ‘cats’ which God made. This is really the opposite of evolution, but fits the observed facts.

Fossils🔗

It is claimed that fossil evidence supports evolution but again fossil evidence is based on the stories of geologists, not objective science. Fossilisation requires rapid burial indicating catastrophe rather than uniformitarianism. Despite millions of fossils being discovered, it is noteworthy that the missing links between different types of creatures remain missing. Moreover, scientists are continually discovering living fossils – live animals once presumed extinct which have shown no evolutionary development over what is allegedly millions of years. For example the fossil fish Coelacanth was thought to have lived from around 380 to 80 million years ago when it was presumed to have become extinct. However, in 1938 a live Coelacanth was caught off the coast of Madagascar. Significantly, Coelacanths found today are almost identical to their allegedly ancient fossil forebears. Similarly, a recently discovered fossilised lamprey led the evolutionist Janvier to state ‘that Lamprey morphology has been astonishingly stable for 360Ma’ (Nature 443). Fossil evidence fits the Biblical framework of creation and flood, not evolution.

Conclusion🔗

Today some people reject the Bible, believing that science and evolution have proved it wrong. They assume that science and faith are incompatible. However, evolution is based on presuppositions and beliefs and not objective science. Make sure that you are not deceived by the claims of false science but rather come to know the One who has created you and speaks to you in the Bible.

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