If Quantum Mechanics was around in Darwin’s time and if he had studied it, he would know evolution not to be gradual and that every once in a while a rare combination of mutations would lead to the quantum leap.
In quantum mechanics, an electron in your body has the possiblility (extremely unlikely possibility) of making the quantum leap and suddenly appearing on the moon.
And for the creationist, quantum mechanics is as near a proven fact as you can get, it is close to 2+2 =4. (Actually in a quantum universe 2+2 only comes vanishingly close to equalling 4 due to quantum fluctations.)
In fact, all semiconductor technology depends on quantum mechanics being true.
Oh, Boy . . . here we go.
Personal attack is a confession of intellectual poverty.
Need to read later.
-From: How "Sudden" Was the Cambrian Explosion?
It seems to me that Neo-Darwinist theory has increasingly come under attack these days, from both inside and outside the scientific communities — largely because it does not explain what it purports to explain: the emergence of life (not to mention consciousness, mind) from lifeless, inorganic matter. It also cannot explain the emergence of the vast amount of new information it takes to account for the kind of emergent biological speciation that we observe in the historical record: A low information-source cannot spontaneously transition to a high-information source, all by itself. (IIRC, this is called Kahre's Law.) It should be clear to all objective observers that matter and/or protomatter have drastically less "algorithmic content" (i.e., information) than highly complex biological organisms. So from whence did this astronomically large increase of information that characterizes life and consciousness (mind) "come from?"
People who refuse to address such questions, preferring to swaddle themselves in their precious materialist dogma, are simply following in the footsteps of Karl Marx. After all, all inconvenient questions regarding Marx's "system" are absolutely forbidden as a matter or principle.
And then there's the famous saying of Mao Zedong: Tell a lie a hundred times, and people will think it true.
Thank God, there are still honest scientists out there....
Thanks. Heartlander, for this thought-provoking article!
Suddenly, under our powerful, imaginary microscope, we see Ferdie the fungus, furtively floating like a phantom! He is a tiny free-floating fungus spore. He is hanging suspended in the air. We don't know where he came from, for there are no other fungi in the whole world as yet [remember! He had to come from SOMEWHERE, for there had to be a very FIRST fungus!], but there he is. What is he, we wonder? Looking closely, we think he may resemble the spores (which do not yet exist) from a mushroom. But there are no mushrooms, yet. Fungi is the Latin word for "mushroom." Next time you go to an Italian restaurant, you might notice some of Ferdie's offspring offered with your food. You see, it makes scientists sound much more intelligent to use Latin, and Greek, than English. Besides, "mushroom" is a bit confusing. What does it mean? A room filled with mush? Or a room where one eats corn meal mush? So they use Latin, or Greek.
We find that there are many, many kinds of fungi, which are slime-like, algae-like, watery, like mildew, blue and green molds, powdery mildews, spherical fungi, cup and club fungi, and many others.
Little did phantom Ferdie the free-floating fungus know that he would "evolve" from an original free-floating fungus into a whole new world of incredible organisms that help break down and decay dead organic matter (and therefore could not have survived unless there was dead organic matter about before they "evolved"). Little did Ferdie realize that some of his less desirable offspring would become parasitic fungi, which can blight crops and trees, and become a disastrous disease, costing countless dollars to agriculture! Had he known this, he might well have drifted in the air until, running out of whatever it was he was feeding upon, he starved to death, or, failing to find a comfortable mate (we're coming to this) simply fell on a hard piece of granite and died.
But forgetting for the moment all his future difficulties, let's get back to Ferdie, our furtive, free-loading, free-floating, phantom fungus of the forest. (Can't you just hear the little animals saying, "Oh no! There is a fungus among us"?).
Somehow, though he has no brain, Ferdie knows he must find an alga and link up with it (or her, perhaps?), or he cannot survive. A chance puff of wind carries his microscopic little body directly into the clutches of the only alga to ever have evolved, which just "happens" to be in the immediate vicinity. Think of it! A tiny, microscopic alga—the ONLY ONE IN THE UNIVERSE—had to "evolve" SEPARATELY, in order to link up with Ferdie!
But the alga could not have survived separately! Notwithstanding this impossible difficulty; notwithstanding the possibility that the little alga COULD have popped into existence 8 or 9,000 miles away, perhaps in the Atlas Mountains in Africa, THERE SHE WAS!
Thankfully, they both evolved together, suddenly, and within a few feet or yards of each other! Wow! Isn't evolution wonderful? The incredible planning of evolution; the design of evolution; the carefully thought-out, intricately developed creative ability of "evolution" is mind-boggling, indeed, isn't it? Of course, when one worships "nature," always called "mother" instead of "father," and endows blind chance with all this power and design, one does not need to worry about any God or His laws which regulate all life—much less worry about the punishments for sin.
But back to our fanciful story--er--our scientific investigation of Ferdie's fanciful flight to find his future friend and fellow-survivor, Alice, the alga!
Immediately, the little alga we shall call "Alice," clutches the phantom fungus Ferdie to her green, ugly body, and the two begin (blush!) happily surviving together.
What luck! think of the billions of years it must have taken for Ferdie to evolve in the first place—to become the very first fungus spore! Then think of the difficulty for Alice the alga to have evolved separately, and to have done so not just within a few million years, or even ten years, but on the same afternoon the thermals in the forest bore little Ferdie to her bosom! Instantly, the two became twitterpated.
One would think the opposite. One would assume Alice would say, "Ugh! An ugly spore, and he's looking at me!" Then, she would attempt to slowly creep away. One would think Ferdie would say, "Ugh! An ugly piece of green, slimy, something or other. No way she's getting her clutches on me!" and stay airborne for another few hours, looking for some other alga to help him survive. But there weren't any other algae about! They hadn't evolved yet.
But no, evolution requires that it was love at first sight—er, clutch.
Soon, tiny, coral-like growths called "isidia" begin growing around the rim of the "fruiting body" which is what Phantom Ferdie the fungus and Alice the alga have formed. Each little bud which breaks off is a complete lichen, composed of both fungus and alga, and capable of reproduction after their own kind. Wow! What a major miracle Ferdie and Alice have wrought. Neither could have come into existence without the other. But, suddenly, there they were! And their very first attempt was successful! They produced little Alfred, and little Ferdie, Junior. Except they had to name them Alfreda and Alferda, because each were created possessing both sexes! What a problem for evolution! No wonder they would like students who read their text books to dismiss lichens as "poor trash" and "anomalies," and go on to something more interesting, like how dolphins and whales used to be four-footed quadrupeds who could climb trees. (Really! — this is what evolutionists say!).
You see, a lichen is composed of a fungus and an alga. Each of these microscopic, living organisms live in close association with each other. The special kind of lichen fungi never live alone, like other fungi do. They can only live in close association with lichens. The alga and the fungus contribute to the welfare of each other by storing water, sending "roots" down into the porous holes in rocks, or into tree bark, producing food through photosynthesis, and by "feeding" upon the decaying organic material.
Oops! Another terrible problem for evolutionists! Lichen fungi, like Ferdie, have no means of photosynthesis and would quickly die unless they were linked with an alga. Good old Ferdie. He found Alice just in time, or there would not be a single lichen about!
Talk about "Alice in wonderland!" Alice the alga—the very first, one of her kind, never before, suddenly "evolved" (suddenly? This is anathema to evolution!), in just the right place, at just the right time, to find, not her prince charming, such as another alga, but this time an ugly, misshapen, "spore" floating around in the breeze! But notwithstanding these insurmountable difficulties, IT HAPPENED! (Well, not really, but for evolution to be true, something like this HAD to happen!).
Alice does all the work. The cells in her body manufactures food for both of them, since Ferdie is incapable of it. But Ferdie does his part too, for he provides the incredibly complex structure which binds both of them together, and serves as a storage tank for water and fat, so that Ferdie and Alice can survive together during the dry season.
Of course, the very first time Ferdie found Alice (neither of whom could have previously existed—so they didn't exist—so there wasn't any possibility of lichens "evolving," so lichens don't exist, today. But they do, so...), neither of them knew anything about any approaching "dry season." Furthermore, they had never had time to reason out and plan for the sneaky maneuver to "infiltrate" the frozen tundra to the North. After all, just how many trillions of generations of lichens did there have to be to drop little "buds" and "fruiting bodies" beside themselves, or to be carried by a chance gust of wind from a temperate zone forest to the Brooks Range or across the Atlantic, down the length of the Mediterranean, across the Mideast, and into Nepal and the Himalayas?
So, when the very first dry season came along, foolish phantom, formerly-free-floating Ferdie, now "married" to ugly Alice, not knowing he should have stored all that water and fat, was happily munching on the food Alice gave him. Along came the dry, hot summer, and they dried up and died. So there are no lichens around today. But there are. Therefore, the very first time either came into existence, they had to somehow "know" (without having any brains) how to store up against the dry season together.
Look closely at Ferdie and Alice, as they exist, we assume happily, together. There is an "apothecium," or "fruiting body" on the surface of the lichen. Without invading their privacy, or delving too deeply into just HOW this is done, suffice it to say Ferdie and Alice are producing tiny, microscopic spores as a result of their chance encounter. They are so light in weight that they hang suspended above the fruiting body in the air; borne aloft by the tiniest changes in temperature, which causes hot air to rise from the forest floor.
How did they get into the air? Well, somehow, Ferdie and Alice "evolved" this cup-shaped "fruiting body," which forcibly ejects the spores into the air. What luck! What good fortune! All about them are deer and elk, forcibly ejecting various substances onto the ground. Why didn't Ferdie and Alice simply drop their spores beneath them? Perchance they did, for the first few millions or billions of years. But as they did, the spores, incapable of putting down roots, simply died. But there couldn't have been any spores, because Ferdie and Alice had already died, millions of years earlier! But, somehow, the very first time a fungus and an alga came together in marital bliss, they joyfully ejected their little spores into the air.
Chance gusts of wind carry them about. Some are carried here and there on the fur of animals (where did they come from?) or birds' feet (same question).
The trouble is, we encounter a myriad different types, sizes, shapes and colors of lichens as we look at the forest floor. Some of them have rows and rows of fruiting bodies. Others have large, saucer-shaped fruiting bodies which ooze slime, instead of eject spores (Alice the alga should counsider herself fortunate—what if she had evolved into a piece of slime, and met "Slippery Simon, the sticky, slick, slithering slime"?). They are black, grey, brown, rust, yellow, orange, ochre, green, bluish, red, and white, and every shade in between.
Then, as the spores are carried about, or as they drop off, or ooze out, they must encounter some algae cells of precisely the correct kind, or they cannot reproduce.
Therefore, evolutionists would tell us, they must have "evolved" at the same time—together. But evolution requires billions and billions of years. Ejecting spores into the air takes place in only a few seconds! Oozing slime is to no avail, unless the slime, with its spores, comes into contact with the exact kind of algae needed to reproduce. Since the algae of this kind cannot reproduce without the slime from the correct kind of lichen, and the lichen slime cannot reproduce without encountering the correct kind of algae, which came first, Slippery Simon the slime, or Ferdie the Phantom Fungus and Alice the Alga?
What if the algae "evolved" in Siberia, but the lichen which oozes slime "evolved" in Montana? Problem! Neither could have survived. So they don't exist today. But they do. Therefore, they had to come into existence, in myriad numbers, all over the world at the same precise moment in time!
Lichenologists are not sure how some of them reproduce at all. Some reproduce tiny pieces of lichen, while others produce spores which must unite with algae. Says one authority, "The role that spores play in the propagation of lichens is completely unknown, for no one has ever followed the development of a lichen thallus from a germinated fungal spore...We must admit that the most significant aspect of lichens, their reproduction, is still a mystery" (LICHEN HANDBOOK, A Guide To The Lichens Of Eastern North America, by Mason Hale).
It is at least as much a mystery how anyone who studies lichens can avoid throwing up his hands in despair and admitting, "You know, I think there might be a Creator God who did all this, after all!"
Ferdie and Alice were not only sneakily capable of "infiltrating" the frozen North, but were capable of reproducing, not only after their own kind, but dozens of incredibly complex, intricate lichens and fungi—multiple trillions and quintillions of offspring, and not a clue as to how they could have evolved, when neither could have survived without the other!
Furthermore, they are found from thousands of feet above sea level to three hundred feet beneath the surface of the ocean; the deepest kind of plant life known to exist! How? Why do this? Was it necessary to survive? Did they "migrate" to the depths of the oceans, and to the heights of the Rocky Mountains?
Even a slug can travel faster than a lichen, clinging to a rock. Isn't it all incredible? Evolutionists are like wide-eyed children, sitting in front of a Disney cartoon, assuming all they see is true; that deer talk, and ducks wear only a jacket, but no trousers! They are like fascinated day-dreamers, conjuring up the weirdest fiction, and attempting to pass it on as fact.
Truly, only the fool hath said in his heart, "There is no God!"
Symbiosis is proof of a law in motion; an immutable, immovable absolute which governs many creatures in our environment, including man. Life is only possible because other life forms exist. You and I could not live without eating living plants and various kinds of fish and animal flesh. We could not digest our food, and it could not be carried into our bloodstream to feed our heart, liver, lungs and brain, without our miraculous bloodstream, with its dizzying array of blood cells and chemical compounds which make life possible.
Symbiosis is a PROOF OF GOD! It is absolute proof that life was CREATED AT ONCE; that it had an instantaneous BEGINNING! Whether clown fish and deadly sea anemones which live in symbiotic harmony, or Ferdie and Alice, happily producing spores, all symbiotic life forms prove the existence of an all-wise, all-powerful Creator God!
All about you is LIFE. Microscopic life, and living things which support life! You and I could not live without foods which come from the ground. Those foods could not grow without the bacteria which cause decay, producing rich soil. All life forms complement each other. Nothing lives or dies to itself. A tree falls in the forest, to decompose, and produce fertile soil for its offspring nearby. Your own body is host to many, many forms of life, including little yeast spores, which float about in the air.
If you could, at this moment, take a tiny piece of clean, clear glass, and touch it to your nose, then place it under a powerful microscope, you could identify these little yeast spores, clinging to the oils on your skin. And, who knows? Maybe one of Ferdie and Alice's little offspring would be smiling up at you, hoping you would drop them off on the nearest decaying log! -End-
“Meyer investigates the central doubt Darwin had about his own theory. “
Like any serious scientist, Darwin had his doubts, even the author of the article admits.
So most of the creationist comments are inapplicable.
Militant Creationists set up a straw argument that science deals in absolutes, rather than the best scientific explanation possible with the data available. When new data comes available that scientifically contradicts any aspect of a previous theory, then that constitutes a “lie”.
As the author points out, Darwin presented research and data and published a theoretical position - and at the same time expressed the potential pitfalls of his conclusions that he thought were relevant at the time.
That militant creationists are still arguing with Darwin, who is 150 years dead, yet they still can’t win the argument is telling, and is more a statement to their stunning insecurity and lack of Faith than it is to any failure of Darwin’s best scientific explanations at the time.
Science is science. Faith is Faith. Neither reveals all answers with certainty, but each attacks the other because of the others uncertainty.