Posted on 08/09/2018 11:40:34 AM PDT by Heartlander
Editor’s note: We were delighted recently to introduce a new series, “Modernizing Darwin,” cross-posted at Shabbat.com, by Geoffrey Simmons, MD. The first post is here. Dr. Simmons is the author of What Darwin Didn’t Know and Billions of Missing Links. He is a Fellow with Discovery Institute’s Center for Science & Culture.
Man has been searching for fossils, or stumbling upon them, for millennia. The ancient Greeks and Romans saw the fossilized bones of giant creatures as proof that horrible monsters once walked the land or swam in the seas. Darwin utilized fossils to bolster his theory of evolution. He spent an enormous amount of time hunting down fossils and is rightfully known for a number of interesting finds, including the giant ground sloth Mylodon darwinii.
Many modern authorities continue to use fossils as proof of evolution, chronologically lining up those which appear similar, yet the gaps have only grown more glaring with time. We now delve into the cellular level comparing chemical processes, electrical charges, and genetic differences. It seems to be a secret, but researchers know that it would take millions of internal changes for dinosaurs to evolve into birds, flat plants into trees, fish into amphibians. Note there are no half-fish/half-salamanders or one-third monkey/two-thirds humans, ever.
Upon close inspection, the absence of transitions (smaller steps) is striking. We should be up to our collective elbows with transitional species that once came about by trial and error, and failed to survive. Not so. Even for whales, the largest animal alive. We’ve been told repeatedly that transitional forms will eventually be found, but that hasn’t happened and the problems are steadily increasing in our awareness. Saying that two fossils with similar appearances, yet found thousands of miles apart, are related, begs the question.
Some whales can grow up to 100 feet long and weigh 200 tons. The rib cage of a blue whale is large enough to accommodate a minivan or small truck. Their hearts are the size of a Volkswagen Beetle. Every aspect is so massive. A few fossilized bones from their putative predecessors have been found. But the story is still mysterious, because of the changes required.
Darwin wrote that whales came about as a result of bears going to sea. He had to retract that statement after the first edition of On the Origin of Species was published. Some modern paleontologists say the whale’s ancestor must be the hippopotamus. Maybe because they are mammals and linger in the water most of their lives? But, otherwise they are strikingly (impossibly) different. Other coastal animals, that are now extinct, are also cited, but none of them could survive a day or two at sea. Of interest, the whale’s tail moves up and down, not sideways like fish. And, whales never had scales.
No one knows how blow holes came about, certainly not by small successive steps, or how the internal lungs became connected up to these holes in a way that prevents drowning. Or, how a massive communication center, found in their heads, came about. Or, how the ability to depressurize body segments during deep dives evolved. Calves are born tail first (they cannot go head first in case the process is too slow) and these newborns must rise to the surface immediately for air or else they will drown. The ability to swim must be present from the beginning. Trial and error would never have worked.
Whales are not the only misfit to smooth transitions, just the largest. The number of exceptions may actually be equal to the number of species on this planet. Standouts are kangaroos, woodpeckers, platypuses, giraffes, butterflies, octopuses, skunks, bombardier beetles, the red tide, dolphins, fireflies, tardigrades, sloths, and all micro-organisms. Maybe viruses, too.
Something besides unguided evolution is going on. In actuality, all living organisms are likely exceptions. Just breeding a horse into a faster horse doesn’t eventually change it into something fast like a cheetah. It’s simply a faster horse. The same goes for pet dogs to guard dogs. It’s true, natural selection does happen in a variety of situations, but it doesn’t change a species into another.
An incomprehensibly intelligent engineer and designer must be responsible.
Yeah. I keep making the same point about colors but it hasn't caught on.
I’m a big fan of Berlinski.
In my very long objective journey, I can’t overcome the Mathematics of evolution. The numbers don’t add up no matter how much time is added to the equation.
So, it’s either Panspermia, Intelligent Design, Theistic evolution or Creation.
The “Time” factor is critical.
Dr. David Berlinski - Rebellious Intellectual Defies Darwinism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEXnq_tcM7c
An hour and 20 minutes with Berlinski.
Other than demonstrating that you believe Futuyma is the final word on the subject, what's your point? He doesn't address Augustine at all, he just casually announces that Darwin makes theological explanations superfluous. In logic that's called asserting your premise, one of the more simplistic of logical fallacies. Next time try to find an argument that actually addresses what Augustine wrote and its connection with evolution.
Please - http://bfy.tw/JLVn
Most of what we know to be civilization has only occurred in the last 10,000 years and most of that only in the last 4000 years. And most of the really wild stuff only in the last 500 years.
Say 60 million years from now an alien species comes to earth and in an effort to discern where humans came from —they start digging in the dirt.
What they will find is a layer without humans and right on top of that —a layer with humans.
No transition.
Nothing.
First our bones and our stuff are not there and then our bones and our stuff are there in the dirt.
That’s it.
No transitional forms.
it’ll look like maybe humans came from outer space because as quickly as our stuff appears in the dirt the spent cases of rocket ships will be there.
My point?
likely the vast changes in animal architecture happened very very rapidly in terms of geological time. Something set up a genetic cascading effect.
Evidently your ability to think about the subject begins and ends with textbooks. The Epistemology of Textbooks as the Akashic Records.
So if textbooks don’t discuss the arcana of Augustine’s evolutionary view of Creation (they won’t), it can’t be germane to the discussion of the intellectual history of evolution, because, you know, textbooks are the summation of and arbiters of all knowledge.
I’m curious: do you read any serious books outside of textbooks, school assignments?
And yes, of course I read many books - here are other authors/teachers:
FYI - http://www.pewforum.org/2009/11/05/scientists-and-belief/
No wonder he was a Catholic.Under that premise all the beliefs and that were not manifest in the most ancient and wholly inspired record of the NT church can be justified like as a bear becoming a whale. reliable su
“No wonder he was a Catholic”
Augustine lived from 354 to 430 AD.
The Great Schism occurred in 1054
The Reformation occurred 1517 – 1648
His options were somewhat limited.
Luther, Calvin and Zwingli all drew upon Augustine so they might not have seen your point.
Yes, Augustine was not Newman, but the "acorn" analogy was what Newman could use to justify the extrapolation necessary for his specious Development of Doctrine
so; where are all of the tiny, incremental changes that are going on right now?
Where are the critters that are ADAPTING to Global Warming?
Find me a varmit that can live on plastic bits.
Heck; just show me a physician that will NOT 'correct' what is considered to be a birth 'defect'!
DANG!
I shudda read ahead!
Now ya got a couple (or 6) of these critters with change 'A' in them.
They hook up and produce more.
All this from a few animals.
Yet; biologists today tell us that cheetahs are endangered because of lack of diversity in their DNA.
I do wish these folks would get together and come up with stories that can work together.
Mistakes?
Selection seems to imply a set of criteria to select FOR.
“
Find me a varmit that can live on plastic bits.”
Ok ...
https://www.popsci.com/bacteria-enzyme-plastic-waste
The Bible seems to do ok...
Romans 1:26-29
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