Episode Details

References: (1) During the 1800s some people believed bats navigated at night by touch, the moon was populated by furry, winged humans, decaying meat spontaneously turned into maggots, grain changed into rodents, and mud became frogs. (2) Scientists Fransesco Redi, John Needham, and Louis Pasteur PROVED that LIFE does not come from NON-LIVING SUBSTANCES, i. e, they proved that spontaneous generation is FALSE. Rather life is a result of the reproduction of PRE-EXISTING life-forms, which can come only through various means like seeds, eggs, or other forms of reproduction. That proof marked a SIGNIFICANT TURNING POINT in scientific understanding, reshaping fundamental biological principles. (3) Allow me to give an almost verbatim essay from gotquestions.org called “Flaws in Evolution.” (4) Gradualism seems to be CONTRADICTED by the FOSSIL RECORD. Organisms appear suddenly and demonstrate little change over long periods. The fossil record has been greatly expanded over the last century, and the more fossils that are found, the more gradualism seems to be DISPROVED. It was this overt REFUTATION of gradualism in the fossil record that prompted the theory of punctuated equilibrium. (5) The fossil record might seem to support punctuated equilibrium but again, there are MAJOR PROBLEMS [with punctuated equilibrium]. (6) While the improbable nature of punctuated equilibrium speaks for itself, scientific studies have also CAST DOUBT on the benefits it would confer. Separating a few members from a larger population results in INBREEDING. This results in DECREASED REPRODUCTIVE ABILITY, harmful genetic ABNORMALITIES, and so forth. In essence, the events that should be prompting “survival of the fittest” CRIPPLE the organisms INSTEAD. (7) Laboratory studies have shown that organisms are capable of ADAPTATION. That is, living things have an ability to shift their biology to better fit their ENVIRONMENT [like the color of peppered moths or the beaks of finches]. However, those same studies have demonstrated that such changes can ONLY GO SO FAR, and those organisms have not fundamentally changed. (8) Long-term evolution, though, requires “macroevolution,” which refers to those LARGE-SCALE CHANGES. Microevolution could turn a wolf into a Chihuahua or a Great Dane. Macroevolution would turn a fish into a cow or a duck. There is a MASSIVE DIFFERENCE in scale and effect between microevolution and macroevolution. This flaw in the theory of evolution is that experimentation DOES NOT SUPPORT the ability of small changes to transform ONE SPECIES INTO ANOTHER. (9) There are those who try to transform the theory from a BIOLOGICAL EXPLANATION into a METAPHYSICAL one. Every time a person claims that the theory of evolution disproves religion, spirituality, or God, they are taking the theory OUTSIDE its own limits. Fairly or not, the theory of evolution has been HIJACKED as an anti-religious MASCOT by those that have an AXE to grind against God. (10) Overall, there are many solidly scientific reasons to QUESTION the theory of evolution. These flaws may be resolved by science, or they may eventually kill the theory altogether. We don’t know which one will happen, but we do know this: the theory of evolution is FAR FROM SETTLED, and rational people can question it scientifically. This is episode 279.