No Mechanism for Evolution Found! - Chapter 4
Evolution when compared to creation and design has insurmountable problems on every level. It contradicts the basic laws of science. The second law of thermodynamics indicates that every thing is winding down yet evolution says things are becoming more organized, improved and moving upwards. Evolution has not provided any acceptable mechanism for change. Yet in every living thing we find incredibly complex genetic blueprints. These blueprints are programmed for accurate replication of itself. They are programmed to prevent change from one kind to another. Evolution says that life came about in a primordial soup through the process of time and chance. Yet this very idea is contradicted by the law of bio-genesis "life can only come from life" and the mathematical laws of probability. Let's examine some of these areas in a little more detail.
The First and Second Law of Thermodynamics
The evolutionary model says that everything came about by natural processes into its present state of high organization and complexity. The creation model says that everything was designed and created fully mature and functioning at the beginning. The decline process began when Adam and Eve rebelled against God. When we look for a universal law of upward organization and complexity we instead find a universal law of decay. The first law of thermodynamics is the conservation of energy. It means that energy is neither being created nor destroyed but can be converted into one form or another. The second law of thermodynamics says that while the total amount of energy available remains unchanged the amount available for useful work is decreasing. The process is called "entropy". Entropy means there is an increasing decay, disorder or distortion in all systems. For example, given enough time the whole universe would slowly decay to a uniform temperature as the sun and stars gave off their energy and faded out. According to Isaac Asimov all changes are in the direction of increasing entropy, of increasing disorder, of increasing randomness, of running down. We find the observable evidence in direct opposition to the evolutionary model. Isaiah 51 v 6 recognized the second law of thermodynamics this way, "Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment...".
Natural Selection
The idea of natural selection or survival of the fittest has been offered to the general public as proof of ongoing evolution. A brief look at this area will reveal just the opposite. Natural selection follows that given enough time and with the right gene combinations the best organisms for the world we live in will arise by natural processes. When we look at natural selection we are discussing change. What is important to see is the type of change being presented. Is natural selection change within a species or change from one kind to another? When we observe change within living organisms it is always within a species or variation within a kind. This type of natural selection the creation model supports and actually would predict.
One of the most popular arguments offered as evolution by natural selection is the peppered moth scenario. In this case you have populations of light and dark colored moths. For a period of time the dark colored moths are more noticeable to the birds on the lighter colored trees. Naturally the birds eat more of the dark colored moths and the moth population shifted to over 98% light colored. As time went on the environment became more polluted giving the dark colored moths more camouflage and the lighter moths less. Under these new circumstances the birds ate more light colored moths and the population shifted to 98% dark colored moths. The textbooks show this as a perfect example of evolution going on today. But is this evidence for evolution? The answer is definitely no for evolution but a yes for natural selection.
That is because natural selection and evolution are two different concepts. Evolution postulates change of one kind into another, natural selection is change within a kind. With the peppered moths you had population change within a kind but not evolution. They are still peppered moths! What's important to realize is that natural selection brings out the different traits within a genetic pool which are already there. The ability for great variation within a kind is already genetically programmed in. Just think about the genetic variety within the dog kind. There are thousands of different dogs and dog traits which have been revealed through selective breeding. All of these traits were present within the genetic pool and just took the right combinations to bring them out.
Mutations
For a time it had been thought that genetic mutations could produce new traits and therefore evolutionary change. As we think about this idea a number of insurmountable barriers arise.The first barrier against mutations producing new traits is the laws of probability. Mutations or errors in copying the genetic code are rare, estimated at 1 in 10 million. However the real mathematical problem arises when you need a series of related genetic mutations. Each additional series is multiplied by the probability of one mutation. Even four related mutations has a probability of 10 to the 28th power which is virtually zero. The number of "beneficial" related mutations to change one kind into another kind is a great many more than that. On a mathematical basis evolution occurring by mutations within the gene pool is zero.
The popular idea that bacteria through evolutionary mutations become resistant to antibiotics has been dropped by many microbiologists. The are now concluding that the bacteria has the resistance already built into the genetic pool. Therefore drug resistance by bacteria is not an example of ongoing evolution but another example of natural selection within a kind.
The second major barrier as if the first is not enough is the rate of occurrence and the type of mutations. It is known that 99.99% of all mutations are harmful. They are responsible for a breakdown in the genetic pool not a beneficial upward influence. The DNA's replication of itself needs to be perfect in order to prevent deterioration of the species. The term used for copying errors in a gene pool is the genetic burden. One evolutionist has understood this insurmountable barrier by the following commentary. "For each beneficial mutation a species accumulates, the price would be a thousand or more harmful ones. When genetic burden gets too great, offspring are so likely to have serious hereditary defects that the ability of the species to survive is threatened. And time only makes this evolutionary problem worse."
Again we see that no real mechanism for evolution exists. Those offered; upon further examination are not viable but instead support the creation model. The genetic pool when created provided for a tremendous variety within each kind. In the pre-flood world the strength of the genetic pool allowed humans to live to nearly a thousand years in age. As the protective pre-flood environment collapsed and the accumulating effects of mutations mounted, lifespans shortened and genetic defects appeared in each population. From Adam its been downhill not uphill.
The Law of Bio-Genesis
The law of bio-genesis states that life only comes from life. This is in direct conflict with evolution's idea that non-living matter produced life in a primordial soup billions of years ago. The idea is that time and random chance processes produced the first replicating living molecule and that everything over billions of years has evolved upwards to its present complexity. Life is based upon "incredibly complex information" encoded on DNA. It is impossible for information to have come about by the very "medium" in which it is communicated. In other words the medium such as the printed page, magnetic tape, or DNA could not have produced the information on them. Information encoded upon DNA had to have arisen from a intelligence far beyond human beings. Many scientists as they have studied the complexity of even the simplest cell have come to the conclusion that an intelligent designer had to have been a first cause.
As more and more is discovered about the inner workings of a simple cell the complexity defies the imagination. There is a powerplant which generates the cell's energy, factories which produce enzymes and hormones essential for life, complex transportation systems which guide specific chemicals from one location to another, membrane proteins which control the import and export of materials across the cell membrane and the DNA which provides the blueprint of instructions for the cell.
Sir Fred Hoyle,Professor of Astronomy at Cambridge University and Chandra Wickramasinghe, a mathematician have concluded that the probability that higher life forms might have evolved by time and chance is comparable to "a tornado sweeping through a junkyard and assembling a Boeing 747 from the materials therein".
Dr. Michael Denton, a prominent molecular biologist, has come to a similar conclusion in his book "Evolution A Theory in Crisis". He states, that after comparing the genetic programs in living things to a library of a thousand volumes encoding a billion bits of information and all the mathematically intricate algorithms for coordinating them to propose chemical evolution in a primordial soup is simply "an affront to reason and an insult to the intelligence".
Conclusions on Creation
The deceptive lie of evolution has desensitized people to absolute truth and led to all kinds of bad thought processes. It has brought a cloak of never-ending fruitless speculations and imaginations about the past. Evolution has provided the foundation for the overthrow of absolute right and wrong. For with the elimination of God people can set their own rules and are accountable to no one. Moral behavior becomes a matter of what is right in the eyes of each person. God has said that without the knowledge of the Bible in people's minds the society heads for destruction. Existence becomes pointless and with no purpose if you descended from an ape like creature and are only a little bit higher than an animal. Human life becomes of little worth as philosophies such as Communism, the superior race ideas of Hitler, youthanasia and abortion spring from the tepid waters of evolution.
However we have shown that the creation account best explains the observable evidence. The implications are serious because it logically follows that there is a creator to whom we shall give an account. It follows that there are absolute right and wrongs as God has laid out in the Bible. It follows that there is an unseen spiritual battle between God and Satan for the souls of men. The evidence supporting creation and Noah's flood lead to conclusions that boggle the mind. The inescapable thought that a generation of people so resisted the Spirit of God calling them to safety that judgment came upon a whole planet. This is more incredible than any science fiction story ever written. Hebrews 10 v 31 says "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God". And yet Isaiah 55 v 7 says "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon." A whole generation preferred to do their own will rather than submit themselves to God in spite of Noah warning them. They resisted facing the truth about their bondage to sin and depravity and their need for forgivness which God offered. They resisted for 120 years as Noah warned them to get right with God. They exhausted the patience of God who desired to save them and only Noah, his three sons and their wives were delivered from judgment.
We are now approaching the same conditions of Noah's generation. We are a generation who has little fear of falling into the hands of the living God. Our acts of wickedness in public and private are done in full view of God's eyes. And yet God's desire is to offer pardon and freedom from the tyranny of sin and the independent self-willed life. Let's now turn to the prophetic part of the Bible for God has a divine plan for history. God intends to restore mankind and the universe from its fallen state. He intends to place the Lord Jesus Christ as King over all the earth reigning from Jerusalem for a 1,000 years. Running parallel to this plan is Satan's plan to offer his man (Anti-Christ) as the Christ and a pseudo Christian church which will worship him. As you will see these are extremely deceptive times in which we live. God's word is the only reliable measure for our times.
Some Material on Genetics and Mutations
- 1. What is Creation Science? by Henry M. Morris and Gary E. Parker published by Master Books
- 2. The Remarkable Birth of Planet Earth by Henry M. Morris published by Bethany Fellowship, Inc.
- 3. Darwin on Trial by Phillip E. Johnson published by Intervarsity Press
- 4. Evolution: A Theory in Crisis by Michael Denton
- 5. Not by Chance! by Dr. Lee Spetner