UNDERSTANDING THE

CREATIONCharles Darwin

and the

Theory of Evolution

Charles Darwin• An Agnostic

• Wrote “Origin of Species” in 1859

• About the Theory of (Macro) Evolution

• Change thru random variations

• Darwin nevertheless had doubts

Doubts in the 1800’s

• “If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down.” Charles Darwin

• “Evolution is not an established theory but a tentative hypothesis, an extremely valuable and even probable hypothesis, but a hypothesis none the less.” Thomas Huxley

“Mendel’s Laws”More Doubts on the TheoryWhile experimenting with garden peas, Gregor Mendel, discovered that peas do not vary in heredity in any such slip-shod, haphazard fashion as was supposed by Darwin, but according to definite, orderly laws that he researched and recorded for posterity. Bateson, the famous British biologist and a student of Mendelian heredity, in 1866, said that Darwin would never have written “Origin of Species” if he had known of Mendel’s work.

Microevolution vs MacroevolutionMICROEVOLUTION:

Within one species

Identical # of chromosomes

Minute variations resulting from interbreeding

MACROEVOLUTION:Species to species change

Differing # of chromosomes

“Evolutionary” relatively large and complex steps

Microevolution in the Dog Species• All dogs are in the same species

• 78 chromosomes for all

• By inter breeding you get minute variations and minor genetic alterations

Interbreeding of Domestic Ducks

White Pekin Duck plus

Mallard Duck

equals

A Hybrid Duck

A Couple of Hoaxes

* Piltdown Man Hoax 1912

* Nebraska Man Hoax 1922

Paleontologist George Simpson in 1953 with a Dissenting View

on Evolution

“It remains true, as every paleontologist knows, that most new species, genera, and families, and that nearly all categories above the level of families, appear in the record suddenly, and are not led up to by known, gradual, completely continuous transitional sequences.”

Studies in the Bible and Science, Henry M. Morris

“Extinct” Fish Shows Up In Fisherman’s Nets

• Fossils of “extinct” Coelacanths fish found from the Triassic Age over 90,000,000 years ago

• Oops! Identical previously thought “extinct” Coelacanths was caught in deep water in 1938

The DNA Chasm Between Humans and Chimpanzees

# of chromosomes:

Humans 46

Chimpanzees 48

DNA differs 4% including:

35 million single-nucleotide changes &

5 million insertions/deletions

A Parting Quote

“There is no scientific basis for the creation account, but it is important to remember that there is no scientific basis for the theory of evolution either. Certainly, not everyone who accepts the evolution theory is an atheist, but the person who believes in God and believes that He is a God of miracles has no need to maintain that the earth is as much as five billion years old.”

Theodore H. Epp, The God of Creation