Evolution Cruncher Chapter 11
Plant and Animal Species
Why the species barrier
This chapter is based on pp. 441-474 of Origin of the Life (Volume Two of our three-volume Evolution Disproved Series). Not included in this chapter are at least 87 statements by scientists. You will find them, plus much more, in the encyclopedia on this website.
Evolution is based on change from one species to another. In chapters 9 and 10, Natural Selection and Mutations, we have found that there is no mechanism by which it can occur; and in chapter 12, Fossils and Strata, we will learn that there is no past evidence of such change.
The fact that all plant and animal true species are distinct types is a crux in the entire controversy. So we will here devote a full chapter to speciation. This material will help fill out the picture of what we are learning in other chapters.
DARWIN ON THE ORIGIN OF THE SPECIES—The battle over evolutionary theory finds its center in the species. This is where *Charles Darwin attempted to fight it, but without success. Even though he called his first book by that name, he never did try to figure out the origin of the species.
"Darwin never really did discuss the origin of the species in his Origin of the Species."—*Niles Eldredge, Time Frames: The Rethinking of Darwinian Evolution and the Theory of Punctuated Equilibria, (1985), p. 33.
*Darwin could not figure out why species even existed. If his theory was correct, there would be no distinct species, only confused creatures everywhere and no two alike.
"Charles Darwin, himself the father of evolution in his later days, gradually became aware of the lack of real evidence for his evolutionary speculation and wrote: ‘As by this theory, innumerable transitional forms must have existed. Why do we not find them embedded in the crust of the earth? Why is not all nature in confusion instead of being, as we see them, well defined species?"—H. Enoch, Evolution or Creation (1966), p. 139.
To make the situation worse, *Darwin did not know of one instance in which a species changed into another.
"Not one change of species into another is on record . . we cannot prove that a single species has been changed."—*Charles Darwin, My Life and Letters.
ORIGIN OF THE SPECIES UNKNOWN—(*#1/27 Origin of the Species Unknown / #2/13 The Experts are Puzzled*) The problem of species has become a major unsolved problem of the evolutionists, because they cannot figure out where they came from.
"More biologists would agree with Professor Hampton Carson of Washington University, St. Louis, when he says that speciation is ‘a major unsolved problem of evolutionary biology.’ "—*G.R. Taylor, Great Evolution Mystery (1983), p. 141.
"In the last thirty years or so speciation has emerged as the major unsolved problem. The British geneticist, William Bateson, was the first to focus attention on the question. In 1922 he wrote: ‘In dim outline evolution is evident enough. But that particular and essential bit of the theory of evolution which is concerned with the origin and nature of species remains utterly mysterious.’ Sixty years later we are if anything worse off, research having only revealed complexity within complexity."—*G.R. Taylor, Great Evolution Mystery (1983), p. 140.
1- IDENTIFYING THE SPECIES
PLANT AND ANIMAL CLASSIFICATIONS—(*#3/15 Classifying the Plants and Animals*) The science of classifying plants and animals is called taxonomy.
"Classification or taxonomy is the theory and practice of naming, describing, and classifying organisms."—*Stansfield, The Science of Evolution (1977), p. 98.
Taxonomists have placed all plants and animals in logical categories, and then arranged them on several major levels, which are these:
Kingdom
Phylum
Class
Order
Family
Genus
Species
Sub-species
It should be kept in mind that there is no such thing as a kingdom, phylum, class, order, or family. Those are just convenient names and are like rooms in a zoo or botanical garden, each one with a different collection of plant or animal species. It is the species that are alive; the room is not. The terms "phyla, classes, orders, families," and most of the "genera" are merely category labels. It is only the true species which should count. This includes some of what is listed as "species," and some life-forms called "genera," which should be labeled as species.
"According to the author’s view, which I think nearly all biologists must share, the species is the only taxonomic category that has, at least in more favorable examples, a completely objective existence. Higher categories are all more or less a matter of opinion."—*G.W. Richards, "A Guide to the Practice of Modern Taxonomy," in Science, March 13, 1970, p. 1477 [comment made during review of Mayr’s authoritative Principles of Systematic Zoology]
PANTHERA LEO—This is how the taxonomists classify the lion.
PANTHERA LEO
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Here is an example of how classification works. This is the classification of the house cat:
"PHYLUM Chordata—all animals possessing at some time in their life cycle pharyngeal pouches, a notochord, and a dorsal tubular nerve cord.
"SUBPHYLUM Vertebrata—all those animals that possess vertebrae.
"CLASS Mammalia—all those animals that have internally regulated body temperature, possess hair, and suckle their young.
"ORDER Carnivora—All those mammals whose teeth are adapted to a predatory mode of life, but which are not insectivores.
"FAMILY Felidae—all those Carnivora with retractile claws, lengthy tail, and a certain tooth arrangement.
"GENUS Felis—the true cats.
"SPECIES domestica—[the domesticated cats]."— Wayne Frair and Percival Davis, A Case for Creation (1983), p. 37.
SCIENTIFIC NAMES FOR SPECIES—If you go to the zoo, you will see a sign on one cage, "Giant Panda," with the words, "Alluropoda melanoleuca" just below it. The first line is capitalized and is the common name of this large black-and-white bear from China; the second line is its "scientific name." Scientists worldwide understand these two-part Latin names (called binominals). The first word is the genus, and the second is species. Sometimes the name of the discoverer or namer is added as a third word. The Swedish naturalist, Linnaeus, invented this method of scientific nomenclature in the 1750s.
*Darwin recognized that there was no evidence that any species had evolved from any other species. He decided that, instead of denying the existence of species, the only practical solution for evolutionists was, first, to classify plants and animals; second, point to similarities between them; and, then, declare that therefore one must have evolved from the other or from a common ancestor. From beginning to end, evolution is just theory, theory, theory.
THE GENESIS KIND—Back in the beginning, the law of the "Genesis kinds" was established:
"Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind . . And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind."—Genesis 1:11, 12.
In the same way, the birds, sea-life, and animals were each to reproduce "after their kind" (Genesis 1:20-22, 24-25). This principle was not to be violated. And this is what we find in the fossil record and in the world today. The "Genesis kind" is generally equivalent to the species level, but sometimes the genus level. This variation is due to flaws in our humanly devised classification systems.
Since the Hebrew words used in Genesis for "create" and "kind" are bara and min, Frank Marsh, a careful research scholar in speciation, has suggested the term baramin as an identifying name for this "Genesis kind." (Min is used 10 times in Genesis 1, and 21 times in the rest of the Old Testament.) It would be a good word to use, since it is more accurate than "species," which can at times be incorrect. Other names for the Genesis kinds, are the Genesis species, the true species, and the biological species. The present author favors "true species" as the term most easily understood.
BIOLOGICAL SPECIES—The term, "biological species," is increasingly becoming accepted as a basic reference point by scientists. Although there are instances in which obvious sub-species do not cross breed, biological species would normally apply to those species which do not cross-breed outside of their own kind. However, there are instances in which two sub-species of a true species no longer cross breed.
MICRO- VS. MACROEVOLUTION—(*#4/6 Micro and Macro*) Evolutionists point to changes WITHIN the species and call that "microevolution," and then proceed to tell us that such sub-species changes prove that theorized changes ACROSS species (which they term "macroevolution") must also be occurring.
But random gene shuffling within the species only produces new varieties and breeds. The DNA code barrier is not penetrated. New plant varieties and animal breeds never cross the species barrier.
New varieties and new breeds are not evolution; they are only variation within the already existing species. There is no such thing as "microevolution." Changes within the true species are not evolution.
COUNTING THE SPECIES—*Aristotle could list only about 500 kinds of animals; and his pupil, *Theophrastus, the most eminent botanist of ancient Greece, listed only about 500 different plants.
Through the centuries, as naturalists counted new varieties of creatures in the field, in the air, and in the sea, and as new areas of the world were explored, the number of identified species of animals and plants grew. By 1800 it had reached 70,000. Today there are several million. Two-thirds of them are animal and one-third are plant. The flowering plants and insects are the two largest single categories.
Nearly all of these millions of so-called "species" consist of sub-species of a much smaller number of original Genesis kinds, the true species. For example, today there are many different hummingbirds: but, originally, there was only one. Its gene pool permitted it to produce many sub-species.
JOHN RAY—John Ray (Wray) (1627-1705) apparently was the first scientist to formerly recognize the "species." He prepared a large classification of all the species of plants and animals known in his time (about 18,600).
Ray was an earnest Christian who, in the wonderful structures of plants and animals, saw abundant evidence of a Creator’s hand.
CARL LINNAEUS—Carl Von Linne (1707-1778) spent his adult life as a teacher at the University of Uppsala. At the age of 50, he latinized his name to "Carolus Linnaeus." The classification system of plants and animals developed by Linnaeus was to become the standard used today. He published it in his book, Systema Naturae, in 1735.
Linnaeus came to two definite conclusions: (1) Species were, for the most part, the equivalent of the "Genesis kind." (2) There had been no change across the basic categories—now or earlier. As a result of his studies, Linnaeus arrived at a firm belief in Special Creation and the fixity of species. He said, "We reckon as many species as issued in pairs from the hands of the Creator" (quoted in *H.F. Osborne, From the Greeks to Darwin, 1929, p. 187).
Men today may call themselves experts in taxonomy, but it is significant that the two men in human history able to lay a solid foundation for biological classification—saw in all their findings only evidence of creation, not evolution.
LINNAEUS AND RAY—Linnaeus was the one who developed our modern system of classification. Unfortunately, he frequently listed, as separate species, life-forms that could interbreed. Some of these decisions were based on ignorance, but nevertheless we live with the results today. Thus, the true species are not always those that are listed in the textbooks as "species." It is now recognized, by many qualified biologists, that John Ray did better quality work; for he carefully adhered to biological species in preparing his species categories. In contrast, Linnaeus at times confused them by placing true species in genera or sub-species categories.
LUMPERS AND SPLITTERS—There has been a perennial problem in regard to the "lumpers" and "splitters." There is a tendency for the taxonomists—the experts who classify plants and animals—to fall into one or the other of these two categories.
The lumpers place species together, which should be divided into sub-species. The splitters tend to put true species into sub-species categories.
"Lumper species," are also called "Linnaean species" because, back in the early 1700s, both Linnaeus and Ray pioneered the lumping of species. "Splitter species" are also called "Jordanian species" for the French botanist, Jordan, who initiated this approach in the early 1800s.
So today we find both Linnaean and Jordanian species scattered throughout the scientific lists of plants and animals. It is important to keep this in mind, for selective breeding of Jordanian species can appear to produce new species! This would appear to prove evolutionary claims and indicate species cross-over as taken place, —when, actually, two members of different sub-species, of the same true species, have interbred.
When the Santa Gertrudis cattle were developed in the 1960s by breeding zebu bulls with strains of Texas longhorns, Herefords, and shorthorns, the result was a new sub-species; but some splitters classify it as a "new species." Yet the Santa Gertrudis is merely another type of the cattle species and able to crossbreed with several others.
FAMILY TREE—(*#8/7 Our Family Tree*) Everyone has seen paintings in museums and textbooks of our "family tree," with its worms, birds, apes, and man shown in relation to how they evolved from one another. The impression is given that there can be no doubt that it really happened that way, for did not scientists prepare those charts?
COMPARING THE FAMILY TREES—In reality, there are only twigs (actual species) all over the ground. The rest of the "evolutionary tree" is as imaginary as the two lower sketches, below.
COMPARING THE TREES
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The truth is that the "Evolutionary Tree of Life" is just another fake, like all the other "evidences" of evolutionary theory.
One example of what you will find on one "limb" of this imaginary "tree" are a mutually diverse group of creatures called the "coelenterates" solely because they have a saclike body, tentacles, and a single mouth opening. Although coral and jellyfish are not a bit alike, they are therefore classified together. We are supposed to believe that, because coral and jellyfish are together on the tree, one evolved from the other! One is a hard-bodied creature; the other does not have a bone in its body. In the plant kingdom, the Compositae is merely a wastebasket category that includes all the flowering plants that cannot be fitted in somewhere else. So therefore, they are supposed to have evolved from one another. This "tree" is a classificationist’s nightmare!
All it really consists of is separate twigs, with each twig a separate species. Even *Richard Milner, a diligent evolutionary researcher, admits the fact.
"Delicate twigs, burgeoning in all directions, is closer to our current idea of evolutionary history."—*R. Milner, Encyclopedia of Evolution (1990), p. 54.
2 - FACTS ABOUT SPECIES
INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT SPECIES—Here are some facts about species and sub-species that will help you understand some of the problems inherent in this interesting field of plant and animal classification:
1 - Chickadees. The Carolina Chickadee (Parus carolinus) and the black-capped Chickadee (Parus atricapillus) look just like each other in every way, and freely interbreed. Yet they have different songs! Although they have been classified as two different species, we have here one species with two alternate gene factors.
2 - Wheat. Linnaeus classified spring wheat (Triticum aestivum L) as a different species than winter wheat (T. hybernum L). Yet they are both strains of the same wheat. They will cross and produce fertile hybrids. They should have been classified as sub-species.
SUBSPECIES OF DOGS—Dogs, dogs, everywhere—and scientists agree that they are all sub-species.
SUBSPECIES OF DOGS
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3 - Ladybugs. The ladybird beetle (Coccinellidae) has been divided into a number of different "species," but solely on the basis of different wing covers and the number and arrangement of spots on their backs.
4 - Song sparrows. For over two centuries four species of sparrows in North America had been listed (Lincoln, fox, swamp, and song). Gradually this number increased as taxonomists moved westward and found additional sparrows. Soon we had lots of sparrow "species." But as more and more were discovered, it was recognized that they were but intermediates between the others! So the experts finally got together and reclassified them all as sub-species of but one species, the song sparrow (Passereila melodía).
5 - Foxes. The red fox (Vulpes fulva) and the Newfoundland red fox have been categorized in different species, although the only difference is a paler reddish coat and shorter tail for the Newfoundland variety. Six taxonomists list 10 varieties of red fox, while 2 others list one species (Vulpes fulva) and count 12 sub-species. All these foxes are actually in one true species.
6 - Cattle. There are several different subspecies of cattle (Bos taurus L). Although the American bison (Bison bison L) and the European bison (Bison bonasus L) have a similar morphology (appearance), they will still generally crossbreed with cattle. In addition, it has been discovered that the African buffalo (Syncerus caffer) also interbreeds with them—yet the bison and cattle have been placed in totally different genera.
7 - Corn. One expert (*Sturtevant) categorized 6 species of corn (sweet, flint, flour, pod, dent, and popcorn), while other taxonomists acknowledge that they are all only varieties of one species.
8 - Finches. In the chapter on Natural Selection, we discuss *Charles Darwin’s finches (13, 14, 17, or 19; the count varies regarding this look-alike bird), which he found on the Galapagos Islands. Although about the same in size, shape and color, and together form a set of sub-species of finches which originally came from South America, yet Darwin called them different species—and therefore a proof of evolution. Those finches made a strong impression on his mind.
9 - Platypus. (*#9/3 The Creature that Fits no Category*) This one is so strange that it does not fit any category of animals.
"When zoologists examined a platypus for the first time, some suspected a hoax, thinking that parts of different animals had been sewn together. The platypus has the fur of an otter, the tail of a beaver, the bill and feet of a duck, and the venomous spurs of a fighting gamecock. Although the platypus is a mammal, it lays eggs and does not have nipples (milk oozes out of pore openings in the abdomen)."—*Asimov’s Book of Facts (1979), p. 135.
INCREASING SUB-SPECIES—There are many different sub-species in some species while there are but few for others. A key factor seems to be the ability of the creature to travel, whether by seed, spore, or in person.
For example, the tiny fruit flies cannot travel very far, so there are many varieties of them. The animal with the most sub-species appears to be the southern pocket gopher (Thomomys umbrinus) with 214 subspecies and, next to it, the northern pocket gopher (T. talpoides) with 66. Another highly isolated species is the deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus) with 66 subspecies.
In the case of animals that have been domesticated, such as dogs, cats, cattle, sheep, pigeons, and chickens, there are many sub-species as a result of selective breeding. The same holds true for cultivated crops (corn, beans, lettuce, and cabbage).
There are instances in which sub-species generally do not breed across sub-species. The other extreme is instances in which animals above the species level will produce young from an apparent cross-breeding. In some cases these are true species, and should have been classified as such. But there are also instances in which breeding did NOT occur—although it appeared to take place! In true fertilization, the male and female elements unite and produce young. But there are times when two different species have been bred and young have been produced—in which no true breeding occurred!
This false breeding takes place when the presence of male sperm stimulates the egg to begin production on a new life-form, but the sperm is rejected because it is from a different species. The resulting birth is known as parthenogenesis. Scientific analysis has established that this false breeding across true species works in exactly the manner described here.
It is significant that mankind can never successfully breed across with any other species, including any of the great apes.
"There is no evidence of the origin of a hybrid between man and any other mammal."—*Edward Colin, Elements of Genetics, 1946, pp. 222-223.
One careful researcher (Frank Marsh) spent years tracking down every report of crosses above that of true species. Each time he found them to be hoaxes. One instance was of bird feathers sewn to a stuffed animal skin. It made good copy for a newspaper article, so it was printed.
3 - DISPROVING SPECIES EVOLUTION
MENDELIAN GENETICS—It has been said that the foundations of evolutionary theory were laid by the work of *Charles Darwin (1809-1882), but that the principles which Gregor Mendel (1822-1884) discovered, as he worked with garden peas at about the same time that Darwin was writing his book, were the means of abolishing that theory.
Everyone is acquainted with the illustration of the rough and smooth-coated guinea pigs. It was the work of Mendel that formed the basis for understanding the transmission of inherited characteristics. Mendel prepared the foundation for modern genetics. It was later discovered that within the cell are chromosomes, and inside the chromosomes are genes, and inside them is the coded DNA. (For more information on this, see chapter 8, DNA.) Random shuffling of the genetic code is what determines whether or not that baby guinea pig will inherit a rough or a smooth coat from its parents. But either way he will remain a guinea pig. Because that tiny newborn creature is locked into being a guinea pig is the reason why Darwin’s theory crumbles before the science of genetics.
PRIMITIVE ANCESTORS—Evolutionists tell us that certain creatures are more "primitive" than others, and are their "ancestors." But that is just theory. Consider but one example: the monotremes and the marsupials, which are supposed to be "primitive ancestors" of the mammals. Both have organs that are different than mammals and just as complex. (For an excellent analysis, see A.W. Mehlert, "A Critique of the Alleged Reptile to Mammal Transition" in Creation Research Society Quarterly, June 1988, p. 10.)
MANY VARIATIONS POSSIBLE—Yes, variations are limited by the species barrier,—but immense variations are possible within a given species!
*Francisco Ayala has calculated that, among humans, a single couple could theoretically produce 102017 children before they would have to produce one that was identical to one of their earlier children (not counting identical twins, which came from the same egg and sperm). That would be 1 followed by 2017 zeroes. The number of atoms in the known universe is only 1080. So the number of possible variations within any given species is quite broad. Yet all of them would only be variations within the same species.
ALWAYS A LIMIT—We discussed artificial selection in chapter 9, Natural Selection, and found it to be highly selective plant and animal breeding. In regard to any given single factor, selective breeding may, for a time, be carried out; but soon a limit in factor variety will be reached. What limits it? It is the DNA code in the genes. That code forbids a cross-over to a new species. The genetic makeup within the chromosomes forms a barrier, a literal wall of separation between one species and another.
LIMITS OF VARIABILITY—This is a crucial factor. All evolutionary theory pivots on whether or not there are such limits on how far you can breed differences in a species. Can one species change into another one? If there are definite limits forbidding it, then evolution cannot occur. An evolutionary encyclopedia provides us with a brief overview of the history of theory and "pure-line research" into limits of variability:
"Alfred Russell Wallace and Charles Darwin had insisted that through gradual, continuous change, species could (in Wallace’s phrase) ‘depart indefinitely from the original type.’ Around 1900 came the first direct test of that proposition: the ‘pure line research’ of Wilhelm Ludwig Johannsen (1857-1927). What would happen, Johannsen wondered, if the largest members of a population were always bred with the largest, and the smallest with the smallest? How big or how small would they continue to get after a few generations? Would they ‘depart indefinitely’ from the original type, or are there built-in limits and constraints?
"Experimenting on self-fertilizing beans, Johannsen selected and bred the extremes in sizes over several generations. But instead of a steady, continuous growth or shrinkage as Darwin’s theory seemed to predict, he produced two stabilized populations (or ‘pure lines’) of large and small beans. After a few generations, they had reached a specific size and remained there, unable to vary further in either direction. Continued selection had no effect.
"Johnannsen’s work stimulated many others to conduct similar experiments. One of the earliest was Herbert Spencer Jennings (1868-1947) of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard, the world authority on the behavior of microscopic organisms. He selected for body size in Paramecium and found that after a few generations selection had no effect. One simply cannot breed a paramecium the size of a baseball. Even after hundreds of generations, his pure lines remained constrained within fixed limits, ‘as unyielding as iron.’
"Another pioneer in pure line research was Raymond Pearl (1879-1940), who experimented with chickens at the Maine Agricultural Experiment Station. Pearl took up the problem . . [to] evolve a hen that lays eggs all day long.
"He found you could breed some super-layers, but an absolute limit was soon reached . . In fact, Pearl produced some evidence indicating that production might actually be increased by relaxing selection—by breeding from ‘lower than maximum’ producers."—*R. Milner, Encyclopedia of Evolution (1990), p. 376.
Whatever we may try to do within a given species, we soon reach limits which we cannot break through. A wall exists on every side of each species. That wall is the DNA coding, which permits wide variety within it (within the gene pool, or the genotype of a species)—but no exit through that wall.
"Darwin’s gradualism was bounded by internal constraints, beyond which selection was useless."—*R. Milner, Encyclopedia of Evolution (1990), p. 46.
LOSS OF FITNESS—Not only is there a limiting wall that will always be reached,—but as the researcher nears that outer wall, the subjects being bred become weaker. The variations made within those borders do not actually bring overall improvements in the corn, cows, and chickens. All of the apparent improvement is made at the expense of overall fitness for life. Gish explains why this is so:
"It must be strongly emphasized, also, that in all cases these specialized breeds possess reduced viability; that is, their basic ability to survive has been weakened. Domesticated plants and animals do not compete well with the original, or wild type . . They survive only because they are maintained in an environment which is free from their natural enemies, food supplies are abundant, and other conditions are carefully regulated."—Duane Gish, Evolution: Challenge of the Fossil Record (1985), p. 34.
"Our domesticated animals and plants are perhaps the best demonstration of the effects of this principle. The improvements that have been made by selection in these have clearly been accompanied by a reduction of fitness for life under natural conditions, and only the fact that domesticated animals and plants do not live under natural conditions has allowed these improvements to be made."—*O.S. Falconer, introduction to Quantitative Genetics (1960), p. 186.
GENE DEPLETION—The scientific name for this loss of fitness through adaptation is gene depletion. According to this principle, selective breeding always weakens a species—and never strengthens it.
"[The original species came into existence] with rich potential for genetic variation into races, breeds, hybrids, etc. But so far from developing into new kinds, or even improving existing kinds, such variations are always characterized by intrinsic genetic weakness of individuals, in accordance with the outworking of the second law of thermodynamics through gene depletion and the accumulation of harmful mutations. Thus, the changes that occur in living things through the passage of time are always within strict boundary lines."—John C. Whitcomb, The Early Earth (1986), p. 94.
In chapter 10, Mutations, we mentioned the genetic load, mentioned in the above quotation.
The original stock was strong, but as it branched out into variations within its kind, it became weakened. That is gene depletion. In addition, with the passing of time, genes are damaged through random radiation and mutations occur. Such mutations are also weakening, and gradually a genetic load is built up.
Thus we see that, on one hand, the farther the species strays from its central original pattern, the weaker it becomes (gene depletion). On the other, as the centuries continue on, mutational weaknesses increase in all varieties of a given species (genetic load).
The total picture is not one of evolving upward, strengthening, improving, or changing into new and diverse species.
EVOLUTION WOULD WEAKEN AND NARROW—It is an astounding fact that evolutionary theory, if true, could only produce ever weaker creatures with continually narrowed adaptive traits. A Dutch zoologist, *J.J. Duyvene de Wit, explains that if man were descended from animal ancestors, "man should possess a smaller gene-potential than his animal ancestors!" (*J.J. Duyvene de Wit, A New Critique of the Transformist Principle in Evolutionary Biology (1965), pp. 56, 57.)
Well, that is a breath-taking discovery! If we had actually descended from monkeys, then we would have less genetic potential than they have! Our anatomy, physiology, brains, hormones, etc. would be less competent than that of a great ape.
In turn, the monkey is supposedly descended from something else, and would therefore have less genetic capacity than its supposed ancestor had. Somewhere back there, the first descendant came from protozoa. All that follows in the evolutionary ladder would have to have considerably less genetic potential than protozoa! That point alone eliminates biological evolution!
How can evolutionary theory survive such facts! It can only be done by hiding those facts. Evolution ranks as one of the most far-fetched ideas of our time, yet it has a lock-grip on all scientific thought and research. The theory twists data and warps conclusions in an effort to vindicate itself. Just imagine how much further along the path of research and discovery we would have been if, a hundred years ago, we had throttled evolutionary theory to death.
SELECTIVE BREEDING—Selective breeding occurs when people thoughtfully select out the best rose, ear of corn, or milk cow; and then, through careful breeding, they produce better roses, corn ears, or milk cows. But please notice several facts in connection with this:
(1) "Selection" requires intelligence, planning, and consistent effort by someone who is not the rose, corn, or cow. Random action is not "selection." Therefore "natural selection" is a misnomer. It should be called "random activity." The word "selection" implies intelligent decision-making. "Meaningless muddling" would better fit the parameters the evolutionists have in mind.
(2) Contrary to what the evolutionists claim, selective breeding can provide no evidence of evolution, since it is intelligent, careful, planned activity; whereas evolution, by definition, is random occurrences.
(3) Although random accidents could never produce new species,—neither can intelligent selective breeding! Selective breeding never, never produces new species. But if it cannot effect trans-species changes, we can have no hope that evolutionary chance operations could do it.
(4) Selective breeding narrows the genetic pool; although it may have produce a nicer-appearing rose, at the same time it weakened the rose plant that grew that rose. Selective breeding may improve a selected trait, but tends to weaken the whole organism.
Because of this weakening factor, national and international organizations are now collecting and storing "seed banks" of primitive seed. It is feared that diseases may eventually wipe out our specialized crops, and we need to be able to go back and replenish from the originals: rice, corn, tomatoes, etc.
POPULATION GENETICS—(*#5/7 Population Genetics Fails to Prove Evolution*) A related area is termed population genetics, and it is declared by evolutionists to be another grand proof of their theory. Population genetics looks at locations of species and variations within species found there,—and theorizes evolutionary causes and effects.
This field of study includes analysis of: (1) "geographic isolation" of species and sub-species produced by that species while in isolation. Some of these sub-species may eventually no longer interbreed with related sub-species, but they are obviously closely related sub-species. (2) "Migration of populations" into new areas resulting occasionally in permanent colonization. Additional sub-species are produced in this way. (3) "Genetic drift" is analyzed. This is the genetic contribution of a particular population to its offspring.
Variability here arises primarily from normal gene reshuffling. It is because of gene reshuffling that your children do not look identical to you. This is quite normal, and does not make your children new species!
Population genetics, then, is the study of changes in sub-species. The information produced is interesting, but it provides no evidence of evolution, because it only concerns sub-species.
A field closely related to population genetics is selective breeding of plants and animals. But a favorite study of the population geneticists is people. Human beings are all one species. Population genetics analyzes changes within the "people species." Yet changes within a species is not evolution.
"It is an irony of evolutionary genetics that, although it is a fusion of Mendelism and Darwinism, it has made no direct contribution to what Darwin obviously saw as the fundamental problem: the origin of species."—*Richard Lewontin, Genetic Basis of Evolutionary Change (1974), p. 159.
"The leading workers in this field have confessed, more or less reluctantly, that population genetics contributes very little to evolutionary theory . . If the leading authorities on population genetics confess to this dismal lack of achievement and even chuckle about it, it is altogether fitting and proper for the rank and file to take them at their word. Therefore it seems to follow that there is no need to teach population genetics."—*E. Saiff and *N. Macbeth, "Population Genetics and Evolutionary Theory" in Tuatara 26 (1983), pp. 71-72.
GENETIC DRIFT—"Genetic Drift" is frequently spoken of as another "evidence" of evolution, but even confirmed evolutionists admit it proves nothing in regard to evolution. Genetic drift is changes in small groups of sub-species that, over a period of time, have become separated from the rest of their species. Oddities in their DNA code factors became more prominent, yet they all remained in the same species.
*Frank Rhodes (Evolution, 1974, p. 75) explains that all that "genetic drift" refers to is changes in a "sub-species" of a plant or animal (or in a "race," which is a sub-species among human beings). Even *Rhodes recognizes that genetic drift provides no evidence of change from one species to another. All the drift has been found to be within species and never across them.
THE MALE/FEMALE REQUIREMENT—Inherent in the species quandary is the male and female element problem. It would be so much easier to bear young and, hopefully, produce new species, if everyone were females. But because it requires both a male and female to produce offspring, any possibility of going trans-species would mean producing not one new creature—but two! Only recently was the extent of this problem fully realized.
It was supposed that mingling two sets of genes would produce a new creature; but, in 1984, researchers working with mice tried to fertilize mouse eggs with equal sets of mouse genes from other females. But they found a male gene was required. There are very real differences between identical chemical structures produced by males and females. In addition, the male proteins on the surface of the developing fetus and placenta modify the mother’s immune response so that she does not reject the growing child.
How could two of each species—independent of each other—evolve? Yet this is what had to happen. The male and female of each species are forever uniquely separate from one another in a variety of ways, yet perfectly matching partners—a male and female—would have had to evolve together, at each step. Evolution cannot explain this.
"From an evolutionary viewpoint, the sex differentiation is impossible to understand, as well as the structural sexual differences between the systematic categories which are sometimes immense. We know that intersexes within a species must be sterile. How is it, then, possible to imagine bridges between two amazingly different structural types?"—*Nilsson, Synthetic Speciation, p. 1225.
"This book is written from a conviction that the prevalence of sexual reproduction in higher plants and animals is inconsistent with current evolutionary theory."— *George C. Williams, Sex and Evolution (1975), p. v.
"Indeed, the persistence of sex is one of the fundamental mysteries in evolutionary biology today."—*Gina Maranto and Shannon Brownlee, "Why Sex?" Discover, February 1984, p. 24.
"So why is there sex? We do not have a compelling answer to the question. Despite some ingenious suggestions by orthodox Darwinians, there is no convincing Darwinian history for the emergence of sexual reproduction."—*Philip Kitcher, Abusing Science: The Case Against Creationism (1982), p. 54.
ALTERNATE ORIGINS OF THE SPECIES—Because of the inflexible nature of the species, *Austin H. Clark, a distinguished biologist on the staff of the Smithsonian Institution, wrote a shocking book in 1930. He concluded that, since there was no evidence now or earlier of any cross-overs between species,—all of the major groups of plants and animals must have independently originated out of raw dirt and seawater!
"From all the tangible evidence that we now have been able to discover, we are forced to the conclusion that all the major groups of animals at the very first held just about the same relation to each other that they do today."—*A.H. Clark, The New Evolution: Zoogenesis (1930), p. 211.
The fossil evidence indicating no transitional forms, but only gaps between species, would have proved his point. But *Clark ignored that and said that separate evolutions and origins had to have occurred—just because there were simply too many differences between the various life-forms. They could not possibly have evolved from each other.
Clark’s book shook up the scientific world. The evolutionists tried to quiet matters; but about a decade later, *Richard Goldschmidt, of the University of California at Berkeley, published a different alternative view: Gigantic million-fold mutations must have occurred all at once, that suddenly changed one species to another. Goldschmidt’s dreamy theory is today becoming more accepted by evolutionists, under the leadership of *Stephen Jay Gould.
*Clark recognized the impossibility of evolution across major groups of plants and animals. Therefore he said each one independently originated out of sand and seawater. *Goldschmidt and *Gould recognized the impossibility of evolution across species, so they theorized that once every 50,000 years or so, a billion positive, cooperative, networking mutations suddenly appeared by chance and produced a new species. (For more on this, see chapter 10, Mutations.)
THE CLADISTS—(*#6/5 Cladists against Evolution*) What about the experts who classify plants and animals; what do they think about all this controversy over species and ancestral relationships?
Scientists who specialize in categorizing life-forms are called taxonomists. A surprising number of them have joined the ranks of the cladists.
Cladistics comes from a Greek noun for "branch." Cladists are scientists who study biological classifications solely for its own sake—for the purpose of discovering relationship, apart from any concern to determine ancestry or origins. In other words, the cladists are scientists who have seen so much evidence in plants and animals that evolution is not true; that, as far as they are concerned, they have tossed it out the window and instead simply study plants and animals. They want to know about life-forms because they are interested in life-forms, not because they are trying to prove evolution.
Cladists are biological classification specialists who have given up on evolution. They recognize it to be a foolish, unworkable theory, and they want to study plants and animals without being required to "fit" their discoveries into the evolutionary "ancestor" and "descendant" mold. They are true scientists who are concerned with reality, not imaginings.
A leading British scientist and life-long evolutionist says this:
"So now we can see the full extent of the doubts. The transformed cladists claim that evolution is totally unnecessary for good taxonomy; at the same time they are unconvinced by the Darwinian explanation of how new species arise. To them, therefore, the history of life is still fiction rather than fact and the Darwinian penchant for explaining evolution in terms of adaptation and selection is largely empty rhetoric . . It seems to me that the theoretical framework [of evolutionary theory] has very little impact on the actual progress of the work in biological research. In a way some aspects of Darwinism and of neo-Darwinism seem to me to have held back the progress of science."—*Colin Patterson, The Listener. [Patterson is senior paleontologist at the British Museum of Natural History, London.]
THE SPECIES ARE NOT CHANGING—If one species cannot change into another, there can be no evolution. But this should not be surprising. For example, the fossil record reveals that the bat has not changed since it first appeared in the fossil record, supposedly "50 million years ago,"—and there was no transitional form preceding it. The same can be said for the other creatures. Throughout the fossil record, there are only solid, fixed forms and wide gaps between species. Those gaps are no surprise to us, but they are agonizing for the evolutionists. In chapter 12, Fossils and Strata, we go into detail on such matters.
"No one has ever produced a species by mechanisms of natural selection. No one has gotten near it."—*Colin Patterson, "Cladistics," in BBC Radio Interview, March 4, 1982.
"Most species exhibit no directional change during their tenure on earth. They appear in the fossil record looking much the same as when they disappeared; morphological change is usually limited and directionless."—*Stephen Jay Gould, "Evolution’s Erratic Pace," in Natural History, April 1980, p. 144.
"Evolution requires intermediate forms between species, and paleontology [the study of fossils] does not provide them."—*David Kitts, "Paleontology and Evolutionary Theory" in Evolution, September 1974, p. 467.
All this is a most terrible problem for the evolutionists.
"Evolution is . . troubled from within by the troubling complexities of genetic and developmental mechanisms and new questions about the central mystery—speciation itself."—*Keith S. Thomson, "The Meanings of Evolution" in American Scientist, September/October 1982, p. 529.
Evolutionists have reason to be troubled: All the evidence they can find to substantiate their claims is changes within species (so-called "microevolution," which is not evolution), never changes across species ("macroevolution," which is evolution).
"Two very influential books in recent years have been the beautifully colored Life Nature Library volume, Evolution, by Ruth Moore and the Editors of Life, and the even more beautifully colored and produced volume, Atlas of Evolution, by Sir Gavin de Beer. The impressive demonstrable evidence which fills these volumes is micro-evolution only!"—Frank Marsh, "The Form and Structure of Living Things," in Creation Research Society Quarterly, June 1969, p. 21 (italics his).
NO TRANSITIONAL SPECIES—The speciation problem is a gap problem. There are no transitional species, as there ought to be if evolution were true.
But we find there are absolutely no transitional forms to fill the gaps. In desperation, evolutionists have come up with an answer: "The transitions were made so slowly that they left no remains behind."—Wait a minute! How can that be? The more slowly the transitions, the larger would be the number of transitional forms that would be in the fossil strata for posterity to examine! (*Steven M. Stanley, "Macroevolution and the Fossil Record" in Evolution, Vol. 36, No. 3, 1982, p. 460).
—And none other than *Charles Darwin himself agrees with us!
"When we descend to details, we can prove that no species has changed [we cannot prove that a single species has changed]; nor can we prove that the supposed changes are beneficial, which is the groundwork of the theory."—*Charles Darwin, in *Francis Darwin (ed.), The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin Vol. 2 (1887), p. 210.
IT TAKES A MILLION YEARS TO MAKE ONE SPECIES—(*#7/4 Millions of Years for One Species*) That is what the evolutionists say! How can there be millions of species, when the evolutionists tell us it takes a million years to make just one of them?
"It takes a million years to evolve a new species, ten million for a new genus, one hundred million for a class, a billion for a phylum—and that’s usually as far as your imagination goes.
"In a billion years [from now], it seems, intelligent life might be as different from humans as humans are from insects . . To change from a human being to a cloud may seem a big order, but it’s the kind of change you’d expect over billions of years."—*Freeman Dyson, Statement made in 1986, quoted in Asimov’s Book of Science and Nature Quotations, p. 93 [American mathematician].
If it takes a million years to produce just one new species,—there would not have been time for the millions of present species in the world to come into existence.
There just is not enough time for all those species changes to occur. Evolutionary dogma states that nothing was alive on Planet Earth over 2 billion years ago, and that all the evolving of life-forms has occurred within that brief time span.
"[Evolution is surmised to be of the order of two billion years . . from causes which now continue to be in operation, and which therefore can be studied experimentally."—*Theodosius Dobzhansky, Genetics and the Origin of Species (1951), pp. 3-11 [Columbia University].
Two billion is only 2 thousand million. If it takes a million years to produce one species change, there would only be time for 2000 new species to be produced. An evolutionist would reply that more than one species was changing at the same time in various parts of the world, and this is how all our present millions of species could evolve into existence in 2 billion years.
But that is an oversimplification. What about the theoretical stairstep pattern from the first single-celled creature that made itself out of sand and seawater to man? That single stairstep progression alone would require hundreds of thousands of major changes! Yet only "millions of years" are provided for all the changes to come about.
"Evolution, in very simple terms, means that life progressed from one-celled organisms to its highest state, the human being, by means of a series of biological changes taking place over millions of years."—*Houston Post, August 23, 1964, p. 6.
Billions of transitional species would have to occur in order to climb the evolutionary stairs from amoeba to man. Those transitional forms simply do not exist; they never have existed. There are only gaps between the species. But the transitional forms would have had to be there in order for evolution to have occurred. It could not take place without them.
Even the evolutionists themselves avow that these cross-species changes take place so slowly, that they are not seen within a single lifetime.
"Evolution, at least in the sense that Darwin speaks of it, cannot be detected within the lifetime of a single observer."—*David G. Kitts, "Paleontology and Evolutionary Theory," Evolution, Vol. 28, September 1974, p. 466.
If the transitional changes occur that slowly, then there should be vast numbers of transitional species living today, as well as etched into the fossil record. But they are not to be found. They do not exist; they have never existed.
The above statement by *Kitts indicates that, although it cannot be seen within a single generation, cross-species changes should be observed over a span of several generations. Why then do the hundreds of thousands of paintings from past centuries reveal man and animals to be just as they are today? We can go back thousands of years into the artwork of the past, and find no species change in man or animal. Five thousand years divided by 25 years per generation is 200 generations from our time to the earliest Egyptians. Five thousand years has produced no evolutionary change.
Yet we have only been speaking about the ladder from microbe to man. What about the hundreds of thousands of other ladders? For every species, a ladder of transitional forms leading up to it should be found.
Billions upon billions of transitional species should be engraved in the fossil rock and in nature today. Yet we see none of this. Over a hundred years of frantic searching by evolutionists has not produced even one transitional form! The transitions cannot be found since they have never existed.
SUB-SPECIES RUNNING WILD—New sub-species can be produced very fast,—and they are being produced today! Gene reshuffling does this. When isolated for several years, they sometimes no longer breed across sub-species,—yet they are still sub-species and not different species. Here are some examples:
"A strain of Drosophila paulistorum which was fully interfertile with other strains when first collected, developed hybrid sterility after having been isolated in a separate culture for just a few years . .
"Five endemic species of cichlid [fish] are found in Lake Nabugabo, a small lake which has been isolated from Lake Victoria for less than 4000 years . .
"In birds we have the classic example of the European house sparrow (Passer domesticus) which was introduced into North America about 1852. Since then the sparrows have spread and become geographically differentiated into races that are adapted in weight, in length of wing and of bill, and in coloration, to different North American environments . . Yet it has been accomplished in only about 118 generations (to 1980).
"By 1933 the sparrow had reached Mexico City where it has since formed a distinct sub-species. R.E. Moreau had concluded in 1930 that the minimum time required [by evolution] for a bird to achieve that sub-species step was 5000 years; the sparrow required just 30 years. As has been aptly commented:
" ‘We can here judge the value of speculation compared with observation in analyzing evolution’ " (E.B. Ford, Genetics and Maptation, 1976).
"Rabbits were introduced into Australia about 1859; yet the wealth of variation now present there is very extensive, vastly exceeding that apparent in the European stock (Wildlife Research 10, 73-82, 1965)."— A.J. Jones, "Genetic Integrity of the ‘Kinds’ (Baramins)," Creation Research Society Quarterly, June 1982, p. 17.
The above facts explain why there is such an abundance of so-called "species" in the world today. In reality, an immense number of them are just sub-species.
"According to the late Theodosius Dobzhansky, on our planet we have 1,071,500 species of animals, 368,715 species of plants, and 3230 monerans (blue-green algae, bacteria, viruses). Sabrosky tells us that the arthropods constitute about 82 percent of all animal species; among the arthropods some 92 percent are insects; and among the insects about 40 percent are beetles."—Frank L Marsh, "Genetic Variation, Limitless or Limited?" in Creation Research Society Quarterly, March 1983, p. 204.
There is far too much jumbling of sub-species with species by the taxonomists. Scientists frequently use the word "species" in a loose sense to include a multitude of sub-species. Repeatedly, a sub-species is given a species name.
THERE SHOULD BE NO SPECIES—In fact, if evolution were true, there should not be any distinct species at all! There would only be innumerable transitions! Categories of plants and animals can be arranged in orderly systems only because of the separateness of the species. But if evolutionary theory is correct, there could be no distinct species. Instead, there would only be a confused blur of transitional forms, each one only slightly different than the others. This is a very significant and important point.
"Why should we be able to classify plants and animals into types or species at all? In a fascinating editorial feature in Natural History, Stephen Gould writes that biologists have been quite successful in dividing up the living world into distinct and discrete species . . ‘But,’ says Gould, ‘how could the existence of distinct species be justified by a theory [evolution] that proclaimed ceaseless change as the most fundamental fact of nature?’ For an evolutionist, why should there be species at all? If all life-forms have been produced by gradual expansion through selected mutations from a small beginning gene pool, organisms really should just grade into one another without distinct boundaries."—Henry Morris and Gary Parker, What is Creation Science? (1987), pp. 121-122.
Another leading evolutionist also wonders why distinct species exist.
"If a line of organisms can steadily modify its structure in various directions, why are there any lines stable enough and distinct enough to be called species at all? Why is the world not full of intermediate forms of every conceivable kind?"—*G.R. Taylor, Great Evolution Mystery, (1983), p. 141.
The facts that species exist at all, that there are no gaps (no transitional creatures) between them, and that living species are identical to those alive "millions of years ago" form a major species problem for the evolutionists.
There is immense complexity within each species, but a distinct barrier between species.
"In the last thirty years or so speciation has emerged as the major unsolved problem . . [Over the years, in trying to solve this problem] we are if anything worse off, research having only revealed complexity within complexity . .
"More biologists would agree with Professor Hampton Carson of Washington University, St. Louis, when he says that speciation is ‘a major unsolved problem of evolutionary biology.’ "—*Gordon R. Taylor, Great Evolution Mystery (1983), pp. 140-141.
"Many species and even whole families remain inexplicably constant. The shark of today, for instance, is hardly distinguishable from the shark of 150 million years ago . .
"According to Professor W.H. Thorpe, Director of the Sub-department of Animal Behavior at Cambridge and a world authority, this is the problem in evolution. He said in 1968: ‘What is it that holds so many groups of animals to an astonishingly constant from over millions of years? This seems to me the problem [in evolution] now—the problem of constancy, rather than that of ‘change.’ " —*G.R. Taylor, Great Evolution Mystery (1983), pp. 141-142.
If evolution is constantly producing species, why are the species not changing into new ones?
THE LEBZELTER PRINCIPLE AND HARDY-WEINBERG PRINCIPLE—Evolutionists really have to work hard to find something validating evolution, in what they teach students in the schools. For this reason, several states require that students memorize a complex quadratic equation, called the Hardy-Weinberg principle. Teachers say this mathematical formula proves evolution. A parallel one is the *Lebzelter principle. So we will explain them both.
In 1932, *Viktor Lebzelter stated the "Lebzelter principle":
"When man lives in large conglomerates, race tends to be stable while cultures become diversified; but where he lives in small isolated groups, culture is stable but diversified races evolve."—*Viktor Lebzelter, Rassengeschichte de Menscheit (1932), p. 27.
Here it is in simpler words, when people live, socialize, and select mates from a large group, their racial characteristics are stabilized while within the large group a variety of sub-cultures will develop. But when members only have a highly restricted number of people to socialize with and intermarry among, their cultural patterns will tend to be the same throughout the small group, but racial oddities will develop.
That is true; and the cause, of course, is close interbreeding, when people marry near relatives.
"The quickest way to expose lethal traits [in the genes] is by intensive and continual inbreeding."—*Willard Hollander, "Lethal Heredity," in Scientific American, July 1952, p. 60.
"When a recessive gene arose by mutation, it will only after some time occur in an double dose by means of intermarriage—soonest by a marriage of cousins."— *G. Dahlberg, quoted in Ernst Mayr Animal Species and Evolution (1963), p. 518.
The evolutionists tell us that this Lebzelter principle is another evidence of evolution, but it is no evidence at all. Although this concept is indeed a useful one, it does not help the Darwinists. Evolutionists declare that it is the small, restricted groups (plants, animals, and people) which have produced the new species. But there is no evidence that new species have been produced. The Lebzelter principle only discusses interbreeding within a single species.
Yet the Lebzelter principle does have application to conditions just after the Creation and again at the end of the Flood . . In the time of Adam and Eve, and again as the eight members of Noah’s family left the Ark, there was only a small group and there would have been a decided tendency to produce a variety of racial stocks. As the people scattered after the destruction of the Tower of Babel, they would have settled in new areas (China, Africa, India, etc.), thus producing many restricted groups, and these would have stabilized into distinct races, to the extent that they remained separate from other groups. But, in all of this, no NEW species were produced! Evolution had not occurred, only sub-species (among humans, called "races").
Now for the "Hardy-Weinberg principle": Two scientists worked out an algebraic equation that states the Lebzelter principle. And that is all there is to it; no evolutionary proof here at all.
DARWIN’S BEQUEST—It is well-known that *Charles Darwin had little to say about the actual origin of the species—the origin of life in a "primitive environment," but, instead, focused his entire work on an attempt to disprove fixed species. Yet, with the passing of the years, he became so confused regarding the species question that he was no longer certain how species could possibly change into one another.
In his will, he gave a bequest to the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, England, which was trying to prepare the Index Kewensis, a gigantic plant catalogue which would classify and fix all known plant species.
"Some botanists have commented on the irony that the great evolutionist—who convinced the world that species are unfixed, changeable entities—should have funded an immense, definitive species list as his final gift to science."—*R. Milner, Encyclopedia of Evolution (1990), p. 236.
Ironically, *Charles Darwin’s last act was money given to help categorize the separate species.
CONCLUSION—Here is how one author ably summarized the situation:
"Anyone who can contemplate the eye of a housefly, the mechanics of human finger movement, the camouflage of a moth, or the building of every kind of matter from variations in arrangement of proton and electron—and then maintain that all this design happened without a designer, happened by sheer, blind accident—such a person believes in a miracle far more astounding than any in the Bible.
"To regard man, with his arts and aspirations, his awareness of himself and of his universe, his emotions and his morals, his very ability to conceive an idea so grand as that of God, to regard this creature as merely a form of life somewhat higher on the evolutionary ladder than the others,—is to create questions more profound than are answered."—David Raphael Klein, "Is There a Substitute for God?" in Reader’s Digest, March 1970, p. 55.
POSTSCRIPT: SOON THEY WILL BE GONE—Interestingly enough, although the evolutionary problem is that the species are not changing, mankind’s problem today is that the species are disappearing!
"They [plant and animal species] are vanishing at an alarming rate. Normally, [evolutionists speculate] existing species become extinct at approximately the same rate as new species evolve, but since the year 1600 that equation has grown increasingly lopsided.
"Informed estimates put the present extinction rate at forty to four hundred times normal. One estimate says that 25,000 species are in danger right now. Another says that one million could disappear from South America alone in the next two decades. If current trends continue, some twenty percent of the species now on earth will be extinct by the year 2000. Current trends will probably continue.
"This awesome rate of extinction is apparently unprecedented in our planet’s history. Many experts say it represents our most alarming ecological crisis."—*G. Jon Roush, "On Saving Diversity, in Fremontia (California Native Plant Society), January 1986.
"Twenty years ago, species were being silenced at a rate of about one a day; now, despite the efforts of the [Nature] Conservancy and many other groups like it, the rate is more than one per hour. Within 30 years, mankind may have wiped out one fifth of all the earth’s species!" —*"10,000 Species to Disappear in 1991," U.S. News and World Report, January 7, 1991, p. 68.
EVOLUTION COULD NOT DO THISBecause the quail builds her next and sets on her eggs on the ground, so they must all hatch at the same time. Not until the entire dozen or so are laid, does the mother quail begin setting. Why does she wait until then? Who told her to do this? However, all the eggs do not develop at the same rate. Yet all hatch out at the same time. Scientists eventually discovered the cause. The faster ones click in their shells to the slower ones, and that causes the slower ones to speed their development! Everything in nature is a continual amazement.
CHAPTER 11 - STUDY AND REVIEW QUESTIONS
ANIMAL AND PLANT SPECIESGRADES 5 TO 12 ON A GRADUATED SCALE
1 - Thoroughly memorize the eight classification categories (kingdom, phylum, class). To whatever extent you study or work in the natural sciences, they will come in handy all your life,
2 - Discuss the several definitions by which a true species can be identified.
3 - There are several names for a true species: species, true species, Genesis kinds, baramins, biological species. Which one or ones do you consider best? Why?
4 - Evolutionists point to microevolution as a proof that evolution occurs. Why is so-called microevolution not evolution at all?
5 - Write a paper on Carl Linnaeus.
6 - Explain the difference between "lumpers" and "splitters." Which of the two do you think causes the most confusion for those who are trying to identify the true species?
7 - Explain the sentence: "There is not an evolutionary tree; there are only twigs."
8 - Explain why gene depletion would make it impossible for evolution to occur. Include a discussion of de Wit’s comments on it.
9 - Why is selective breeding of no use as evidence in favor of evolution? Why is it, instead, definite evidence against evolution?
10 - Why is there always a limit as to how far out offspring can vary, from the genetic average, for that species?
11 - Why is genetic drift an inadequate evidence for evolution?
12 - What is the position of the cladists? Why did they take it?
13 - Did the research work of Gregor Mendel help the theories of the evolutionists or ruin those theories? Why?
14 - Give two reasons why the mule is not the beginning of a different species.
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