Evolution Professor: Origin of Life “Not Impossible”

Turning Science Into Speculation

It’s not that speculation about flexible, cartoon hypotheses that are religiously motivated, supposed to have occurred long ago and are not falsifiable is wrong. But we shouldn’t confuse it with science. To wit, evolutionist Christoph Adami’s latest work skips those annoying scientific details and instead takes a high-level view of the origin of life:

Christoph Adami of Michigan State University in East Lansing decided to study the origin of life purely in terms of information theory, so he could ignore the chemistry involved. He assumed that molecules must exceed a certain length in order to have enough information to self-replicate. These long molecules are made from different kinds of short molecules, called monomers.

Adami calculates that if you start with an equal number of each type of monomer, the odds of getting a self-replicating molecule are very low. But if you adjust the distribution of monomers in the environment to match the distribution within a potential self-replicator, the chances improve by many orders of magnitude. It's a bit like hammering randomly on a keyboard on which the most frequently used letters are proportionally larger – your odds of accidentally typing a word are much better than the famous infinite monkeys banging on typewriters.

And by skipping those details, you can always get the right answer:

Once a self-replicator emerges at random, evolution can start improving its abilities. "You only have to make this very first step, where you are getting some crappy replicator," says Adami. "The moment evolution can actually work with it, you're done."

That was easy. And like the multiverse, it’s not impossible:

We have no idea what the distribution of monomers was like on early Earth, but Adami says studies show meteorites contain an unequal distribution of monomers approaching what you might need for life. "It is not impossible that basic self-replicators cooked up on some meteor and ended up contaminating Earth."

But that is only because it is not falsifiable.

Don Johnson: It’s All About Information

Let’s Get Back to the Science

Don Johnson, with Ph.Ds in Chemistry and Computer & Information Sciences, was certain that evolution was a fact until he realized that evolutionary theory had gone beyond the science. Watch this terrific video to see the role of information in molecular biology.

Lee Spetner: The Evolution Revolution

A New (and Much Better) Way of Doing Science

I just received my copy of Lee Spetner’s new book, The Evolution Revolution which follows his earlier Not By Chance! In these books Spetner lays out a new theory of origins, a new way of looking at biology, and really a new way of doing science, at least in the life sciences. I couldn’t agree more with his approach. Spetner’s overarching point is not that evolution does not occur, but that it is very different from how we normally understand that word. Spetner’s new approach—which he calls the nonrandom evolutionary hypothesis (NREH)—is data driven. NREH is an empirical idea, based on observations, not a rationalist idea based on a priori axioms. Mutations are effective, not random; evolution is directed to the need, not undirected; evolution occurs rapidly not slowly; and evolution occurs at the level of the individual, not at the population level. All of this points to the conclusion that evolution, like physiological responses, is a built-in capability, not a default, external process. And as Spetner points out, as research increases, the case for NREH is just getting stronger:

When I proposed my nonrandom evolutionary hypothesis (NREH) about fifteen years ago in my book Not By Chance!, the suggestion—that environmental inputs could affect the genome, leading to the possibility that an organism can change its physiology and behavior in response to an external input—was somewhat sketchy. A distinguishing feature of a good theory is that evidence for it grows after it has been formulated. Since I suggested the NREH, the following discoveries have been made that provide a solid mechanism for it, showing how organisms can show an adaptive heritable response to environmental inputs: … [63]

Bravo for Lee Spetner. Let’s bring science back to its rightful role of figuring out how nature works rather than promoting religious dogma. Rather than battle with new findings as evolution is forced to do, Spetner shows us how we can make progress with science, advancing with new findings rather than adding new epicycles with each new study.

When I Explained Darwin I Got Pushback about Biogeography

Full Queeg

I recently explained that Darwin, as well as evolution co-discoverer Alfred Wallace, came to believe in transmutation and so they then sought a suitable mechanism. That comes straight from leading Darwin historian Janet Browne. And why did Darwin and Wallace “believe in transmutation” in the absence of a known mechanism? Both Darwin and Wallace made it clear in their writings that their reasoning was metaphysical. The biological world did not meet with their creationist expectations. God would never have created this world and so evolution was the answer, even though they didn’t know how it could occur. Again, this is well recognized by historians. Darwin’s books, papers and notebook entries were chocked full of religious arguments.

This is the motivation and template for evolution and it has continued ever since Darwin. Evolution is not about science, it is about God. But evolutionists are in denial about this. They insist there is no religion here, right after making religious arguments. It is a fascinating study in denialism. You can see examples here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

So it is not surprising that an evolutionist gave me pushback when I wrote that Darwin and Wallace were driven by metaphysics:

This is, basically, crap. If anything, it was biogeographical observation that led Darwin to evolution:

In fact, not only did Darwin’s arguments for evolution hinge on religious premises, that includes his biogeographical arguments. Evolutionists are ahistorical. They imagine their mandate for a spontaneous origins is a scientific finding. Let’s look at some examples.

The Swedish botanist Carl Von Linne, or Linnaeus (1707-1778), was one of the greatest naturalists of the eighteenth century. He is most famous for the universally-accepted hierarchical method of classification that today bears his name. But Linnaeus’ popularity and influence spread beyond just classification. One of his most famous and influential beliefs was that of the fixity, or stability, of species. His proclamation Nullae Species Novae—no new species—idealized species as perfect forms created by the wise Creator.

Linnaeus was later troubled when he discovered hybrids—species that are produced by the crossing of two related species—and he later softened his doctrine of the stability of species. But this was inconsequential—his system with its conception of species became deeply rooted and the nineteenth century began with the notion of species as immutable still strongly in place.

But in his travels around the world in the 1830s, Darwin saw species on various islands that did not quite match the species on the nearby mainland. It was practically an epiphany for Darwin when he began to consider that the different types of finches he saw on the Galápagos Islands might not simply be variants of a species, but instead might actually be different species. If there was the slightest foundation for this idea, Darwin wrote in his famous notebook entry, it “would undermine the stability of species.”

The finches did not suddenly reveal to Darwin how fish could change to amphibia, or how amphibia could change to reptiles, or how reptiles could change to mammals. Rather, the revelation was that the idea of creation was suddenly becoming untenable. The crucible for Darwin was not full of positive evidence for evolution but rather negative evidence against creation. Evolutionist Ernst Mayr has pointed out that Darwin’s conversion from creationist to materialist was not due to a loss of religious faith but rather initially due to three key scientific findings and then later reinforced by several additional findings. And what were these scientific findings? They were all findings against creation. In other words, the key evidence that swayed Darwin was not direct evidence for evolution but rather evidence against creation that indirectly argued for evolution. And as Mayr further points out, the doctrine of fixity of species was a key barrier to overcome in order for evolution to flourish:

Darwin called his great work On the Origin of Species, for he was fully conscious of the fact that the change from one species into another was the most fundamental problem of evolution. The fixed, essentialistic species was the fortress to be stormed and destroyed; once this had been accomplished, evolutionary thinking rushed through the breach like a flood through a break in a dike.

The preDarwinian metaphysic was that species were fixed and essentialistic. Evidence for small-scale change argued against the old view and in so doing became important evidence for evolution.

This is one example of how Darwin interpreted the biogeographical evidence according to religious premises. These arguments became even stronger when the evidence did not merely fail to align with religious expectations, but rather made no sense on the theory of creation. These are much more powerful arguments for evolution and are evident in Darwin’s earliest notes and writings on evolution. For instance, in 1842 and 1844, almost two decades before publication of Origins, Darwin wrote two lengthy essays on his emerging theory. These eventually were published by his son Francis in 1909 in a book entitled The Foundations of The Origin of Species.

In the 1844 essay Darwin discussed the biogeography evidence. Darwin argued that certain species existed over narrow geographical ranges, and that there was “no reason” for this “On the ordinary theory of the separate creation of each species.” Also, Pacific islands closer to the Americas had plants with more of an “Asiatic character.” That too was “not obvious on the ordinary theory of creation.” Or again, the same species of plants had been found on immensely remote mountain summits, but:

we ought to be very slow in admitting the probability of double creations. In the case of plants on mountain summits, I think I have shown how almost necessarily they would, under the past conditions of the northern hemisphere, be as similar as are the plants on the present Arctic shores; and this ought to teach us a lesson of caution. But the strongest argument against double creations may be drawn from considering the case of mammifers in which, from their nature and from the size of their offspring, the means of distribution are more in view. … On the idea of double creations it would be strange if the same species of several plants should have been created in Australia and Europe; and no one instance of the same species of mammifer having been created, or aboriginally existing, in two as nearly remote and equally isolated points.

Then there was the problem of plant diversity, or lack thereof, on islands:

Why on the theory of absolute creations should this large and diversified island only have from 400 to 500 (? Dieffenbach) phanerogamic plants? and why should the Cape of Good Hope, characterised by the uniformity of its scenery, swarm with more species of plants than probably any other quarter of the world? Why on the ordinary theory should the Galapagos Islands abound with terrestrial reptiles? and why should many equal-sized islands in the Pacific be without a single one or with only one or two species? Why should the great island of New Zealand be without one mammiferous quadruped except the mouse, and that was probably introduced with the aborigines? Why should not one island (it can be shown, I think, that the mammifers of Mauritius and St Iago have all been introduced) in the open ocean possess a mammiferous quadruped? Let it not be said that quadrupeds cannot live in islands, for we know that cattle, horses and pigs during a long period have run wild in the West Indian and Falkland Islands; pigs at St Helena; goats at Tahiti; asses in the Canary Islands; dogs in Cuba; cats at Ascension; rabbits at Madeira and the Falklands; monkeys at St Iago and the Mauritius; even elephants during a long time in one of the very small Sooloo Islands; and European mice on very many of the smallest islands far from the habitations of man2. Nor let it be assumed that quadrupeds are more slowly created and hence that the oceanic islands, which generally are of volcanic formation, are of too recent origin to possess them; for we know (Lyell) that new forms of quadrupeds succeed each other quicker than Mollusca or Reptilia. Nor let it be assumed (though such an assumption would be no explanation) that quadrupeds cannot be created on small islands; for islands not lying in mid-ocean do possess their peculiar quadrupeds

Finally, Darwin went “full-Queeg” with this extended rant:

Shall we then allow that the three distinct species of rhinoceros which separately inhabit Java and Sumatra and the neighbouring mainland of Malacca were created, male and female, out of the inorganic materials of these countries? Without any adequate cause, as far as our reason serves, shall we say that they were merely, from living near each other, created very like each other, so as to form a section of the genus dissimilar from the African section, some of the species of which section inhabit very similar and some very dissimilar stations? Shall we say that without any apparent cause they were created on the same generic type with the ancient woolly rhinoceros of Siberia and of the other species which formerly inhabited the same main division of the world: that they were created, less and less closely related, but still with interbranching affinities, with all the other living and extinct mammalia? That without any apparant adequate cause their short necks should contain the same number of vertebræ with the giraffe; that their thick legs should be built on the same plan with those of the antelope, of the mouse, of the hand of the monkey, of the wing of the bat, and of the fin of the porpoise. That in each of these species the second bone of their leg should show clear traces of two bones having been soldered and united into one; that the complicated bones of their head should become intelligible on the supposition of their having been formed of three expanded vertebræ; that in the jaws of each when dissected young there should exist small teeth which never come to the surface. That in possessing these useless abortive teeth, and in other characters, these three rhinoceroses in their embryonic state should much more closely resemble other mammalia than they do when mature. And lastly, that in a still earlier period of life, their arteries should run and branch as in a fish, to carry the blood to gills which do not exist. Now these three species of rhinoceros closely resemble each other; more closely than many generally acknowledged races of our domestic animals; these three species if domesticated would almost certainly vary, and races adapted to different ends might be selected out of such variations. In this state they would probably breed together, and their offspring would possibly be quite, and probably in some degree, fertile; and in either case, by continued crossing, one of these specific forms might be absorbed and lost in another. I repeat, shall we then say that a pair, or a gravid female, of each of these three species of rhinoceros, were separately created with deceptive appearances of true relationship, with the stamp of inutility on some parts, and of conversion in other parts, out of the inorganic elements of Java, Sumatra and Malacca? or have they descended, like our domestic races, from the same parent-stock? For my own part I could no more admit the former proposition than I could admit that the planets move in their courses, and that a stone falls to the ground, not through the intervention of the secondary and appointed law of gravity, but from the direct volition of the Creator.

Evolution is motivated by the perceived failures of creation. Darwin had no idea how the species could evolve, and neither do evolutionists today. But this is man’s assessment of creation. Evolution must be true. There is nothing wrong with religious arguments and beliefs. But let’s not confuse it with science.

Paper: Key Evolutionary Question Largely Unknown

Did They Find the Magic Bullet?

In 1859 scientists were skeptical of Charles Darwin’s new theory of evolution for obvious reasons. For example, how could new designs evolve by themselves? Now that evolution is an accepted truth, evolutionists can discuss the state of the theory. As a new paper explains, “How body pattern evolves in nature remains largely unknown.”

Then how can evolution be a fact?

The paper attempts to take a step toward resolving this issue. It is not exactly a new idea among evolutionists. The idea is that evolution occurs not by adjusting the genes that do and make things, but rather the expression levels of genes that regulate other genes.

In their study they showed that increasing the expression of a regulatory gene, late in the embryonic development phase, resulted in more teeth in the threespine stickleback fish.

Now I’ll be the first to say this was a fine piece of work. But the idea that this suggests how body plans evolve is simply an unwarranted extrapolation, motivated not by the scientific evidence they uncovered but by the assumption evolution is true.

Furthermore, let’s indulge this idea for a moment. Imagine a new experiment shows that yet another regulatory adjustment accomplished more than merely manufacture more teeth. Imagine altering the expression level of some regulatory genes suddenly produced a whole new design. The fish could now crawl, for example.

That narrative would call for an unbelievable level of serendipity. Evolution would have had to create all the parts, pieces and instructions for that design, save for a simple regulatory adjustment. The design was there, latent in the circuitry of the fish, just waiting to be turned on.

And of course that would have to occur over and over, untold number of times, in evolutionary history as species undergo all kinds of improvements. This is far too much serendipity.

So yes, the stickleback fish evolves, but it is not the kind of evolution that we normally think of. As one report explains:

Threespine sticklebacks, small fish found around the globe, undergo rapid evolutionary change when they move from the ocean to freshwater lakes, losing their armor and gaining more teeth in as little as 10 years. A biologist shows that this rapid change results not from mutations in functional genes, but changes in regulatory DNA. He pinpoints a gene that could be responsible for teeth, bone or jaw deformities in humans, including cleft palate

There is much good scientific work being done, but we need to limit our conclusions and claims to what the findings show and avoid baseless speculations.

Here’s a Typical Example of Evolutionary Story-Telling

Maybe, Could Have, Would Have …

Evolutionary events are, as Theodosius Dobzhansky put it, “unique, unrepeatable, and irreversible.” And so evolution is an idea with more theorizing than hard facts. It is more of a narrative than a theory. Here is a typical example:

It is often assumed that eukarya originated from archaea. This view has been recently supported by phylogenetic analyses in which eukarya are nested within archaea. Here, I argue that these analyses are not reliable, and I critically discuss archaeal ancestor scenarios, as well as fusion scenarios for the origin of eukaryotes. Based on recognized evolutionary trends toward reduction in archaea and toward complexity in eukarya, I suggest that their last common ancestor was more complex than modern archaea but simpler than modern eukaryotes (the bug in-between scenario). I propose that the ancestors of archaea (and bacteria) escaped protoeukaryotic predators by invading high temperature biotopes, triggering their reductive evolution toward the "prokaryotic" phenotype (the thermoreduction hypothesis). Intriguingly, whereas archaea and eukarya share many basic features at the molecular level, the archaeal mobilome resembles more the bacterial than the eukaryotic one. I suggest that selection of different parts of the ancestral virosphere at the onset of the three domains played a critical role in shaping their respective biology. Eukarya probably evolved toward complexity with the help of retroviruses and large DNA viruses, whereas similar selection pressure (thermoreduction) could explain why the archaeal and bacterial mobilomes somehow resemble each other.

I suggest?
The bug in-between scenario?
Escaped protoeukaryotic predators?
Invading high temperature biotopes?
Triggering their reductive evolution?
The thermoreduction hypothesis?
Probably evolved toward complexity with the help of retroviruses and large DNA viruses?
Thermoreduction?
The archaeal and bacterial mobilomes?

Kipling would be proud.

Why the Narrative Trumps the Facts

What Evolution is All About

Greg Conterio, echoing Robert Bidinotto, makes the point that culture war differences often pit the facts versus the narrative. The facts can win every battle but the narrative wins the war. As Bidinotto puts it, “One of the most valuable insights I discovered in recent years is how Narratives trump everything else — including what most of us would call concern for ‘practical results.’” Conterio and Bidinotto are mainly concerned with political issues, but what lies behind their insight is our beliefs about origins.

A predetermined narrative is what influenced Darwin in concluding that the species must have arisen as a result of the blind actions of natural processes. As Darwin historian Janet Browne explained, Darwin, as well as evolution co-discoverer Alfred Wallace, came to believe in transmutation and so they then sought a suitable mechanism. The reason they came to believe in transmutation was the biological world was too gritty, too unseemly, and lacking in elegance. In a word, too evil.

Such rationalistic thinking (starting with preconceived ideas of what to expect, rather than exploring the data to see where it leads) about origins by no means began with Darwin and Wallace. They were handed these ideas from leading Christian thinkers from the previous centuries. Evolution was not a scientific finding, it was a religious conclusion.

From a scientific perspective, the spontaneous origin of the biological world makes little sense. Darwin and Wallace had no idea how such wonders actually could have sprung up all by themselves. Nor do evolutionists today. As Browne put it, they first believed—then they sought a scientific mechanism. That’s backwards, but this is precisely what they, and their followers today, are committed to.

The result is that evolution has introduced into science the art of story-telling. Evolution is a narrative, not an appeal to scientific principles and laws. Evolutionary events are “unique, unrepeatable, and irreversible” in the words of famous evolutionist Theodosius Dobzhansky. Or as Harvard’s Ernst Mayr wrote, “Laws and experiments are inappropriate techniques” for explaining evolutionary events and processes.

Evolution is a narrative. And it is not just any narrative—it is the world’s creation story. The most important fundamental of a culture is its creation story. Tell me where you think you came from, and I’ll tell you everything else about you. At least everything that is important.

So what Conterio and Bidinotto are observing is the fruit of evolutionary thought. Evolution is not merely a scientific theory. It is the most influential theory in areas outside of science, in the history of science.

One now classic example of this is how evolutionary theory influenced historiography. In the nineteenth century evolutionists began constructing the history of ideas from their perspective. It became known as the Warfare Thesis, or Conflict Thesis, because it cast religious people as resisting, and in conflict with, science and its objective truths.

Even though historians agree that the Warfare Thesis is a strong dose of Whig history, it nonetheless often informs our culture’s views today. Anyone questioning evolution is cast as the fundamentalist, opposing the objective, truth-seeking scientists.

The poster child for this mythical retelling of history is Inherit the Wind, a play and movie that is a fictionalization of the famous 1925 Monkey Trial. Evolutionists today heavily promote this film as a cogent insight into our culture. It casts evolutionists as the white-hat good guys, and skeptics as ignorant, religious zealots.

Many evolutionists are unaware that Inherit the Wind is a fictionalization. And when told about this, they don’t really care. Because the narrative trumps the facts.

Judge John Jones explained, for example, he wanted to see Inherit the Wind a second time in preparation for the 2005 Dover case, over which he presided, because the film puts the origins debate into its proper “historical context.” Jones later reminisced about the trial, explaining that “I understood the general theme. I’d seen Inherit the Wind.”

But a federal judge’s profound ignorance and prejudice over a case in which he presided does not bother anyone—he was exalted as one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of the Year. So what if Inherit the Wind takes a few liberties with the truth, it is the narrative that counts.

Unfortunately evolution’s influence didn’t stop with a silly screenplay. With evolution life has no divine spark, we weren’t made in the image of any Creator, and things like facts and laws, both scientific and otherwise, don’t really matter. In politics, as well as evolution, it’s all about the narrative, not following the law.

Making New Genes Just Got More Exotic—Yes They Evolve, But How?

Gene Duplication Meets Epigenetics

Making new genes is not easy. For several decades now it has been thought that the only process for gene construction is to start by duplicating an existing gene and then making adjustments to it (it is not the only process, but that is another story). Naturally evolutionists interpreted this duplication process as another example of an evolutionary mechanism. What they don’t consider, however, is how subtle this process is.

Too often the origins debate focuses on the simplistic opposites of stasis and change. Evolutionists would have it that creationism and Intelligent Design require complete stasis in the biological world—no changing of the species. Any change that is discovered, such as the construction of new genes, is interpreted as yet another proof text of evolution.

But why? Why should we think that adaptation to the environment immediately implies random mutations, natural selection, common descent, a strictly blind naturalistic origin of the world via chance, and so forth?

It simply doesn’t follow. In fact, research has consistently shown that the species have a fantastically complicated built-in adaptation capability. Organisms respond rapidly to environmental challenges with directed changes, not slowly with blind, random changes.

As research continues, this story just continues to grow. For instance, regarding the construction of new genes via duplication of an existing gene, a recent study added yet another layer of incredible subtlety and nuance. It turns out that after a duplication event, the organism often labels one of the genes, as though marking it for change. The technical term for this is “epigenetics,” and it amounts to small chemicals being attached to either the gene or to the proteins about which the gene is wrapped. This chemical “barcode” technology is fantastic, as it involves several different chemicals, each conveying a different message, and the message varies depending on just where the chemical is attached. The chemicals can even be attached to other small chemicals that were previously attached.

So the question is not, “Do organisms change and adapt?” It would be silly to make that the test for the truth of blind, random evolution.

There is no question that organisms adapt. And so there is no question that species undergo evolution in the sense that they respond and change. But evolution can be a loaded term. For most of us, evolutionists included, “evolution” automatically means the undirected origins of, well, pretty much everything.

That simply is not what the science shows. The science shows that the species adapt via fantastically exotic, creative and nuanced processes. Perhaps all of this arose from an undirected origins, but that would call for an enormous serendipity. In other words, it would mean that the incredible processes by which evolution occurs were, themselves, created by evolution. That would be highly serendipitous.

We need to stick to what the evidence tells us, and be careful not to make unwarranted claims beyond the evidence.

Here’s Something Orwell Didn’t Predict

Health Warnings for Anyone Who Disagrees With AGW

According to a report from The Times earlier this year, policy makers in Britain are attempting to enforce AGW (anthropogenic, or man-made, global warming) by mandating politicians who are skeptical to “shut up” about it and the BBC to give less airtime to anyone who points out its many scientific problems. One mechanism that was recommended was to have appearances by such trouble-makers accompanied by health warnings. How about stickers in textbooks?

Global Warming and Information Manipulation

Now if we Could Just Get the Chinese to Look at Evolution

Here is a paper out of the PRC that raises some awkward questions about the intellectual climate surrounding global warming. Apparently with all the blackballing, peer-review control, publication manipulation, and funding and career threats, the Chinese suspect there might be some manipulation of information at work.

It appears that news media and some pro-environmental organizations have the tendency to accentuate or even exaggerate the damage caused by climate change. This article provides a rationale for this tendency by using a modified International Environmental Agreement (IEA) model with asymmetric information. We find that the information manipulation has an instrumental value, as it ex post induces more countries to participate in an IEA, which will eventually enhance global welfare. From the ex ante perspective, however, the impact that manipulating information has on the level of participation in an IEA and on welfare is ambiguous.

In other news, last week Rapid City had the earliest snow since 1888.

If the Chinese are sensing something awry in global warming, I can’t wait until they cast their gaze on evolution.

Evolutionist Says Evolution’s “Traditional Framework” Must Go

Is This the Third Stage?

Why is it that the same structures in similar species are constructed, during embryonic development, in different ways? Why is it that the master control genes which direct the embryonic development of complex structures, such as the eye, must have arisen long before those complex structures arose, if evolution is true? One might have thought that the much celebrated field of evodevo (the study of the evolution of embryonic development) might have resolved such thorny questions. Instead it seems to have simply raised more questions about evolutionary theory. In fact one recent review reads like something out of the Intelligent Design movement:

much research in contemporary evodevo remains steeped in a traditional framework that views traits and trait differences as being caused by genes and genetic variation, and the environment as providing an external context in which development and evolution unfold. … we remain rather convinced that organisms, traits, and differences in traits reside in, and are controlled by, genes and genetic variation. … [evolutionary thinking entails] the basic notion that the essences of organisms, traits, and trait differences ultimately reside in genes and genetic variation and that development is determined and directed by genes or their immediate products.

This was written by an evolutionist and his point was that this “traditional framework” is a clearly a problem that needs to be rectified. Strange, that is exactly what skeptics of creation by chance have been saying for years.

As the old saying goes:

All truth passes through three stages:
First, it is ridiculed;
Second, it is violently opposed;
Third, it is accepted as self-evident.

Perhaps we are moving into the third stage.

William Dembski: Conservation of Information in Evolutionary Search

University of Chicago Computation in Science Seminar

A Pond-Dwelling, Single-Celled Organism Does Amazing Genetic Engineering

One of Nature’s Attempts to Become More Complex

A new paper was published last week on a remarkable single-celled organism, Oxytricha trifallax, that has two nucleus’ and 16,000 chromosomes (recall that humans have 46). The organism uses one nucleus to store its active DNA and the other nucleus to store an archive of the genome. Amazingly, Oxytricha trifallax, disassembles the archived copy into a quarter-million pieces and then rapidly reassembles them into a new and improved version. This reassembly occurs at mating time as the organism and its mate exchange about half their genome.

Creating and maintaining a backup copy of the genome, disassembling that copy, integrating disassembled material from an external source, reassembling the whole thing to produce improved, rejuvenated chromosomes—it all just smacks of blind mutations.

Incredibly evolutionist Laura Landweber explains that Oxytricha trifallax is “one of nature’s early attempts to become more complex despite staying small … People might think that pond-dwelling organisms would be simple, but this shows how complex life can be.”

One of nature’s early attempts to become more complex? This is a typical example of the underlying Aristotelian thought that pervades evolution. Evolutionists have no idea how Oxytricha trifallax amazing capabilities could have evolved by random variation such as mutations. So they describe it in teleological language. This isn’t science.

Of course the idea that Oxytricha trifallax evolved doesn’t come from the science. It comes from a dogmatic commitment to evolution.

Religion drives science, and it matters.

When I Pointed Out the De Novo Gene Evidence an Evolutionist Came Unglued

Primitive Thinking

It is interesting that evolutionists, who believe they came from primitive apes, display a certain primitive thought in their communications. The latest example is an evolutionist who criticized a book skeptical of evolution. The book made the point that fundamentally new genes are unlikely to have evolved by the usual random change and natural selection mechanisms. The book elaborated on this problem at length. But the evolutionist retorted that this was all wrong:

[The book] claims that the origin of new genes is a mystery, when in fact it is basically a solved problem (as long as you aren’t talking about the origin of the very first genes at the origin of life—and allegedly this book is supposed to be about the Cambrian Explosion, not the origin of life).

In other words, aside from the origin of life, the origin of fundamentally new genes is not a mystery and is basically has been solved by evolutionists.

That is, of course, false. When I pointed out the evidence the evolutionist harshly criticized me.

Look up jingwei and sdic and the literature on their origin. Look up Long et al. 2003. Why can’t you even get these totally obvious basic points right?

The problem is jingwei and Sdic are not fundamentally new genes, but rather have significant similarities to parts of other genes. And the paper he cited did little to resolve this question of how fundamentally new genes arose. In fact, about the only thing the paper did say about the evolution of such genes is that it is rare. That view has since been discarded as too many of these fundamentally new genes have been discovered.

So the evolutionist cited two irrelevant genes and a paper that gave an outdated view, and accused me of missing “totally obvious basic points.”

When I pointed all this out, the evolutionist tried to walk back his points. He claimed that I was the one who brought up fundamentally new genes, and that he merely was referring to genes that are mostly rearrangements of other genes. “Shame!” he vindictively concluded.

And there we have it. At this point the evolutionist is in checkmate. For he has just forfeited his claim that the book is all wrong, that the evolution of new genes is a solved problem, and by extension that evolution is a fact. He cannot now say, “Oh, but I was also referring to fundamentally new genes also.”

He has made it clear that the book’s criticism is on solid ground. For as I pointed out (here and here), the evolutionary reasoning that such genes evolved by the usual random mutations and selection is circular. And the explanations for how this could have happened is little more than hand waving. Even evolutionists agreed it was impossible until, that is, the existence of such genes could not be denied. At that point evolutionists had to come up with some sort of explanation. The result is a speculative idea that relies on serendipity and ignores known, enormous problems.

A theory cannot fail to explain a plethora of fundamental observations and be a fact. Not a scientific fact, at least.

So will the evolutionist admit to any of these things? Will he agree that evolution is not a fact? Of course not. I’ll take the shame and the blame, and all the harsh criticism, if we can just agree on the overwhelming scientific evidence which checkmates evolution. Evolution is not a fact, and it never was.

Here is the Latest Example of Evolution Undermining Law

A Falsification of Evolution Becomes a Legal Premise

Evolution is not merely a scientific mistake. It is not a theory gone wrong, started by a guy in 1859. Evolutionary thinking was alive and well when Charles Darwin codified it in the emerging life sciences, for it had been developed and promoted by theologians and philosophers since the seventeenth century. If you understand that history, then today’s world makes much more sense. It is often said that evolution is the most influential scientific theory, but that is because evolution isn’t just a scientific theory, it is a broader world view. So with the dominance of evolution comes a wide array of influences, in government and in society, and across the political spectrum. Another example of this came last week when the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled that laws in Indiana and Wisconsin, defining marriage to be between a man and a woman, are unconstitutional.

While it is no secret that evolutionary premises now inform opinions across the political spectrum, this decision (written by a Reagan appointee) made those premises explicit as it cites evolutionary research and is based on the assumption that evolution is true. Its point is that homosexuality is a result of evolution so therefore gay marriage should be a legal right.

Should we point out that evolution is scientifically flawed? Or should we point out that homosexuality, the usual mental gymnastics of evolutionists notwithstanding, makes no sense under evolution? Remember that part about reproductive success?

It is all reminiscent of Judge John Jones—exalted as one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of the Year—hilariously revealing that he actually wanted to see Inherit the Wind a second time in preparation for the 2005 Dover case, over which he presided, because, after all, the film puts the origins debate into its proper “historical context.”

Proper historical context? You’ve got to be kidding.

What a classic mistrial. Jones had been so indoctrinated by the Warfare Thesis that he actually believed the evolutionary propaganda to be historically accurate. If the perfect crime is the one that is never discovered, the perfect propaganda is the one that is never understood. Jones later reminisced about the trial, unbelievably explaining that “I understood the general theme. I’d seen Inherit the Wind.”  Jones was not educated, he was brainwashed.

And unfortunately Jones is not simply a lone nut. Legal expert Andrew Cohen not only gave high praise to Inherit the Wind, but absurdly called it “one of the great trial movies of all time.” The movie is a fictional construct, based on the fictional Warfare Thesis erected by evolutionists, and long since discredited by historians. Are they showing it in law schools these days?

So the Seventh Circuit’s explicit premise of evolution is not surprising. It is simply a confirmation that dangerous ignorance pervades the highest levels of power.