Apologetics: The Basics
Session 11 – Darwin, Part 3

Review: First 7 Arguments

  • Origin of life
  • Lack of transitional fossils
  • Stasis in the fossil record
  • Sudden appearance in the fossil record
  • (Cambrian + tree of life diagram)
  • DNA information
  • Irreducible Complexity
  • Discontinuity

Argument #8

DNA Orfans demonstrate Darwin was wrong

  • A ‘letter’ (A,T,C,G) is a nucleotide
  • A ‘word’ is a codon
  • A ‘chapter’ is a gene
  • A ‘book’ is a chromosome
  • A ‘library’ is a genome

Example 1: Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Four score and seven fears ago our feathers brought forth on this continent, a new parrot, conceived in Liberty, driving blue Yugos and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Example 2: I solemnly swear I am up to no good, wingardium leviosa, there is no good or evil only power, I must not tell lies professor.

In a Darwinian world Orfans should be almost non-existent but…
“…DNA Orfans are now ubiquitous…” – Paul Nelson

Argument #9

The waiting time problem demonstrates Darwin was wrong

Mutation frequency (1 in 100,000,000) x
survival benefit x
generation time x
population size x
inheritance probability =
Expected time for a beneficial mutation becoming part of the community

Example #1

  • Ape and human common ancestor about 6m years ago
  • No harmful mutations
  • Single point mutation,
  • 10% survival benefit,
  • 20 year generation time
  • population 10,000
  • = 1.5m years
  • A minimum of 70m mutations required

Example #2

  • Ape and human common ancestor 6m years ago
  • No harmful mutations
  • Two point mutation,
  • 10% survival benefit,
  • 20 year generation time
  • population 10,000
  • = 84m years
  • A minimum of 70m mutations required

 Example #3

  • The Cambrian Explosion generates tremendous biological growth in 5m years

Argument #10

More and more scientists are demonstrating that Darwin was wrong

“Macro-evolution is More than Repeated Rounds of Micro-evolution.” – paper presented by Douglas Erwin

“Contrary to traditional opinion, it needs to be emphasized that natural selection among traits generated at random cannot by itself be the basic principle of evolution.”
– From Fodor and Piattelli-Palmarini’s What Darwin Got Wrong

“The question of how complex body plans arise is not within the reach of population genetics (defined as…micro-evolution), neither are the questions of how complex organisms can arise from random mutation and selection.” – Gunter Wagner

Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature is Almost Certainly False – book by Thomas Nagel

Punctuated Equilibrium, life seeds from space, infinite universes demonstrate the scientific community knows Darwin was wrong

The Altenberg 16 is now the Altenberg Uncountable

“The current picture of how and where evolution operates and how this shapes genomes is something of a mess, barely a word of this vibrant debate reaches the public…On the 60th anniversary of the double helix we should admit that we don’t fully understand how evolution works at the molecular level.”
– Phillip Ball writing in the journal Nature

The scientific community knows Darwin was wrong…SO WHY ARE THEY STILL TEACHING IT TO OUR KIDS?

So ten arguments, is that the best you can do?

  • Origin of life
  • Transitional fossils
  • Sudden appearance
  • Stasis
    (Cambrian + tree of life diagram)
  • DNA information
  • Irreducible Complexity
  • Discontinuity
  • Waiting time
  • DNA Orfans
  • Scientific admission

Some other arguments:

Gene Entropy
Edge of Evolution
Consciousness
Free Will
Morality
Epigenetics
TBD…the list grows…

REMEMBER…Sarah Pallas definition…

  • Darwinism is NOT just mutations, natural selection, inheritance and long time periods…

At its core Darwinism is about creating something!

15+ arguments that Darwinism = epic failure at creating anything

But what about…

“Just because science hasn’t figured it out yet doesn’t mean they won’t figure it out in the future. After all science has done that over and over to supposedly unanswerable questions.”?

Our argument is not that science doesn’t have enough information to support the theory, our argument is that the data demonstrates the theory to be FALSE

Prediction:

Ten years from now the scientific community will be discussing how they could have been so gullible on such a huge question built on so little evidence.

P.S. It’s already starting.

Conclusion:

There is so much evidence against life appearing due to purely natural means, that Darwinism is exposed as a being a blind faith that is contrary to the established evidence. This is exactly what science has so often complained about being true of Christianity, adherence to a philosophy that is not supported by the evidence.

The Darwinian wall is already crumbling and it appears to be only a matter of time before the smoke and mirrors currently holding it up are no longer able to do so. At some point the argument “because we say so” is no longer going to work.

Possible Response:

The Christian faith does not rise or fall on the truth claims of Charles Darwin but on the truth claims of Jesus Christ. But if you want to put your faith in Charles Darwin and his theory, how do you explain {insert your arguments here} the evidence from the Cambrian explosion? How could nature possibly create the kind of information that is in DNA? If the evidence was solid for Darwinian evolution why would alternate theories like Punctuated Equilibrium and Panspermia be necessary? Why are the number of biologists questioning Darwin be growing by leaps and bounds?

Was Charles Darwin right? Well…maybe…but the evidence seems overwhelming he was not…

 Recommended Resources:

Illustramedia.com, Origins, Unlocking the Mystery of Life, Darwin’s Dilemma, Where Does the Evidence Lead, etc.

Tom Woodward, Doubts About Darwin, Darwin Strikes Back: scientific philosophy, historical review of Darwinian Theory

Michael Behe, Darwin’s Black Box: Irreducible Complexity

Michael Behe, The Edge of Evolution: Waiting Time Problem (John Sanford)

Stephen Meyer, Darwin’s Doubt: Cambrian Explosion, Fossils, Sudden Appearance, Stasis

Stephen Meyer, Signature in the Cell: Information and DNA

Michael Denton, Evolution: Still A Theory In Crisis: Discontinuity

…Discovery.org: searchable articles

I believe the only way to get around this evidence is to decide ahead of time that you will either ignore it, or twist it  towards the conclusion you wanted to begin with…

I will close with this…

If you are a disciple of Jesus Christ… don’t oppose science with religion, oppose bad science with better science

Know What You Believe
Know Why You Believe It