EVOLUTION Fact or Fiction Presented By Randy Ruggles

“EVOLUTION: Fact or Fiction? ” Presented By: Randy Ruggles

Why is the subject of origins important for Christians? “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. ” 1 Peter 3: 15 (N. I. V. )

“We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God. ” 2 Corinthians 10: 5 (E. S. V. )

“What is EVOLUTION? ”

Defining EVOLUTION Change Evolution = ______ Time

Defining EVOLUTION (cont. ) Monkeys to Man

Defining EVOLUTION (cont. ) “The central idea of biological evolution is that all life on Earth shares a common ancestor, just as you and your cousins share a common grandmother. “Evolution means that we’re all distant cousins: humans and oak trees, hummingbirds and whales. ” - Understanding Evolution http: //evolution. berkeley. edu/

Defining EVOLUTION (cont. ) F = Fish A = Amphibians R = Reptiles M = Mammals

Defining EVOLUTION (cont. ) From GOO to YOU by way of the ZOO!

Genesis 1: 24 Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind”; and it was so.

“It is absolutely safe to say that if you meet somebody who claims not to believe in evolution, that person is ignorant, stupid or insane (or wicked, but I'd rather not consider that). ” Richard Dawkins

“. . . evolution. . . is a fact and we don’t need to prove it anymore. ” - Ernst Mayr Biologist

“The fact of evolution is as well established as anything in science (as secure as the revolution of the earth about the sun). . . ” - Stephen Jay Gould

“Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution. ” - Theodosius Dobzhansky Zoologist

“(Evolution) is a general postulate to which all theories, all hypotheses, all systems must henceforth bow and which they must satisfy in order to be thinkable and true. “Evolution is a light which illuminates all facts, a trajectory which all lines of thought must follow – that is what evolution is. ” - Pierre Teilhard de Chardin French philosopher and Jesuit priest

“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. ” - Psalm 119: 105 (K. J. V. )

“The evolutionist lives in a dream world in which any resemblance to the real world is lacking. ” - Harold S. Slusher, “The Origin of the Universe: An Examination of the Big Bang and Steady State Cosmogonics, ” 1980.

“Evolution is a fairy tale for grownups. This theory has helped nothing in the progress of science. It is useless. ” - H. S. Lipson FRS, Professor of Physics, University Manchester, UK

GRADE School + Frog = Kiss Fairytale Prince

HIGH School + Frog = Time Evolution Prince

“Ultimately, the Darwinian theory of evolution is no more nor less than the great cosmogenic myth of the twentieth century. ” - Michael Denton, "Evolution: A Theory in Crisis, " 1985, p. 358.

“. . . theory of evolution may be the worst mistake made in science. ” - I. L. Cohen, “Darwin Was Wrong - A Study in Probabilities, ” 1984, p. 210.

“I believe that one day the Darwinian myth will be ranked the greatest deceit in the history of science. ” - Professor Soren Lovtrup, “Darwinism: The Refutation of a Myth, ” 1987 p. 422.

“I myself am convinced that theory of evolution, especially the extent to which it’s been applied, will be one of the great jokes in the history books of the future. Posterity will marvel that so very flimsy and dubious an hypothesis could be accepted with the incredible credulity that it has. ” - Malcolm Muggeridge, Pascal Lectures, University of Waterloo Research, The Advocate 1984, p. 17.

“Often a cold shudder has run through me, and I have asked myself whether I may have not devoted myself to a fantasy. ” - Charles Darwin

Natural Selection 1. Most species produce more offspring than can survive. 2. An individual’s chances of survival are affected by its environment (eg. weather, food, shelter, predators, available mating partners etc. ) 3. Some individuals are better adapted to their environments. 4. Better adapted individuals survive long enough to reproduce. They pass on the characteristics that helped them survive to their offspring.

“Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows. ” follows. - Charles Darwin, “Origin of Species” “The last enemy to be destroyed is death. ” - 1 Corinthians 15: 26

Microevolution: SMALL changes BELOW the species level. Macroevolution: BIG changes ABOVE the species level.

Natural Selection In Action Domestic dogs show a loss of genetic information from the original dog kind – the wolf.

CHRISTMAS = mast star sir him mass sit cast stairs - Xerox - Zebra - Queen

“Given so much time the ‘impossible’ becomes possible, the possible probable, and the probable virtually certain. One has only to wait: time itself performs miracles. ” - George Wald, "Physics and Chemistry of Life, " 1955, p. 12.

“The irony is devastating. The main purpose of Darwinism was to drive every last trace of an incredible God from biology. But theory replaces God with an even more incredible deity – omnipotent chance. ” - T. Rosazak, "Unfinished Animal, " 1975, pp. 101 -102

“ 9 Fallen Icons of EVOLUTION”

Claim #1: “Darwin’s observation of various sizes of finch beaks is conclusive evidence for evolution. ”

Darwin’s Finches

The Truth: 1. The finches mate with each other meaning that they are all of the same species. 2. Demonstrates variation, not evolution. “Scientific observation shows that the finch beaks, which have been mythicized in almost all evolutionist sources, are in fact an example of “variation”; therefore, they do not constitute evidence for theory of evolution. ” - H. Lisle Gibbs and Peter R. Grant, "Oscillating Selection on Darwin's finches, " Nature, 327, 1987, pp. 513.

Claim #2: “Peppered moths are an excellent example of evolution in action. ”

The Myth of Industrial Melanism Bernard Kettlewell

The Truth: 1. The whole story never happened 2. Kettlewell glued dead moths to the trees to take the pictures that appear in school science textbooks 3. Demonstrates natural selection but not evolution “I am careful not to call Kettlewell a fraud, ” says Bruce Grant. “He was just a very careless scientist. ”

Claim #3: “Experiments with fruit flies support evolution. ”

Fruit Fly Mutations Short Wings Curly Wings Yellow-Coloured Ebony-Coloured Normal Fruit Fly No Eyes Antennapedia

The Truth: 1. Demonstrates that most mutations are either harmful or deadly 2. Evolution requires beneficial mutations “ Fruit flies refuse to become anything but fruit flies under any circumstances yet devised. The genetic system, as its first priority, conserves, blocks, and stabilizes. ” - Francis Hitching, "The Neck of the Giraffe: Where Darwin Went Wrong, " 1982, pp. 57 -61.

Claim #4: “Similar bone structures in mammals provide evidence for common ancestry. ”

Homology of Vertebrate Forelimb Structure

Bridges have similarities because they have similar DESIGNERS!

WHEELS are used on many different things because they are a good design feature.

The Truth: 1. Not produced by the same genes 2. Could be evidence for a common designer “. . . biologists have known for a hundred years that homologous structures are often not produced by similar developmental pathways. And they have known for thirty years that they are often not produced by similar genes, either. So there is no empirically demonstrated mechanism to establish that homologies are due to common ancestry rather than common design. ” - Jonathan Wells, “Survival of the Fakest, ” American Spectator, Dec 2000/Jan 2001.

Claim #5: “Vestigial organs (such as the appendix) support evolution. ”

“There is no longer any justification for regarding the vermiform appendix as a vestigial structure. ” - William Straus, Quarterly Review of Biology, 1947, p. 149. “Long regarded as a vestigial organ with no function in the human body, the appendix is now thought to be one of the sites where immune responses are initiated. ” - Roy Hartenstein, Grolier Encyclopedia, 1998.

The Truth: 1. Over one hundred years ago, a list was compiled of 180 alleged vestigial structures in the human body. Today, we’ve discovered biological functions for every one. 2. Just because you don’t know what it’s for doesn’t mean it doesn’t serve a purpose. 3. Just because you can live without it doesn’t mean it doesn’t serve a purpose. (Eg. eye, arm, leg, kidney etc. )

Claim #6: “What about all those fossils of cave men? Don’t they prove we evolved from apes? ”

(1922) Nebraska Man (and his wife) reconstructed from the tooth of an extinct pig.

The REAL Nebraska Man Note: may not be exactly as shown

Piltdown Man This forgery fooled “experts” and was in the textbooks for 40 years. Human Skull Ape Jaw (1912)

“We've got to have some ancestors. We'll pick those [fossils]. Why? Because we know they have to be there, and these are the best candidates. That's by and large the way it has worked. I am not exaggerating. ” - Dr. Gareth Nelson, American Museum of Natural History, “Lucy's Child, ” 1989, p. 74.

Claim #7: “Radiometric dating methods can reliably date the age of the earth to be 4. 6 billion years old. ”

How Dating Methods Work Observation: 1. Peeling potatoes at a rate of 1 per minute 2. Observe for 10 minutes HOW LONG have I been peeling potatoes?

Count the potatoes in the basket! 40

Assumptions: 1. The RATE of potato peeling was CONSTANT 2. No peeled potatoes have been ADDED or TAKEN AWAY 3. There were NO potatoes in the basket at the BEGINNING

When dating fossils of KNOWN age, Carbon 14 dating DOES NOT work. When dating fossils of UNKNOWN age, it is ASSUMED to work.

Claim #8: “The Miller-Urey experiment successfully produced the building blocks of life. ”

The Miller-Urey Experiment In 1953, chemist Stanley Miller pumped a gaseous mixture of methane, ammonia and hydrogen through an apparatus and subjected the mixture to a high-voltage electric spark. He then trapped out any resulting liquids. The experiment produced a few amino acids – the “building blocks” of life.

The Miller-Urey Experiment

The Truth: 1. Miller excluded oxygen knowing it would oxidize and thus kill any form of life that developed. (We now know that the earth has likely always had oxygen. ) 2. The experiment produced only 3 of the 20 amino acids necessary for life. These amino acids were “right-handed” whereas living organisms contain only “left-handed” amino acids. 3. Miller produced a substance that is TOXIC to life. “There are three problems with Miller's experiment. He started with the wrong materials, used the wrong conditions, and got the wrong results!” - Mark Eastman, M. D. , "Creation by Design, " 1996, pp. 15 -19.

Claim #9: “Similarities in the early stages of mammalian embryos supports common ancestry. ”

Ernst Haeckel German biologist

“Embryology is to me by far the strongest single class of facts in favour of change of forms. . . ” - Charles Darwin, Sept. 10, 1860

Top Row: Haeckel’s fraudulent drawings Bottom Row: Actual photographs of the same embryos

Adolph Hitler “has consciously sought to make the practice of Germany conform to theory of evolution. ” - Sir Arthur Keith, "Evolution and Ethics, “ 1947, pp. 14, 230.

“Why do so many people believe evolution is true? ”

Spontaneous Generation Rags + Rice = Mice

- Louis Pasteur French microbiologist and chemist (1864) “Never will the doctrine of spontaneous generation recover from the mortal blow struck by this simple experiment. ”

Atheism (cont. ) “There are only two possibilities as to how life arose. One is spontaneous generation arising to evolution; the other is a supernatural creative act of God. There is no third possibility. ” - George Wald Nobel Prize Winning Scientist

Atheism (cont. ) “Spontaneous generation, that life arose from non-living matter, was scientifically disproved 120 years ago by Louis Pasteur and others. That leaves us with the only possible conclusion that life arose as a supernatural - George Wald creative act of God. ” Nobel Prize Winning Scientist

Atheism (cont. ) “I will not accept that philosophically because I do not want to believe in God. Therefore, I choose to believe in that which I know is scientifically impossible; spontaneous generation arising to evolution. ” - George Wald Nobel Prize Winning Scientist

Atheism “The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, blood-thirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully. ” – Richard Dawkins The God Delusion

“And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie. ” - 2 Thessalonians 2: 11 (K. J. V. ) The REAL God Delusion!

“Evolution thus becomes the most potent weapon for destroying the Christian faith. ” - A. J. Mattill, "Three Cheers for the Creationists, “ Free Inquiry, vol. 2, Spring, 1982, p. 17.

“Atheism will be ready to fill the void of Christianity’s demise when science and evolution triumph. Without a doubt humans and civilization are in sore need of the intellectual cleanness and mental health of atheism. ” - G. Richard Bozarth, "The Meaning of Evolution, “ American Atheist (February 1978), page 30.