posted on Dec, 17 2012 @ 01:44 PM
The Evolution Story
by Rod Smith
© 2003-2012 Rodney A. Smith
All rights reserved.
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I don't believe in evolution any more. I used to. When I was at Iowa State University, I was thoroughly indoctrinated in evolution. My zoology
professor explained step by step how evolution occurred. For example, he said that the neck of a clam evolved into tube worms, which developed
segments and evolved into earthworms, which sprouted legs and evolved into centipedes, which grew shorter and evolved into trilobites. What he did not
mention is that this is all purely conjecture because no one has ever found a fossil that shows one kind of body part changing into another. He also
did not mention that all of the different orders of animals, even chordates, suddenly appear in the Cambrian rocks with no evidence of how they
evolved.
After college, I started studying the evidence from other sources. I discovered that the scientific evidence for evolution has been greatly
exagerated and the scientific evidence against evolution has been largely ignored or even suppressed. It is easy to arrange life forms from the
simplest to the most complex, but that does not prove that they are even related. I have continued to study the evidence and new discoveries for the
last 35 years. When I look at all the evidence, I am convinced that it takes more faith to believe in evolution than it takes to believe in creation.
Evolution teaches that all life evolved as the result of random genetic changes which resulted in incredibly complex and interdependent ecosystems.
Random changes almost always result in disorder and disintegration. There are rare instances where random events produce order, such as in crystal
formation, but DNA is far more complex than crystals and the information stored by DNA is far more complex than DNA. Can you believe that the
complexities of life are the result of random mutations, especially when at least 99.9% of mutations are harmful? Actually, 99.959% in humans
according to a recent computer search by a top geneticist who discovered 186 "beneficial mutations" compared to 453,732 harmful mutations. (See
Mutations: The Raw Material for Evolution? by Barney Maddox, M.D.)
Evolution claims that natural selection is the "organizer" that keeps the beneficial mutations and eliminates the harmful. But, how would natural
selection recognize a beneficial mutation when a series of mutations are required to produce a beneficial change? For example, evolution teaches that
two bones from reptiles' jaws joined one bone in their ears to evolve into the three bones in mammals' middle ears. These bones magnify sound so
natural selection would select mammalian ears when they were fully functional, but what about the generations while these bones were evolving? How
would reptiles eat when their jawbones were dislocating and migrating toward the ear? How would early mammals hear before the bones in their middle
ears were properly connected? Natural selection most likely would have eliminated the transitional forms long before they had developed enough to have
a hearing advantage. Likewise, a reptile whose front legs were evolving into wings would be crippled and easy prey until the wings were fully
functional. The Archaeopteryx is often given as an example of a transitional form between flying reptiles and birds but it isn’t. Even though it had
teeth and a tail like a reptile, this bird had fully formed feathers which are much more complex than frayed scales. There are no known fossils of
transitional forms showing how new limbs or organs evolved. (See Should We Expect To Find Transitional Forms In The Fossil Record? Stalling over
Transitional Forms by Frank Sherwin, M.A) Evolutionists used to list several vestigial organs in humans including the appendix and hypothalamus, which
were thought to be useless organs left over from earlier stages of human evolution. This list disappeared as important functions were discovered for
each organ on the list. The fossil record and currently living animals do not provide any examples of evolving organs or half-formed limbs.
Another way that the fossil record contradicts evolution is the Cambrian Explosion. The Pre-Cambrian rocks contain fossils of only bacteria, sponges,
jellyfish, worms and colonies of green algae. The Cambrian rocks contain fossils of almost all of the different types of animals, including chordates
which were the last to appear according to evolution. Twenty to thirtyfive completely new body plans suddenly appear in the fossil record with no
transitional intermediates. So many new forms appear in such a relatively short time that random mutations or even punctuated equilibrium cannot
acccount for all of the changes.
Another way that the fossil record contradicts evolution is that there are many instances where fossils are out of order in the layers of rock. It is
possible to explain the fossils being out of order by claiming that the layers were shifted or inverted but that explanation is highly questionable.
In order to explain the fossils being out of order in Europe, geologists have suggested that a mass of rock thick enough to contain an entire mountain
somehow moved onto Europe from northern Africa. The movement of such a large mass of rock would certainly cause a lot of rubble but there is no sign
of anything like that at the boundary between the rock layers. They fit tightly together.
There is another explanation for the order of the fossils in the fossil record which fits the facts just as well, or even better than evolution.
Notice that the oldest fossils are bottom dwelling, stationary animals such as sponges followed by slow moving bottom dwellers such as molusks, worms
and trilobites. Next are swimmers such as jellyfish and fish. Next are animals who live on the margin between land and water, amphibians followed by
reptiles. The last fossils to appear in the fossil record are fast moving land animals such as mammals and birds.
Notice that one of the oldest mammal fossils, found in the Jurrasic period, is a beaver-like mammal that lived on the margin between land and water.
Likewise, the second oldest fossil of a bird, found in the Cretaceous Period, is a loon-like bird which also lived on the margin between land and
water. They were buried before most of the mammals and birds because they lived near sea level. Click on each picture to read each article.
According to this explanation, the fossil record simply shows the order in which animals would be buried if there was rapid sedimentation on a
massive scale. Rapid sedimentation at the beginning of the Cambrian layers would also explain why so many fossils are suddenly found in these layers
when very few fossils were formed before. This rapid sedimentation would be the expected result of a universal flood which is referred to in the
writings and legends of many cultures all over the Earth. (See Why Does Nearly Every Culture Have a Tradition of a Global Flood? by John D. Morris,
Ph.D.)
There is another explanation for why the fossils are found in this order. During a Flood, many drowned animals would float on the surface until they
became waterlooged and sank. A preliminary experiment with a limited number of floating animal carcasses showed that amphibians are the first to sink,
followed by reptiles, mammals and birds. This is the sequence that animals are found in the geological column. (Coffin, Harold, 1983. Origin by
Design. Review and Herald Publishing Association. Washington D.C. p. 81.)
Some geologists say that there could not have been a universal flood because there is no universal disconformity, that is, a break in the sequence of
rock layers. It is true that there is no universal disconformity, but none is required, since the areas under water at the beginning of the flood
would be in conformity with the sediments produced by the flood. While not a universal disconformity, the Cambrian rocks are distinctly different from
the Pre-Cambrian Rocks, because they contain many times the number and kinds of fossils found in the Pre-Cambrian Rocks. The Cambrian explosion is
easily explained as the first deposits of a universal flood which produced rapid burial and a dramatic increase in the number of fossils.
There is a large formation called Red Sandstone found throughout the British Isles which contains millions of fossilized fish. The fish are twisted
which indicates that they were alive and still struggling when they were buried. Rapid burial would require a flood and no local flood could produce
such a widespread layer.
There is other evidence that most rock layers were formed rapidly. The purity of so-called "evaporite" rocks indicates that they were not produced
slowly as a shallow sea dried up but rapidly by a chemical reaction in a slurry of dissolved chemicals. A flood would also explain why sometimes
fossils are found out of order. The gaps in the geologic column of rocks can be explained by currents that eroded the fresh sediments while they were
still soft. The eroded deposits were then re-deposited on top of earlier deposits.
The rapid accumulation of soft sediments would also explain why some rock layers are tilted and folded. I took a photograph of several rock layers
that were folded into a U about 15 feet across. I cannot imagine any amount of pressure and time that would be able to fold these rocks so tightly
without breaking them if they were already hard. But they could have folded quickly and with comparatively little pressure if the rock layers were
still soft. This is one of fourteen natural phenomena given as Evidence for a Young World by D. Russell Humphreys, Ph.D.
So, when I look at the world, the rock layers and the complexities of life, I see that the evidence for evolution is not strong as is generally
believed and that there are many contradictions to evolution.