Charles Darwin – a Man, a Mission, did he succeed?

 The Wistar Institute Symposium (1966). A milestone meeting was the four-day Wistar Institute Symposium, held in Philadelphia in April 1966. A number of mathematicians, familiar with biological problems, spoke—and clearly refuted neo-Darwinism in several ways. An important factor was that large computers were by this time able to work out immense calculations—showing that evolution could not possibly occur, even over a period of billions of years, given the complexities of DNA, protein, the cell, enzymes, and other factors.We will cite one example here:*Murray Eden of MIT explained that life could not begin by “random selection.” He noted that, if randomness is removed, only “design” would remain,—and that required purposive planning by an Intelligence. He showed that it would be impossible for even a single ordered pair of genes to be produced by DNA mutations in the bacteria, E. Coli (which has very little DNA), with 5 billion years in which to produce it. Eden then showed the mathematical impossibility of protein forming by chance. He also reported on his extensive investigations into genetic data on hemoglobin (red blood cells). Hemoglobin has two chains, called alpha and beta. A minimum of 120 mutations would be required to convert alpha to beta. At least 34 of those changes require changeovers in 2 or 3 nucleotides. Yet, Eden pointed out, if a single nucleotide change occurs through mutation, the result ruins the blood and kills the organism! For more on the Wistar Institute, read the following book: *Paul Moorhead and *Martin Kaplan (eds.), Mathematical Challenges to the Neo-Darwinian Interpretation of Evolution, Wistar Institute Monograph No. 5.(1968). Trilobites are small marine creatures that are now extinct. Evolutionists tell us that trilobites are one of the most ancient creatures that have ever lived on Planet Earth, and they lived millions of years before there were human beings. *William J. Meister, Sr., a non-Christian evolutionist, made a hobby of searching for trilobite fossils in the mountains of Utah. On June 1, 1968, he found a human footprint and trilobites in the same rock, and the footprint was stepping on some of the trilobites! The location was Antelope Springs, about 43 miles [69 km] northwest of Delta, Utah.

Antelope Springs Tracks

Then, breaking off a large two-inch thick piece of rock, he hit it on the edge with a hammer, and it fell open in his hands. To his great astonishment, he found on one side the footprint of a human being, with trilobites right in the footprint itself! The other half of the rock slab showed an almost perfect mold of a footprint and fossils. Amazingly, the human was wearing a sandal! To make a longer story short, the find was confirmed when scientists came and found more sandaled footprints. Meister was so stunned that he became a Christian. This was Cambrian strata, the lowest level of strata in the world; yet it had sandaled human footprints! (“Discovery of Trilobite Fossils in Shod Footprint of Human in ‘Trilobite Beds,’ a Cambrian Formation, Antelope Springs, Utah,” in Why Not Creation? 1970, p. 190).

The Alpbach Institute Symposium(1969). A follow-up meeting of scientists was held and given the title, “Beyond Reductionism.” But it only resulted in fruitless discussions by scientists who had carefully researched the problems with men who were desperately trying to defend evolutionary theories, against an ever-growing mountain of evidence to the contrary.

First Moon Landing(1969). By the 1950s, scientists were able to predict that, if the moon was billions of years old, it would have a thick layer of dust many miles thick. This is due to the fact, as *R.A. Lyttleton explained, that the lunar surface is exposed to direct sunlight; and strong ultraviolet light and X-rays from the sun gradually destroy the surface layers of exposed rock and reduce them to dust at the rate of a few ten-thousandths of an inch per year. In 5 to 10 billion years, this would produce 20-60 miles [32-97 km] of dust (*R.A. Lyttleton, quoted in R. Wysong, Creation-Evolution Controversy, p. 175).

Because of this, NASA first sent an unmanned lander, which made the discovery that there is very little dust on the moon’s surface. In spite of that, Neil Armstrong feared that he and Edwin Aldrin might suffocate when they landed. But because the moon is young, they had no problem. Landing on July 20, 1969, they found an average of 3/4 inch [1.91cm] of dust on its surface. That is the amount one would expect if the moon were about 6000-8000 years old (at a rate of 1 inch every 10,000 years). In *Isaac Asimov’s first published article (1958), he predicted that the first rocket to land on the moon would sink ingloriously in the dust, and everyone inside would perish (Article mentioned in *Isaac Asimov, Asimov on Science: A Thirty-Year Retrospective, 1989, pp. xvi-xvii).

Source: Evolution Handbook

Revolt in France (early 1960s). A large number of French biologists and taxonomists (species classification experts) rebelled against the chains of the evolutionary creed and declared that they would continue their research, but would no longer try to prove evolution—which they considered an impossible theory. Taxonomists who joined the revolt took the name “cladists” (*Z. Litynski, “Should We Burn Darwin?” in Science Digest, Vol. 51, January 1961, p. 61).

(1962). Telescopes found a mysterious object, which was named 3C273. It had a spectrum that was unintelligible. This peculiar object radiated most strongly in the fringes of the visible spectrum. It was a total mystery until February 1963, when *Jesse Schmidt recognized that the problem was that it had a radical 16% shift toward the red. If the speed theory of redshift, promoted by evolutionists, was correct,—that meant the object was moving away from us at 16% of the speed of light—and was a massive 3 billion light-years from earth!As more—and apparently “faster”—quasars were discovered, the situation kept worsening. Ultimately, their existence debunked the evolutionists’ speed theory of redshift. Yet the redshift and background radiation were the only two “evidences” of an earlier Big Bang! For example, in 1977, a quasar was found which, according to the redshift theory, was moving faster (eight times faster) than the speed of light! Of course, scientists know it is impossible for anything to travel faster than the speed of light (*George Abell, Exploration of the Universe, 1973, p. 409; *Time-Life, Cosmic Mysteries, 1990, pp. 68-69; *Sky and Telescope 53, 1977, p. 1702).

Creation Research Society(1963). This important Creation research organization was founded by doctoral scientists, with the express purpose of conducting research into Creation-evolution topics and publishing regular reports on them. Its Journal reports have been of a high scientific caliber. (See our website for address.) (1965). Using a sensitive radio astronomy telescope, *A.A. Penzias and *R.W. Wilson (researchers at Bell Laboratories) discovered low-energy microwave radiation coming from outer space. Big Bang theorists immediately claimed that this proved the Big Bang! They said it was the last part of the explosion. But further research disclosed that it came from every direction instead of only one; that it was the wrong temperature; and that it was too even. Even discoveries in the 1990s have failed to show that this radiation is “lumpy” enough (their term) to have produced stars and planets. (1965). *Fred Hoyle abandoned his steady state theory entirely in a public announcement at a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. He listed five scientific reasons why it was impossible (Nature, October 9, 1965, p. 113). (See our website for the five.) (1965). It was not until the 1960s that the neo-Darwinists (those who had given up on natural selection and believed that mutations were the mechanism of cross-species change) began fighting with one another in earnest. At this meeting of mathematicians and biologists, mathematical doubts were raised about the possibility of evolution having occurred. At the end of several hours of heated discussion, it was decided to hold another meeting the next year.

Background Radiation

Steady State Universe Theory Abandoned

The Switzerland Meeting

Source: Evolution Handbook

First Quasar Discovered

 Discovery of DNA (1953). *Rosiland Franklin took some special photographs which were used in 1953 by *Francis Crick and *James Watson (without giving her credit), to develop the astounding helix model of the DNA molecule. DNA has crushed the hopes of biological evolutionists; for it provides clear evidence that every species is locked into its own coding pattern. It would be impossible for one species to change into another, since the genes network together so closely. It is a combination lock, and it is shut tight. Only sub-species variations can occur (varieties in plants, and breeds in animals). This is done through gene shuffling (*A.I. Oparin, Life: Its Nature, Origin and Development, 1961, p. 31; *Hubert P. Yockey, “A Calculation of Probability of Spontaneous Biogenesis by Information Theory,” Journal of Theoretical Biology, Vol. 67, 1977, p. 398).

The odds of accidentally producing the correct DNA code in a species or changing it into another viable species are mathematically impossible. This has repeatedly been established. (*J. Leslie, “Cosmology, Probability, and the Need to Explain Life,” in Scientific American and Understanding, pp. 53, 64-65; *E. Ambrose, Nature and Origin of the Biological World, 1982, p. 135).Five Polls about Evolution (1954). (1) The general public supports the teaching of Creation in public schools, not just evolution, by a massive majority of 86% to 8% (AP-NBC News poll). (2) A national poll of attorneys agree (56% to 26%) and find dual instruction constitutional (63% to 26%, American Bar Association-commissioned poll). (3) A majority of university students at two secular colleges also agree (80% at Ohio State, 56% at Oberlin, Fuerst, Zimmerman). (4) Two-thirds of public school board members agree (67% to 25%, American School Board Journal poll). (5) A substantial minority of public school teachers favor Creation over evolution (Austin Analytical Consulting poll; source: W.R. Bird, Origin of Species Revisited, 1954, p. 8).

Source: Evolution Handbook

 Chinese Communism (1950-). When the communists took control of China in 1950, the first new text introduced into all the schools was neither Marxist nor Leninist, but Darwinian. Chinese communist leaders eagerly grasped evolutionary theory as a basic foundation for their ideology. The government established the Paleontological Institute in Beijing, with a large staff of paleontologists, dedicated to proving evolution.

*Sir Julian S. Huxley (1887-1975). Grandson of *Darwin’s “bulldog” (*Thomas Huxley), *Julian Huxley was the leading spokesman for evolution by natural selection in the mid-20th century. Upon being named the first director-general of UNESCO, he was able to make evolution the keystone of United Nations scientific policy. He saw it as his opportunity to extend evolutionary thinking to the nations of the world; and he made the most of it (*Julian Huxley, UNESCO pamphlet).

Piltdown Skull Debunked(1953). This piece of skull and separate jaw was the only clear evidence that man was descended from an apelike creature. In 1953, *Kenneth Oakley (British Museum geologist), *Joseph Weiner (Oxford University anthropologist), and *Le Gros Clark (anatomy professor at Oxford) managed to get their hands on the Piltdown skull and jaw—and proved it to be a total forgery. The newly developed fluorine test revealed the bones to be quite recent. Additional research showed the bones had been stained with bichromate, to make them appear aged. Drillings into the bone produced shavings instead of ancient powder. The canine tooth was found to have been filed and stained. Weiner published a book about the Piltdown forgery in 1955 (*William L. Straus, Jr., “The Great Piltdown Hoax,” Science, February 26, 1954; *Robert Silverberg, Scientists and Scoundrels: A Book of Hoaxes, 1965).

Amino Acid Synthesis(1953). When *Stanley Miller produced a few amino acids from chemicals, amid a continuous small sparking apparatus, newspaper headlines proclaimed: “Life has been created!” But evolutionists hid the truth: The experiment had disproved the possibility that evolution could occur.

Source: Evolution Handbook

The amino acids were totally dead, and the experiment only proved that a synthetic production of them would result in equal amounts of left- and right-handed amino acids. Since only left-handed ones exist in animals, accidental production could never produce a living creature (*R. Milner, Encyclopedia of Evolution, 1990, p. 274).

 First Causal Changeover (1940s). *Darwin originally wrote that random activity naturally selects itself into improvements (a concept which any sensible person will say is totally impossible). In a later book (Descent of Man, 1871), Darwin abandoned “natural selection” as hopeless, and returned to Lamarckism (the scientifically discredited inheritance of acquired characteristics; if you build strong muscles, your son will inherit them). But evolutionists remained faithful to Darwin’s original mechanism (natural selection) for decades. They were called “Darwinists.” But, by the 1940s, many were switching over to mutations as the mechanism of cross-species change. Its advocates were called “neo-Darwinists.” The second changeover would come in the 1980s.

Radiocarbon dating(1946). *Willard Libby and his associates discovered carbon 14 (C 14) as a method for the dating of earlier organic materials. But later research revealed that its inaccuracy increases in accordance with the actual age of the material (*C.A. Reed, “Animal Domestication in the Prehistoric Near East,” in Science, 130, 1959, p. 1630; University of California at Los Angeles, “On the Accuracy of Radiocarbon Dates,” in Geochronicle, 2, 1966 [Libby’s own laboratory])

Big Bang Hypothesis(1948) Astronomers were totally buffaloed as to where matter and stars came from. In desperation, *George Gamow and two associates dreamed up the astonishing concept that an explosion of nothing produced hydrogen and helium, which then shot outward, then turned and began circling and pushing itself into our present highly organized stars and galactic systems. This far-fetched theory has repeatedly been opposed by a number of scientists (*G. Burbidge, “Was There Really a Big Bang?” in Nature 233, 1971, pp. 36, 39). By the 1980s, astronomers which continued to oppose the theory began to be relieved of their research time at major observatories (“Companion Galaxies Match Quasar Redshifts: The Debate Goes On,” Physics Today, 37:17, December 1984). In spite of clear evidence that the theory is unscientific and unworkable, evolutionists refuse to abandon it.Steady State Universe Theory(1948). In 1948, *Fred Hoyle, working with *Hermann Bondi and *Thomas Gold, proposed this theory as an alternative to the Big Bang. It declared that matter is continually “blipping” into existence throughout the universe (*Peter Pocock and *Pat Daniels, Galaxies, p. 114; *Fred Hoyle, Frontiers of Astronomy, 1955, pp. 317-318). We will learn that in 1965, the theory was abandoned. *Hoyle said it disagreed with several scientific facts.

Source: Evolution Handbook

 Coelacanth Discovered (1938). It was once an “index fossil, used to date a sedimentary strata. Evolutionists declared it as having been dead for 70 million years. If their strata theory was correct, no living specimens could occur, since no coelacanth fossils had been found in the millions of years of higher strata. But then, on December 25, 1938, a trawler fishing off South Africa brought up one that was 5 feet in length. More were found later. Many other discoveries helped disprove the evolutionists’ fossil/strata theories. Even living creatures like the trilobite have been found! (*”Living Fossil Resembles Long-extinct Trilobite,” Science Digest, December 1957).

 Hiroshima(1945) is an evolutionist’s paradise; for it is filled with people heavily irradiated, which—according to evolutionary mutation theory—should be able to produce children which are new, different, and a more exalted species. But this has not happened. Only injury and death resulted from the August 6, 1945, nuclear explosion. Mutations are always harmful and frequently lethal within a generation or two (*Animal Species and Evolution, p. 170, *H.J. Muller, Time, November 11, 1946, p. 38). (1940s). *Darwin originally wrote that random activity naturally selects itself into improvements (a concept which any sensible person will say is totally impossible). In a later book (Descent of Man, 1871), Darwin abandoned “natural selection” as hopeless, and returned to Lamarckism (the scientifically discredited inheritance of acquired characteristics; if you build strong muscles, your son will inherit them). But evolutionists remained faithful to Darwin’s original mechanism (natural selection) for decades. They were called “Darwinists.” But, by the 1940s, many were switching over to mutations as the mechanism of cross-species change. Its advocates were called “neo-Darwinists.” The second changeover would come in the 1980s.

Source: Evolution Handbook

 American Humanist Association (1933). “Humanism” is the modern word for “atheism.” As soon as it was formed in 1933, the AHA began working closely with science federations, to promote evolutionary theory and, with the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union), to provoke legal action in the courts forcing Americans to accept evolutionary beliefs. Signatories included *Julian Huxley (*T.H. Huxley’s grandson), *John Dewey, *Margaret Sanger, *H.J. Muller, *Benjamin Spock, *Erich Froom, and *Carl Rogers (*American Humanist Association, promotional literature).

*Trofim Lysenko (1893-1976) rose to power in the 1930s in the USSR, by convincing the government that he could create a State Science that combined Darwinian evolution theory in science, animal husbandry, and agriculture with Marxist theory. With *Stalin’s hearty backing, Lysenko became responsible for the death of thousands, including many of Russia’s best scientists. Lysenko banned Mendelian genetics as a bourgeois heresy. He was ousted in 1965, when his theories produced agricultural disaster for the nation. (He claimed to be able to change winter wheat into spring wheat, through temperature change, and wheat into rye in one generation.)

*Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) was chancellor of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. He carefully studied the writings of *Darwin and *Nietzsche. Hitler’s book, Mein Kampf, was based on evolutionary theory (*Sir Arthur Keith, Evolution and Ethics, 1947, p. 28). The very title of the book (“My Struggle” [to survive and overcome]) was copied from a Darwinian expression. Hitler believed he was fulfilling evolutionary objectives by eliminating “undesirable individuals and inferior races” in order to produce Germany’s “Master Race” (*Larry Azar, Twentieth Century in Crisis, 1990, p. 180). (Notice that the “master race” people always select the race they are in as the best one.)

*Benito Mussolini (1883-1945), the Italian Fascist dictator, was also captivated by *Darwin and *Nietzsche; and Neitzsche said he got his ideas from Darwin (*R.E.D. Clark, Darwin: Before and After, 1948, p. 115). Mussolini believed that violence is basic to social transformation (*Encyclopedia Britannica, 1962, Vol. 16, p. 27).

Source: Evolution Handbook

*Vladimir (Nikolai) Lenin (1870-1924) and *Josef Stalin (1879-1953). Lenin was an ardent evolutionist who, in 1918, violently overthrew the Russian government and founded the Soviet Union.

According to *Yaroslavsky, a close friend of his, at an early age, while attending a Christian Orthodox school, Stalin began to read *Darwin and became an atheist (*E. Yaroslavsky, Landmarks in the Life of Stalin, 1940, pp. 8-9). Stalin was head of the Soviet Union from 1924 to 1953. During those years, he was responsible for the death of millions of Russians who refused to yield to his slave-state tactics. The Soviet Union under Stalin was an outstanding example of Darwinist principles extended to an entire nation.

*Austin H. Clark (1880-1954), an ardent evolutionist, was on the staff of the Smithsonian Institute from 1908 to 1950 and a member of several important scientific organizations. A prominent scientist, he authored several books and about 600 scientific articles. But, after years of honestly trying to deal with the fact that there is no evidence of cross-species change, in 1930 he wrote an astounding book, The New Evolution: Zoogenesis. In it, he cited fact after fact, disproving the possibility that major types of plants and animals could have evolved from one another. The book was breathtaking and could not be answered by any evolutionist. His alternate proposal, zoogenesis, was that every major type of plant and animal must have evolved—not from one another—but directly from dirt and water! (*A.H. Clark, The New Evolution: Zoogenesis, 1930, pp. 211, 100, 189, 196, 114). The evolutionary world was stunned into silence; for he was an expert who knew all the reasons why trans-species evolution was impossible.

*Richard Goldschmidt (1878-1958). The same year that *Clark wrote his book (1930), Goldschmidt gave up also. An earnest evolutionist, he had dedicated his life to proving it by applying X-rays and chemicals to fruit flies at the University of California, Berkeley, and producing large numbers of mutations in them. After 25 exhausting years, in which he had worked with more generations of fruit flies than humans and their ape ancestors are conjectured to have lived on our planet, Goldschmidt decided that he must figure out a different way that cross-species evolution could occur. For the next ten years, as he continued his fruit fly research, he gathered additional evidence of the foolishness of evolutionary theory;—and, in 1940, wrote his book, The Material Basis of Evolution, in which he exploded point after point in the ammunition box of the theory. He literally tore it to pieces (*Norman Macbeth, Darwin Retried, 1974, p. 152). No evolutionist could answer him. Like them, he was a confirmed evolutionist atheist, but he was honestly facing the facts. After soundly destroying their theory, he announced his new concept: a megaevolution in which one life form suddenly emerged completely out of a different one! He called them “hopeful monsters.” One day a fish laid some eggs, and some of them turned into a frog; a snake laid an egg, and a bird hatched from it! Goldschmidt asked for even bigger miracles than A.H. Clark had proposed! (*Steven M. Stanley, Macroevolution: Pattern and Process, 1979, p. 159).

Source: Evolution Handbook

*Walter S. Sutton and *T. Boveri (1902) independently discovered chromosomes and the linkage of genetic characters. This was only two years after Mendel’s research was rediscovered. Scientists were continually learning new facts about the fixity of the species.

*Thomas Hunt Morgan (1886-1945) was an American biologist who developed the theory of the gene. He found that the genetic determinants were present in a definite linear order in the chromosomes and could be somewhat “mapped.” He was the first to work intensively with the fruit fly, Drosophila (*Michael Pitman, Adam and Evolution, 1984, p. 70). But research with fruit flies, and other creatures, has proved a total failure in showing mutations to be a mechanism for cross-species change (*Richard B. Goldschmidt, “Evolution, as Viewed by One Geneticist,” American Scientist, January 1952, p. 94).*H.J. Muller (1890-1967). Upon learning of the 1927 discovery that X-rays, gamma rays, and various chemicals could induce an extremely rapid increase of mutations in the chromosomes of test animals and plants, Muller pioneered in using X-rays to greatly increase the mutation rate in fruit flies. But all he and the other researchers found was that mutations were always harmful (*H.J. Muller, Time, November 11, 1946, p. 38; *E.J. Gardner, Principles of Genetics, 1964, p. 192; *Theodosius Dobzhansky, Genetics and the Origin of the Species, 1951, p. 73).

*Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) was deeply indebted to the evolutionary training he received in Germany as a young man. He fully accepted it, as well as *Haeckel’s recapitulation theory. Freud began his Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis (1916) with Haeckel’s premise: “Each individual somehow recapitulates in an abbreviated form the entire development of the human race” (*R. Milner, Encyclopedia of Evolution, 1990, p. 177).

Freud’s “Oedipus complex” was based on a theory of “primal horde” he developed about a “mental complex” that caveman families had long ago. His theories of anxiety complexes, and “oral” and “anal” stages, etc., were based on his belief that our ancestors were savage.

*H.G. Wells (1866-1946), the science fiction pioneer, based his imaginative writings on evolutionary teachings. He had received a science training under Professor *Thomas H. Huxley, *Darwin’s chief defender.

Source: Evolution Handbook

 *Hugo deVries (1848-1935) was a Dutch botanist and one of the three men who, in 1900, rediscovered Mendel’s paper on the law of heredity. One day while working with primroses, deVries thought he had discovered a new species. This made headlines. He actually had found a new variety (sub-species) of the primrose, but deVries conjectured that perhaps his “new species” had suddenly sprung into existence as a “mutation.” He theorized that new species “saltated” (leaped), that is, continually spring into existence. His idea is called the saltation theory.

This was a new idea; and, during the first half of the 20th century, many evolutionist biologists, finding absolutely no evidence supporting “natural selection,” switched from natural selection (“Darwinism”) to mutations (“neo-Darwinism”) as the mechanism by which the theorized cross-species changes occurred.

Later in this book, we will discover that mutations cannot produce evolution either, for they are always harmful. In addition, decades of experimentation have revealed they never produce new species.

In order to prove the mutation theory, deVries and other researchers immediately began experimentation on fruit flies; and it has continued ever since—but totally without success in producing new species.

In 1914 *Edward Jeffries discovered that deVries’ primrose was just a new variety, not a new species.

Decades later, it was discovered that most plant varieties are produced by variations in gene factors, rarely by mutations. Those caused by gene variations may be strong (although not as strong as the average original), but those varieties produced by mutations are always weak and have a poor survival rate. See chapter 10, Mutations, for much, much more on the mutation problem.

Source: Evolution Handbook