CREATION CORNER
by Geoff Chapman
The real reasons elephants are being born without tusks and swallows are growing longer tails
Many people misunderstand evolution, and this is partly due to the way that evolutionists tell their story.
It goes something like this: “Evolution is change; therefore, change is evolution.”
This is very misleading. Evolution is supposed to explain how all life — pelicans, palm trees and people — evolved from a single-celled ancestor which lived around 3.5 billion years ago.
For one kind of creature to evolve into something quite different would have involved a massive amount of change, but the examples we are given are simply small, limited variations known as natural selection. No new genetic information has been added and in some instances it has actually been lost.
In 2008 The New York Times reported “one of the biggest evolutionary shifts ever documented in a living population of wild animals.”
What was this amazing evidence? In 20 years “the outer tail feathers of barn swallows had lengthened by almost half an inch (11.4 mm), an increase of 10 per cent.”
This change is said to make the males more attractive to the females, but they are still swallows – and always will be! Their tails won’t keep growing indefinitely, or natural selection would eliminate them since it would hinder their flight.
They are still swallows – and always will be
Did you know that some elephants are losing their tusks? One African national park estimated 38% of elephants are born without tusks.
This is thought to be partly due to poaching. Elephants with small tusks, or no tusks at all, are less likely to be killed for their ivory, so human actions are helping natural selection, and tusklessness is being passed on. Well-known evolutionist Richard Dawkins claimed this is “rapid evolution taking place before our very eyes.”
Human actions are helping natural selection
But this is not true. Firstly, they are still elephants, and secondly, they have actually lost some genetic information.
Australian skinks are losing their legs. They have gone from having five-fingered claws to tiny, stubby legs — or no legs at all.
This is advantageous, since they spend a lot of time either swimming or wriggling through sand. This has been described as “evidence of rapid evolution”, but this is not the kind of change evolutionists need.
When visiting the Galapagos Islands off South America, Charles Darwin noticed that there were several species of mockingbirds on the islands, and that they were similar to mockingbirds on the South American mainland. He concluded that they all had a common ancestor.
This was logical, but he was wrong to suggest that this meant that all life on earth had evolved from some common ancestor. This was natural selection, not evolution.
If the best evidence that evolution is happening now is swallows growing longer tails, elephants losing tusks, and skinks losing legs, there is really no evidence at all.
The Bible records that God created things “according to their kinds.” (Genesis 1)
There was scope for wide variation within each kind, but one kind could not change into another. Both the fossil record and the living world support this; natural selection, yes — evolution no!
Geoff Chapman is Director of Creation Resources Trust
Many people misunderstand evolution, and this is partly due to the way that evolutionists tell their story.
It goes something like this: “Evolution is change; therefore, change is evolution.”
This is very misleading. Evolution is supposed to explain how
all life — pelicans, palm trees and people — evolved from a single-
celled ancestor which lived around
3.5 billion years ago.
For one kind of creature to evolve into something quite different would have involved a massive amount of change, but the examples we are given are simply small, limited variations known as natural selection. No new genetic information has been added and in some instances it has actually been lost.
In 2008 The New York Times reported “one of the biggest evolutionary shifts ever documented in a living population of wild animals.”
What was this amazing evidence? In 20 years “the outer tail feathers of barn swallows had lengthened by almost half an inch (11.4 mm), an increase of 10 per cent.”
This change is said to make the males more attractive to the females, but they are still swallows – and always will be! Their tails won’t keep growing indefinitely, or natural selection would eliminate them since it would hinder their flight.
They are still swallows
– and always will be
Did you know that some elephants are losing their tusks? One African national park estimated 38% of elephants are born without tusks.
This is thought to be partly due to poaching. Elephants with small tusks, or no tusks at all, are less likely to be killed for their ivory, so human actions are helping natural selection, and tusklessness is being passed on. Well-known evolutionist Richard Dawkins claimed this is “rapid evolution taking place before our very eyes.”
Human actions are helping natural selection
But this is not true. Firstly, they are still elephants, and secondly, they have actually lost some
genetic information.
Australian skinks are losing their legs. They have gone from having five-fingered claws to tiny, stubby legs — or no legs at all.
This is advantageous, since they spend a lot of time either swimming or wriggling through sand. This has been described as “evidence of rapid evolution”, but this is not the kind of change evolutionists need.
When visiting the Galapagos Islands off South America, Charles Darwin noticed that there were several species of mockingbirds on the islands, and that they were similar to mockingbirds on the South American mainland. He concluded that they all had a common ancestor.
This was logical, but he was wrong to suggest that this meant that all life on earth had evolved from some common ancestor. This was natural selection, not evolution.
If the best evidence that evolution is happening now is swallows growing longer tails, elephants losing tusks, and skinks losing legs, there is really no evidence at all.
The Bible records that God
created things “according to their kinds.” (Genesis 1)
There was scope for wide variation within each kind, but one kind could not change into another. Both the fossil record and the living world support this; natural selection, yes — evolution no!
Geoff Chapman is Director
of Creation Resources Trust
Info@crt.org.uk
www.crt.org.uk