Science" does not accept or reject ideas. Prominent scientists at that time might have not believed in a spheroid Earth, but that brings us to one of the great things about science: it gives us a framework for debunking bad theory. Many scientists have been wrong about many things, and any scientist worth his/her salt won't deny this. Still, it is unfortunate that some science-oriented institutions and some scientists are excessively dogmatic about things like the conservation of matter and energy, the second law of thermodynamics, and other things that the scientific method is fundamentally incapable of proving.
Yet science does this all the time. And new theories are haled as truth when in fact a theory is just that, a theory and unproven.
Dogmatism and evolution? Hmmmm! Here are some quotes regarding evolution from some well known scientists in various fields. You may recognize a few names.
The âscientific methodâ is as follows: Observe what happens; based on those observations, form a theory as to what may be true; test the theory by further observations and by experiments; and watch to see if the predictions based on the theory are fulfilled. Is this the method followed by those who believe in and teach evolution?
Astronomer Robert Jastrow says: âTo their chagrin [scientists] have no clear-cut answer, because chemists have never succeeded in reproducing natureâs experiments on the creation of life out of nonliving matter. Scientists do not know how that happened.ââThe Enchanted Loom: Mind in the Universe (New York, 1981), p. 19.
Evolutionist Loren Eiseley acknowledged: âAfter having chided the theologian for his reliance on myth and miracle, science found itself in the unenviable position of having to create a mythology of its own: namely, the assumption that what, after long effort, could not be proved to take place today had, in truth, taken place in the primeval past.ââThe Immense Journey (New York, 1957), p. 199.
According to New Scientist: âAn increasing number of scientists, most particularly a growing number of evolutionists . . . argue that Darwinian evolutionary theory is no genuine scientific theory at all. . . . Many of the critics have the highest intellectual credentials.ââJune 25, 1981, p. 828.
Physicist H. S. Lipson said: âThe only acceptable explanation is creation. I know that this is anathema to physicists, as indeed it is to me, but we must not reject a theory that we do not like if the experimental evidence supports it.â (Italics added.)âPhysics Bulletin, 1980, Vol. 31, p. 138.
Are those who advocate evolution in agreement? How do these facts make you feel about what they teach?
The introduction to the centennial edition of Darwinâs Origin of Species (London, 1956) says: âAs we know, there is a great divergence of opinion among biologists, not only about the causes of evolution but even about the actual process. This divergence exists because the evidence is unsatisfactory and does not permit any certain conclusion. It is therefore right and proper to draw the attention of the non-scientific public to the disagreements about evolution.ââBy W. R. Thompson, then director of the Commonwealth Institute of Biological Control, Ottawa, Canada.
âA century after Darwinâs death, we still have not the slightest demonstrable or even plausible idea of how evolution really took placeâand in recent years this has led to an extraordinary series of battles over the whole question. . . . A state of almost open war exists among the evolutionists themselves, with every kind of [evolutionary] sect urging some new modification.ââC. Booker (London Times writer), The Star, (Johannesburg), April 20, 1982, p. 19.
The scientific magazine Discover said: âEvolution . . . is not only under attack by fundamentalist Christians, but is also being questioned by reputable scientists. Among paleontologists, scientists who study the fossil record, there is growing dissent.ââOctober 1980, p. 88.
What view does the fossil record support?
Darwin acknowledged: âIf numerous species . . . have really started into life at once, the fact would be fatal to the theory of evolution.â (The Origin of Species, New York, 1902, Part Two, p. 83) Does the evidence indicate that ânumerous speciesâ came into existence at the same time, or does it point to gradual development, as evolution holds?
Have sufficient fossils been found to draw a sound conclusion?
Smithsonian Institution scientist Porter Kier says: âThere are a hundred million fossils, all catalogued and identified, in museums around the world.â (New Scientist, January 15, 1981, p. 129) A Guide to Earth History adds: âBy the aid of fossils palaeontologists can now give us an excellent picture of the life of past ages.ââ(New York, 1956), Richard Carrington, Mentor edition, p. 48.
What does the fossil record actually show?
The Bulletin of Chicagoâs Field Museum of Natural History pointed out: âDarwinâs theory of [evolution] has always been closely linked to evidence from fossils, and probably most people assume that fossils provide a very important part of the general argument that is made in favor of darwinian interpretations of the history of life. Unfortunately, this is not strictly true. . . . the geologic record did not then and still does not yield a finely graduated chain of slow and progressive evolution.ââJanuary 1979, Vol. 50, No. 1, pp. 22, 23.
A View of Life states: âBeginning at the base of the Cambrian period and extending for about 10 million years, all the major groups of skeletonized invertebrates made their first appearance in the most spectacular rise in diversity ever recorded on our planet.ââ(California, 1981), Salvador E. Luria, Stephen Jay Gould, Sam Singer, p. 649.
Paleontologist Alfred Romer wrote: âBelow this [Cambrian period], there are vast thicknesses of sediments in which the progenitors of the Cambrian forms would be expected. But we do not find them; these older beds are almost barren of evidence of life, and the general picture could reasonably be said to be consistent with the idea of a special creation at the beginning of Cambrian times.ââNatural History, October 1959, p. 467.
Zoologist Harold Coffin states: âIf progressive evolution from simple to complex is correct, the ancestors of these full-blown living creatures in the Cambrian should be found; but they have not been found and scientists admit there is little prospect of their ever being found. On the basis of the facts alone, on the basis of what is actually found in the earth, the theory of a sudden creative act in which the major forms of life were established fits best.ââLiberty, September/October 1975, p. 12.
Carl Sagan, in his book Cosmos, candidly acknowledged: âThe fossil evidence could be consistent with the idea of a Great Designer.ââ(New York, 1980), p. 29.
Might it be that the evolutionary process took place as a result of mutations, that is, sudden drastic changes in genes?
Science Digest states: âEvolutionary revisionists believe mutations in key regulatory genes may be just the genetic jackhammers their quantum-leap theory requires.â However, the magazine also quotes British zoologist Colin Patterson as stating: âSpeculation is free. We know nothing about these regulatory master genes.â (February 1982, p. 92) In other words, there is no evidence to support the theory.
The Encyclopedia Americana acknowledges: âThe fact that most mutations are damaging to the organism seems hard to reconcile with the view that mutation is the source of raw materials for evolution. Indeed, mutants illustrated in biology textbooks are a collection of freaks and monstrosities and mutation seems to be a destructive rather than a constructive process.ââ(1977), Vol. 10, p. 742.
What about those âape-menâ depicted in schoolbooks, encyclopedias and museums?
âThe flesh and hair on such reconstructions have to be filled in by resorting to the imagination. . . . Skin color; the color, form, and distribution of the hair; the form of the features; and the aspect of the faceâof these characters we know absolutely nothing for any prehistoric men.ââThe Biology of Race (New York, 1971), James C. King, pp. 135, 151.
âThe vast majority of artistsâ conceptions are based more on imagination than on evidence. . . . Artists must create something between an ape and a human being; the older the specimen is said to be, the more apelike they make it.ââScience Digest, April 1981, p. 41.
âJust as we are slowly learning that primitive men are not necessarily savages, so we must learn to realize that the early men of the Ice Age were neither brute beasts nor semi-apes nor cretins. Hence the ineffable stupidity of all attempts to reconstruct Neanderthal or even Peking man.ââMan, God and Magic (New York, 1961), Ivar Lissner, p. 304.
Do not textbooks present evolution as fact?
âMany scientists succumb to the temptation to be dogmatic, . . . over and over again the question of the origin of the species has been presented as if it were finally settled. Nothing could be further from the truth. . . . But the tendency to be dogmatic persists, and it does no service to the cause of science.ââThe Guardian, London, England, December 4, 1980, p. 15.
