A New Look At Evolution

A New Look At Evolution (part two)

A Cellular Motor

The difficulties facing a theory of evolution can be more clearly seen when we consider a concrete example such as the cellular motors in the E. coli bacterium.8 This one-celled creature possesses flagella (corkscrew-shaped fibers) powered by rotary motors built into its cell wall. The turning of the flagella propels the E. coli through the water just like a ships's propeller, and by operating these motors in forward and reverse direction the bacterium can guide itself to its desired destination.

Now suppose we imagine a bacterium without this apparatus. The question is this: by what evolutionary steps could we arrive at a bacterium with the cellular motors? What is the sequence of intermediate stages? The requirement is that each stage would have to confer some definite advantage to the bacterium over the previous stage. Otherwise, the changes cannot be attributed to natural selection, which is said to govern the process of evolution.

It has been determined that 20 genes govern the structure of the motors. That means the development could not take place all at once because of a single mutation. An alternative is for the successive changes to come about gradually by random genetic mutations that affect a small number of genes. But if you just get part of a motor, how can that possibly benefit the organism? It would probably make it less likely to survive because it would be wasting its energy to produce a useless structure. Natural selection would therefore tend to prevent such changes.

Suppose then that one cell finally did somehow get a workable motor structure but didn't have the sensory system needed to control the motor. Then it wouldn't be able to properly use the motor, and thus the motor would be of no value. On the other hand, the sensory apparatus would be useless without the motor. What this means is that the sensory apparatus and the motors should develop simultaneously, which complicates the whole matter greatly.

In essence, the problem is this: the motor clearly involves a great number of interacting components, and for the entire motor to work, all the components have to be present together and assembled in the right way. It is very hard to imagine how you could produce such a complex mechanism unless you were suddenly able to bring together all of the components. Modern evolutionary theorists have no adequate explanation. But an intelligent designer would be able to do this, because the mind can go from an idea to a working design by a process of reasoning in which the intermediate stages do not have to survive in some natural environment. If a designer wanted to build a molecular motor, he could think about it and come up with a plan, slowly or quickly. It is possible to envision that, but it is difficult to imagine it could happen by a blind natural process.

The E. coli motor example is by no means unique. There are innumerable other instances of complex form ranging from sophisticated molecular machinery in cells to remarkably developed organ systems in higher species of life. The problem of the origin of such structures is universal and remains unsolved by evolutionary theorists. In fact, since most of the structures in higher organisms are far more complex than the simple example from E. coli we have just considered, we anticipate that an honest attempt to explain their origin will involve correspondingly greater difficulties.

The recently developed science of molecular biology has made the task of the evolutionary theorist much more difficult. Followers of classical Darwinian theory customarily think of evolution in terms of what we might call plastic deformation. They tend to envision an organism as a plastic model and, for example, imagine one could gradually deform the plastic shape of a monkey until it by stages came to take on the appearance of a man. Most people still see evolution in this simplistic way.

But organisms are not plastic models. Physical bodies are extremely complex molecular machines, the workings of which are far more complicated than any machine of human manufacture. So it is practically impossible to see how you can change one machine into another type of machine by a process of plastic deformation. You can do body work on a car and change its shape somewhat, but if you want to rearrange the insides, that is an entirely different story. A new kind of engine, for example, is likely to require a whole new set of parts with a whole new set of interrelationships, and these cannot be produced by gradual continuous deformation of the parts of the original motor. If you start pulling wires and stretching metal in the motor and driveshaft, the machine is likely to break down entirely.

Some evolutionists have suggested that the characteristics that distinguish human beings from apes can be accounted for simply by an increase in brain size. This is another case of plastic deformation in operation--it sounds so simple, just like blowing up a balloon. But neurological studies of the brain have shown that it is not just a lump of flexible gray matter--it is composed of billions of neurons linked together in complex circuits.

So to go from an ape brain to a human brain is not as easy as blowing up a balloon. It would mean increasing the number of neurons and rewiring them so as to enable the brain to generate such complex human functions as speech. A human child, at a very early age, is able to spontaneously assimilate the symbolic structures and communication processes of a spoken language. Apes can't do this. This has led experts in linguistics, such as Naom Chomsky, to posit that the brain has a kind of grammatical software programmed into it.

Carrying the computer analogy a little bit further, we can understand that doubling the size of a computer memory and giving it a 16-bit processor instead of an 8-bit processor is not enough to increase its usefulness to the user. What's really required is new and more advanced software, programs that will let the user take advantage of the extra capacity. The same is true of the human brain--it may be bigger than the ape's, but the real difference is the more complicated programming it is able to run. The big question is how the new programs come into being. One thing is certain: it is difficult to add radically new capacities to a program by randomly modifying it in the hope that by gradual small changes it will improve. It is more reasonable and logical to suppose that a process of designing and engineering a completely new system of software is what's really involved.

Another example of the difficulties facing evolutionary theory may be found in the statocyst of a certain species of shrimp.9 The statocyst is a small, hollow, fluid-filled organ that helps the shrimp balance itself. Amazingly, its function depends upon the shrimp inserting a grain of sand into it through a tiny opening. By means of the pressure the grain exerts upon the sensitive hairs lining the inner walls of the statocyst, the shrimp can tell up from down. It is extremely difficult to imagine any series of gradual intermediate steps that might have led to the statocyst and the behavior associated with it.

At this point, when it becomes clear that a physical explanation of the origin of complex structures is out of reach, some scientists try to save the theory of evolution by appealing to blind chance. Although we have discussed this topic before in this magazine, the appeal to chance is so common in science that we feel it important to again dispel some of the misconceptions associated with it. Scientists making this appeal propose that somehow or other, everything comes together in just the right way by chance. But this involves a serious misconception. Chance is only meaningful when you can repeat an event and observe statistical patterns in the results.

For example, imagine you were the first person to ever flip a coin. If you could flip it only once, you really couldn't draw any conclusions about the chances of heads coming up rather than tails. Even if you flipped it five times, a pattern might not emerge--it might come up heads all five times. But if you flip it several hundred times, you are justified in making probability statements about the event.

Now how does all this relate to evolution? It is clear that the origin of a species is not something that can be repeatedly observed. Yet, as we have previously noted, the evolutionary theorist Theodosius Dobzhansky has stated that there is almost zero chance of human evolution being repeated. In general, when evolutionary theorists evoke chance they are talking about probabilities so small that you would not expect events with such probabilities to occur even once in the course of a span of time billions of times longer than the accepted age of the universe. (See "Could Life Arise by Chance?")

So in considering evolutionary events that are likely to occur only once in hundreds of billions (or even trillions) of attempts, it becomes useless to speak of them in terms of chance. It would be meaningful if you could repeat the events many hundreds of billions of times, but we are dealing with events that historically are supposed to have occurred but once. Therefore, if scientists can offer no acceptable physical explanaton of the origin of the complex physical structures of an organism, then these structures become simply "unique events." We cannot say anything certain about their origin. All we can say is that they exist.

Some evolutionists have already been forced to draw similar conclusions. George Gaylord Simpson, one of the deans of modern evolutionary theory, says in his book This View of Life: "The factors that have determined the appearance of man have been so extremely special, so very long continued, so incredibly intricate that I have been able hardly to hint at them here. Indeed, they are far from all being known, and everything we learn seems to make them even more appallingly unique."10

Does Evidence Support Design Model?

At this point, it is safe to say that the laws of physics do not fully account for evolution as it is currently being put forward. Yet the idea of evolution is so thoroughly embedded in people's minds that it is difficult for them to objectively consider alternative explanations. Oftentimes, it's a case of the theory determining how evidence is seen rather than vice versa.

Here are some common examples of evidence that people uncritically assume support the idea of evolution: the fact that creatures of different species have similar bodily parts; the fact that creatures of similar structure have similar genetic content; the fact that some creatures have what appear to be vestiges of organs or structures that were more fully developed or useful in their presumed ancestors; the fact that plant and animal breeders have been able to modify species to some extent; and the fact that the observed features of organisms sometimes appear to contradict what would be expected of an an intelligent creator. But the lines of reasoning leading from these evidences to the exclusive conclusion of evolution are weak, and it's quite possible that other explanations may better fit the facts.

Similar body parts in different species might suggest to some a common ancestry, but an intelligent creator might also use similar parts in constructing unique physical forms. In fact, that would be more efficient than designing completely new parts for each species. When human engineers build a new model of jet aircraft, they make use of structures already designed and tested in previous aircraft. So why should a superintelligent designer of organisms work in a less efficient way?

In recent years, geneticists have discovered that in species of similar form the DNA and other proteins have similar molecular structures. So just as evolutionists have deduced ancestral relationships among species from similarities in physical form, some of them now deduce such relationships from the genetic similarities. It is not, however, very surprising that similar species would have similar genetic materials. But the main point is that such similarities show nothing definite about how the organisms originated and cannot be used as proof of Darwinian-style evolution. If an intelligent designer had produced varieties of organisms with certain structural similarities, we would also expect to see parallel molecular relationships. In one of his recent books, prominent astrophysicist Sir Fred Hoyle reproduced a chart purporting to show evolutionary relationships among species based upon molecular studies. He observed, "One should not be deceived, however, by the elegance of this result into thinking that [the chart] proves the existence of an evolutionary tree. What it shows is that if a tree existed, then it was like this."11

It can be reasonably argued that vestigial organs may be the result of design rather than evolution. The embryo of the baleen whale, for example, is said to possess what appear to be vestigial teeth. In the process of embryonic development, these are reabsorbed and replaced in the adult form by baleen (long, fringed structures in the mouth of the whale used to strain tiny organisms from seawater for food). Evolutionists take the vestigial teeth as evidence that the baleen whale evolved from a whale species that had teeth.

But there is another possible explanation. Let us suppose that an intelligent creator wanted to design a large number of whalelike forms in the most efficient way. He might start with genetic coding for a basic body plan that included teeth. When he arrived at the plan for the body of the baleen whale, he could alter the genes to suppress the growth of teeth and add genetic information to cause the growth of the baleen strainers. In this version, you would also expect to see embryonic teeth. Altogether the design hypothesis is as reasonable as the evolutionary hypothesis, and perhaps even more so, because the evolutionists have no step-by-step explanation for the origin of baleen. They can only assert that it happened by a kind of evolutionary magic. Despite all this they reject outright any argument in favor of design, a possibility they refuse to consider because it violates their unproven belief that everything in the universe can be explained by unaided physical laws and processes.

Ever since the time of Darwin, the changes resulting from breeding have been put forward as evidence for evolution. If man can produce limited changes in plants and animals over a few generations, then just imagine the possibilities of change over the course of millions of years. So goes the reasoning.

But evolution by natural selection and inducing changes in plants and animals by breeding are not at all comparable. In breeding there is a deliberate intent to obtain specific results--a bigger apple, a cow that produces more milk--but in the process of natural selection there is no intelligent directing plan. And in the absence of such a plan how do you get the results? How do we know for sure that natural selection will actually channel a process of evolution in a direction of progressive change toward more highly developed species?

It could just as well tend to simplify bodily plans much as possible, because that would be more economical and thus of greater benefit to the organism. At present, however, we have no way of knowing which direction natural selection will favor--other than assertions by evolutionists. Everything they say about natural selection comes after the fact. Why do elephants have such big ears? Because it gave them a selective advantage, they say. What's the next step for the elephants? They can't even give a hint.

It may be admitted that natural selection will eliminate individuals of a species that are unfit to survive, but there is no proof that the dying off of the unfit will result in the whole species gradually changing into another one. And even if species did transform, how do we know that natural selection would not inevitably lead to species that are energy efficient--slow and low to the ground with big, thick shells like turtles? Natural selection is supposed to select traits that are the best for survival, but can any evolutionist specify just what is advantageous for survival? Why hasn't radio evolved in amphibious descendants of electric eels? They certainly would have the basic equipment for it, and it seems like it would confer a lot of advantages.

Also, all available evidence shows that there are limits to the changes that can be brought about by breeding. The noted American botanist Luther Burbank stated, "I know from experience that I can develop a plum half an inch long or one two-and-a-half inches long, with every possible length in between, but I am willing to admit that it is hopeless to try to get a plum the size of a small pea, or one as big as a grapefruit. I have roses that bloom pretty steadily for six months of the year, but I have none that will bloom twelve, and I will not have. In short, there are limits to the development possible."12 This hard fact about breeding doesn't bode any good for evolution, because if there are built in limits to how far you can change a species there is no possibility that you could get evolution of new species.

The process of breeding is something like stretching a rubber band. It stretches only so far--and then it either breaks or snaps back. For example, during the nineteenth century, domesticated rabbits were brought into Australia, where there were no native rabbits. When some of these domesticated rabbits escaped, they bred freely among themselves, and very quickly their descendants reverted to the original, wild type.13

Ernst Mayr of Harvard, one of the most prominent advocates of evolution, met with the same problem in his own experiments with fruit flies. He tried to decrease and increase the bristles on the bodies of the flies. The average is 36, and he got them up to 56, but at that point the flies began to die out. He also bred them down to 25 bristles, but after he allowed them to return to unselective breeding they were back to average within five years.14 These results reveal a major anti-evolutionary characteristic of species: when changes are pushed beyond a certain limit members of a species will become sterile and die out or else revert to their standard form.

The French zoologist Pierre-P. Grassi points out in his book *Evolution of Living Organisms, "The changes brought about in the genetic stock [by breeding] affect appearances much more than fundamental structures and functions. In spite of the intense pressure applied by artificial selection (eliminating any parent not answering the criterion of choice) over whole millenia, no new species are born. ... Ten thousands years of mutations, crossbreeding, and selection have mixed the inheritance of the canine species in innumerable ways without its losing its chemical and cytological [cellular] unity. The same is observed of all domestic animals: the ox (at least 4,000 years old), the fowl (4,000), the sheep (6,000), etc."15

In short, it may be possible to induce changes in the existing form by breeding (making the creature smaller or bigger, for example), but it does not appear possible to generate entirely new complex structures in the organism in this way. If this cannot happen by man's conscious efforts, why should we assume it could happen by blind natural processes?

Darwin himself admitted the difficulty of accounting for complex form in *The Origin of Species. "To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree."16

Darwin then goes on to suggest in an extremely sketchy way that you can have a sequence of gradual changes taking you from a light-sensitive spot in some primitive creature to a mammalian eye. But this sort ofmagic-wand waving will not do. True science would demand detailed descriptions of exactly how each transitional stage would be formed. To put the matter in proper perspective, it would be like going from a slide projector to a color television merely by successive modifications of design. If someone were to claim this were possible, he should be able to provide us with schematic drawings and working models. Yet nothing approaching this has been offered in support of claims of evolution of complex forms in living organisms.

As we have many times suggested, this leaves open the possibilty of an intelligent designer. Yet many evolutionists feel that the particular way organisms are structured rules out such an intelligent designer. Harvard paleontologist Stephen J. Gould writes, "Odd arrangements and funny solutions are the proof of evolution--paths that a sensible God would never tread."17 As an example, he cites the Panda's thumb. The Panda bear has a thumb it can use to grasp the bamboo shoots that form the mainstay of its diet. This thumb, however, is not one of the five fingers of the normal mammalian paw. Rather this extra digit is constructed from a modified wrist bone, with appropriate rearrangement of the musculature.

In essence Gould claims, "God would not have done it that way. Therefore it must have happened by evolution." But this negative theological reasoning is invalid on many counts. The first point is that it is inappropriate for the evolutionists to introduce in their favor a concept they have completely excluded from their account of reality--namely God. Secondly, we might ask from where they have obtained such explicit information about how God would or would not create things if He existed? How do they know He might not produce new features in organisms by modifying existing ones?

In the case of the Panda's thumb, we note that although Gould rejects design by God as an explanation, he fails to provide an adequate explanation by evolutionary processes. He simply states that a single change in a regulatory gene, which controls the action of many structural genes, was responsible for the whole complex development of bone and muscle. But he does not specify which regulatory gene changed, nor does he explain how a change in the regulatory gene would orchestrate this remarkable transformation. He offers nothing more than the traditional vague magic-wand explanation.

The evolutionists have not conclusively shown that an evolutionary process, guided only by the laws of physics, actually occurs. They have no real theory, only vague speculations backed up by imperfect arguments. When faced with design as a factor in accounting for the origin of complex organisms, they often set up stereotyped simplistic concepts of God as a straw man to knock down. To admit any cause other than physical ones would be to admit the failure of modern science's basic strategy for comprehending reality, a strategy that has resulted in a radical narrowing of intellectual options. Nevetheless, there is sufficient evidence to suggest that the idea of an intelligent designer of complex organisms should not be rejected. This suggests a whole new strategy for approaching scientific questions. If an intelligent designer exists, then it might be possible to obtain from this source accurate information about the actual origin of species. This possibility will be further examined in the final article of this magazine, "Higher-Dimensional Science."

REFERENCES

1. Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species (New York: Atheneum, 1972), p. 184.

2. Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species (New York: New American Library, 1964), p. 306.

3. Niles Eldredge, The Monkey Business (New York: Washington Square Press, 1982), pp. 31--32.

4. Niles Eldredge, The Monkey Business, pp. 36, 41.

5. Niles Eldredge and Ian Tattersall, "Future People," Science 83 (March 1983), p. 74.

6. Theodosius Dobzhansky, "Darwinian Evolution and the Problem of Extraterrestrial Life," Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, Vol. 15, No. 2 (Winter 1972), p. 173.

7. John Maynard Smith, "The Limitations of Evolutionary Theory," The Encyclopedia of Ignorance, ed. Ronald Duncan and Miranda Weston-Smith (New York: Pocket Books, 1977), p. 237.

8. Howard C. Berg, "How Bacteria Swim," Scientific American, (August 1975), pp. 36--44.

9. Wolfgang von Buddenbrock, The Senses (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1958J pp. 138--141.

10. George Gaylord Simpson, This View of Life (New York: Harcourt, Brace, & World, Inc., 1964), p. 268.

11. Sir Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe, Evolution From Space (N.Y: Simon and Schuster, 1981), p. 84.

12. Norman Macbeth, Darwin Retried (Boston: Gambit, 197 1), p. 36.

13. Pierre-P. Grasse, Evolution of Living Organisms (New York: Academic Press, 1977), p. 124.

14. Francis Hitching, The Neck of the Giraffe (New York: New American Library, 1982), p. 41.

15. Pierre-P. Grasse, Evolution of Living Organisms, p. 125.

16. Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species, (New York: New American Library, 1964), p. 168.

17. Stephen Jay Gould, The Panda's Thumb (New York: W, W. Norton & Co., 1980), pp. 20--21.

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