Stephen E. Jones

Creation/Evolution Quotes: Classified quotes: Darwinism

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The following are previously unclassified quotes about Darwinism, now classified under that heading, and under subheadings alphabetically by author and date, as a temporary intermediate step towards integrating them into my quotes pages proper.

Darwinism

1. Difficulties
• Eye
• "The problem of how eyes have developed has presented a major challenge to the Darwinian theory of evolution by Natural Selection"

"The problem of how eyes have developed has presented a major challenge to the Darwinian theory of evolution by Natural Selection. We can make many entirely useless experimental models when designing a new instrument, but this was impossible for Natural Selection, for each step must confer some advantage upon its owner, to be selected and transmitted through the generations. But what use is a half-made lens? What use is a lens giving an image, if there is no nervous system to interpret the information? How could a visual nervous system come about before there was an eye to give it information? In evolution there can be no master plan, no looking ahead to form structures which, though useless now, will come to have importance when other structures are sufficiently developed. And yet the human eye and brain have come about through slow painful trial and error." (Gregory R.L., "Eye and Brain: The Psychology of Seeing," [1966], Weidenfeld & Nicolson: London, Second edition, 1972, p.25)

• "... a nicely graded series of eyes ... made up from contemporary species, is not supposed to be the actual historical series ..."

"`By selecting examples from various places in the animal kingdom, we can assemble a nicely graded series of eyes, passing, by not too big steps, from the primitive eyes of oysters to the excellent (though not perfect) eyes of men and birds. Such a series, made up from contemporary species, is not supposed to be the actual historical series; but it shows us how evolution could have occurred.' (Hardin G., "Nature and Man's Fate," Mentor, 1961, pp.71- 72). What are the weaknesses in this statement? I will point out two, although there may be more. 1) Doubtless one can collect samples from various species to build up a nicely graded series of eyes, but this has nothing whatever to do with the way the specific human eye was developed. Hardin admits this when he says that `such a series ... is not supposed to be the actual historical series.' Since it is the historical series we are asking for, he is giving us stones for bread. 2) Collecting a group of samples would actually show that nature had solved the problem in a number of different ways; but when we cannot explain even one way, the mystery only deepens when we see that nature has worked out several." (Macbeth, Norman* [Harvard Lawyer], "Darwin Retried: An Appeal to Reason," Gambit: Boston MA, 1971, pp.100-101)

• "... the existence of viable stages on the way does not explain how it was possible that many very unlikely genes came along in the right order ..."

"From different kinds of eyes in contemporary animals, one may guess how the organ evolved. Many primitive animals even a few protists, have light-sensitive spots. In some flatworms (planaria) the pigmented spot becomes a cavity; if the opening is narrowed, it can form a crude image. Covering it with transparent skin could lead to the making of a lens, and so forth. Darwin, troubled by the perfection of the eye, pointed out such gradations, yet the existence of viable stages on the way does not explain how it was possible that many very unlikely genes came along in the right order to direct all the details, while at the same time an immensely larger number of continually occurring deleterious mutations were continually being eliminated." (Wesson, Robert G. [political scientist], "Beyond Natural Selection," [1991], MIT Press: Cambridge MA, 1994, reprint, p.62)

2. Perfection
• "Darwin realized that if a naturalistic theory of evolution was to be successful, it would have to explain the apparent perfection of organisms"

"Organisms fit remarkably well into the external world in which they live. They have morphologies, physiologies and behaviors that appear to have been carefully and artfully designed to enable each organism to appropriate the world around it for its own life. It was the marvelous fit of organisms to the environment, much more than the great diversity of forms, that was the chief evidence of a Supreme Designer. Darwin realized that if a naturalistic theory of evolution was to be successful, it would have to explain the apparent perfection of organisms and not simply their variation. At the very beginning of the Origin of Species he wrote: `In considering the Origin of Species. it is quite conceivable that a naturalist ... might come to the conclusion that each species ... had descended, like varieties, from other species. Nevertheless. such a conclusion, even if well founded. would be unsatisfactory, until it could be shown how the innumerable species inhabiting this world have been modified, so as to acquire that perfection of structure and coadaptation which most justly excites our admiration." (Lewontin R.C., "Adaptation," Scientific American, September 1978, Vol. 239, No. 3, pp.157-158. Ellipses Lewontin's)

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