“evolution: fact or fiction?” presented by: randy ruggles

“EVOLUTION:Fact or Fiction?”

Presented By:Randy Ruggles

Why is the subject of origins important for Christians?

“Always be prepared to give an

answer to everyone who asks you

to give the reason for the hope

that you have.”

1 Peter 3: 15 (N. I. V.)

“We destroy arguments and everylofty opinion raised against theknowledge of God.”

2 Corinthians 10: 5 (E.S.V.)

EVOLUTION?”“What is

Evolution = ___________

Change

Time

Defining EVOLUTION

Defining EVOLUTION (cont.)

Monkeys to Man

Defining EVOLUTION (cont.)

“The central idea of biological evolution is thatall life on Earth shares a common ancestor, justas you and your cousins share a common grand-mother. “Evolution means that we’re all distant cousins:humans and oak trees, hummingbirds andwhales.” - Understanding Evolution http://evolution.berkeley.edu/

Defining EVOLUTION (cont.)

F = FishA = AmphibiansR = ReptilesM = Mammals

Defining EVOLUTION (cont.)

From GOO to YOU by way of the ZOO!

Genesis 1:24

Then God said, “Let the earthbring forth the living creatureaccording to its kind: cattle andcreeping thing and beast of theearth, each according to itskind”; and it was so.

“It is absolutely safe tosay that if you meetsomebody who claimsnot to believe in evolution,that person is ignorant,stupid or insane(or wicked, but I'd rathernot consider that).”

Richard Dawkins

“. . . evolution . . . is a fact and we don’t need to prove it anymore.”

- Ernst Mayr Biologist

“The fact of evolution isas well established asanything in science (assecure as the revolutionof the earth about thesun) . . .”

- Stephen Jay Gould

“Nothing in biologymakes senseexcept in the lightof evolution.”

- Theodosius Dobzhansky Zoologist

“(Evolution) is a generalpostulate to which all theories,all hypotheses, all systemsmust henceforth bow andwhich they must satisfy inorder to be thinkable and true. “Evolution is a light whichilluminates all facts, a trajectorywhich all lines of thought mustfollow – that is what evolution is.”

- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin French philosopher and Jesuit priest

“Thy word is a lampunto my feet, and alight unto my path.”

- Psalm 119:105 (K.J.V.)

“The evolutionist livesin a dream world inwhich any resemblanceto the real world is lacking.”

- Harold S. Slusher, “The Originof the Universe: An Examinationof the Big Bang and Steady StateCosmogonics,” 1980.

“Evolution is a fairy tale for grownups.This theory has helped nothing in theprogress of science. It is useless.”

- H. S. Lipson FRS,

Professor of Physics, University Manchester, UK

Frog Kiss Prince

+ =

Fairytale

GRADE School

Frog Time Prince

+ =

Evolution

HIGH School

“Ultimately, the Darwiniantheory of evolution is nomore nor less than the greatcosmogenic myth of thetwentieth century.”

- Michael Denton, "Evolution: A Theory in Crisis," 1985, p. 358.

“. . . the theory of evolutionmay be the worst mistakemade in science.”

- I. L. Cohen, “Darwin Was Wrong- A Study in Probabilities,” 1984, p. 210.

“I believe that one day the Darwinian mythwill be ranked the greatest deceit

in the history of science.”

- Professor Soren Lovtrup,“Darwinism: The Refutation of a Myth,” 1987 p. 422.

“I myself am convinced thatthe theory of evolution,especially the extent to whichit’s been applied, will be oneof the great jokes in thehistory books of the future.Posterity will marvel that sovery flimsy and dubious anhypothesis could be accepted with the incrediblecredulity that it has.”

- Malcolm Muggeridge, Pascal Lectures,University of Waterloo Research, The Advocate 1984, p. 17.

“Often a cold shudderhas run through me,and I have asked myselfwhether I may have notdevoted myself to afantasy.”

- Charles Darwin

1. Most species produce more offspring than can survive.

2. An individual’s chances of survival are affected by its environment (eg. weather, food, shelter, predators, available mating partners etc.)

3. Some individuals are better adapted to their environ- ments.

4. Better adapted individuals survive long enough to reproduce. They pass on the characteristics that helped them survive to their offspring.

Natural Selection

“Thus, from the war of nature, from famineand death, the most exalted object whichwe are capable of conceiving, namely, theproduction of the higher animals, directlyfollows.”

- Charles Darwin, “Origin of Species”

“The last enemy to be destroyed is death.”

- 1 Corinthians 15:26

Microevolution:

SMALL changes BELOWthe species level.

Macroevolution:

BIG changes ABOVEthe species level.

NaturalSelectionIn Action

Domestic dogsshow a lossof geneticinformationfrom the originaldog kind – the wolf.

CHRISTMAS = mast mass star sit sir cast him stairs

- Xerox- Zebra- Queen

“Given so much time the‘impossible’ becomes possible,the possible probable, and theprobable virtually certain. Onehas only to wait: time itselfperforms miracles.”

- George Wald, "Physics and Chemistry of Life," 1955, p.12.

“The irony is devastating. Themain purpose of Darwinism wasto drive every last trace of anincredible God from biology. Butthe theory replaces God with aneven more incredible deity– omnipotent chance.”

- T. Rosazak, "Unfinished Animal," 1975, pp. 101-102

EVOLUTION”“9 Fallen Icons of

Claim #1:

“Darwin’s observation of various sizes of finch beaks is conclusive evidence for evolution.”

Darwin’sFinches

“Scientific observation shows that the finch beaks,which have been mythicized in almost all evolutionistsources, are in fact an example of “variation”;therefore, they do not constitute evidence for thetheory of evolution.”

- H. Lisle Gibbs and Peter R. Grant, "Oscillating Selection on Darwin's finches," Nature, 327, 1987, pp. 513.

The Truth:1. The finches mate with each other meaning that they are all of the same species.2. Demonstrates variation, not evolution.

Claim #2:

“Peppered moths are an excellent example of evolution in action.”

BernardKettlewell

The Myth of Industrial Melanism

“I am careful not to call Kettlewell a fraud,” says Bruce Grant. “He was just a very careless scientist.”

The Truth:

1. The whole story never happened2. Kettlewell glued dead moths to the trees to take the pictures that appear in school science textbooks3. Demonstrates natural selection but not evolution

Claim #3:

“Experiments with fruit flies support evolution.”

Fruit Fly Mutations

Normal Fruit Fly

Short Wings Curly Wings

Yellow-Coloured Ebony-Coloured

AntennapediaNo Eyes

The Truth:

1. Demonstrates that most mutations are either harmful or deadly2. Evolution requires beneficial mutations

“ Fruit flies refuse to become anything but fruit flies underany circumstances yet devised. The genetic system, as itsfirst priority, conserves, blocks, and stabilizes.”

- Francis Hitching, "The Neck of the Giraffe: Where Darwin Went Wrong," 1982, pp. 57-61.

Claim #4:

“Similar bone structures in mammals provide evidence for common ancestry.”

Homology of Vertebrate Forelimb Structure

Bridges havesimilarities because

they have similarDESIGNERS!

WHEELS are used on many different thingsbecause they are a good design feature.

The Truth:

1. Not produced by the same genes2. Could be evidence for a common designer

“. . . biologists have known for a hundred years that homologousstructures are often not produced by similar developmentalpathways. And they have known for thirty years that they areoften not produced by similar genes, either. So there is noempirically demonstrated mechanism to establish that homo-logies are due to common ancestry rather than common design.”

- Jonathan Wells, “Survival of the Fakest,” American Spectator, Dec 2000/Jan 2001.

Claim #5:

“Vestigial organs (such as the appendix) support evolution.”

“There is no longerany justification forregarding thevermiform appendixas a vestigial structure.”- William Straus, Quarterly Review of Biology, 1947, p. 149.

“Long regarded as a vestigial organ with no functionin the human body, the appendix is now thought tobe one of the sites where immune responses areinitiated.” - Roy Hartenstein, Grolier Encyclopedia, 1998.

The Truth:

1. Over one hundred years ago, a list was compiled of 180 alleged vestigial structures in the human body. Today, we’ve discovered biological functions for every one.2. Just because you don’t know what it’s for doesn’t mean it doesn’t serve a purpose.3. Just because you can live without it doesn’t mean it doesn’t serve a purpose. (Eg. eye, arm, leg, kidney etc.)

Claim #6:

“What about all those fossils of cave men? Don’t they prove we evolved from apes?”

Nebraska Man(and his wife)reconstructedfrom the toothof an extinctpig.

(1922)

The REAL Nebraska Man

Note:may not beexactly asshown

Piltdown Man

Human Skull

Ape Jaw

This forgery fooled“experts” and wasin the textbooksfor 40 years.

(1912)

“We've got to have some ancestors. We'll pick those [fossils]. Why? Because we know they have to be there, and these are the best candidates. That's by and large the way it has worked. I am not exaggerating.”

- Dr. Gareth Nelson, American Museum of Natural History, “Lucy's Child,” 1989, p. 74.

Claim #7:

“Radiometric dating methods can reliably date the age of the earth to be 4.6 billion years old.”

How Dating Methods Work

Observation:

1. Peeling potatoes at a rate of 1 per minute

2. Observe for 10 minutes

HOW LONG have Ibeen peeling potatoes?

Count the potatoes in the basket!

40

Assumptions:

1. The RATE of potato peeling was CONSTANT

2. No peeled potatoes have been ADDED or TAKEN AWAY

3. There were NO potatoes in the basket at the BEGINNING

When dating fossils of KNOWN age, Carbon 14 dating DOES NOT work.

When dating fossils of UNKNOWNage, it is ASSUMED to work.

Claim #8:

“The Miller-Urey experiment successfully produced the building blocks of life.”

The Miller-Urey Experiment

In 1953, chemistStanley Miller pumped agaseous mixture of methane,ammonia and hydrogenthrough an apparatus andsubjected the mixture to ahigh-voltage electric spark.He then trapped out anyresulting liquids. The experiment produceda few amino acids – the“building blocks” of life.

TheMiller-UreyExperiment

The Truth:

1. Miller excluded oxygen knowing it would oxidize and thus kill any form of life that developed. (We now know that the earth has likely always had oxygen.)2. The experiment produced only 3 of the 20 amino acids necessary for life. These amino acids were “right-handed” whereas living organisms contain only “left-handed” amino acids.3. Miller produced a substance that is TOXIC to life.

“There are three problems with Miller's experiment. He started with the wrong materials, used the wrong conditions, and got the wrong results!” - Mark Eastman, M.D., "Creation by Design," 1996, pp. 15-19.

Claim #9:

“Similarities in the early stages of mammalian embryos supports common ancestry.”

Ernst HaeckelGerman biologist

“Embryology is to me by far the strongest single class of facts in favour of change of forms . . .”

- Charles Darwin,

Sept. 10,1860

Top Row: Haeckel’s fraudulent drawingsBottom Row: Actual photographs of the same embryos

Adolph Hitler “hasconsciously sought tomake the practice ofGermany conform tothe theory of evolution.”

- Sir Arthur Keith, "Evolution and Ethics,“ 1947, pp. 14, 230.

“Why do so manypeople believe

evolution is true?”

Spontaneous Generation

+

=

Rags

Rice

Mice

“Never will the doctrine ofspontaneous generationrecover from the mortal blowstruck by this simple experiment.”

- Louis Pasteur French microbiologist and chemist (1864)

Atheism (cont.)

“There are only two possibilitiesas to how life arose. One isspontaneous generationarising to evolution; the otheris a supernatural creative actof God. There is no thirdpossibility.”

- George Wald Nobel Prize Winning Scientist

Atheism (cont.)

“Spontaneous generation,that life arose from non-livingmatter, was scientificallydisproved 120 years agoby Louis Pasteur and others.That leaves us with the onlypossible conclusion that lifearose as a supernaturalcreative act of God.” - George Wald

Nobel Prize Winning Scientist

Atheism (cont.)

“I will not accept thatphilosophically because I donot want to believe in God.Therefore, I choose to believein that which I know isscientifically impossible;spontaneous generationarising to evolution.” - George Wald

Nobel Prize Winning Scientist

Atheism“The God of the Old Testament is arguably the mostunpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proudof it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; avindictive, blood-thirsty ethnic cleanser; a miso-gynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, geno-cidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sado-masochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”

– Richard Dawkins The God Delusion

“And for this cause God shall sendthem strong delusion, that theyshould believe a lie.”

- 2 Thessalonians 2:11 (K.J.V.)

The REALGod Delusion!

“Evolution thus becomes the mostpotent weapon for destroying theChristian faith.”

- A. J. Mattill, "Three Cheers for the Creationists,“ Free Inquiry, vol. 2, Spring, 1982, p. 17.

“Atheism will be ready to fill the voidof Christianity’s demise when scienceand evolution triumph. Without a doubthumans and civilization are in sore needof the intellectual cleanness and mentalhealth of atheism.”

- G. Richard Bozarth, "The Meaning of Evolution,“ American Atheist (February 1978), page 30.

“The FOOL says in his heart,‘There is no God.’ ”

- Psalm 14:1, 53:1

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” - Genesis 1:1 (K.J.V.)

“In the beginning (TIME)

God created the heaven (SPACE)

and the earth (MATTER).” - Genesis 1:1 (K.J.V.)

TIME =

SPACE =

MATTER =

PastPresentFuture

LengthWidthHeight

SolidLiquidGas