Viewpoint of Mark Cadwallader, Creation Moments Board Chairman
Do you realize that the more we are able to test the theory of evolution, the more we actually establish the truth of biblical creation?
For example, in 2018 – the year we are now saying goodbye to – an article in the May issue of the Journal of Human Evolution reported on the results of a 15-year study “barcoding” the DNA of five million specimens from more than 100,000 animal species. And just like with fossil discoveries, their findings support the Bible, not evolution!
With millions of fossils uncovered, where are all the so-called missing links? There should be thousands of transitional species, yet the fossil record shows clearly distinct species.
And so it is with the “barcoding” of mitochondria, the special features within living cells where energy production takes place. Researchers can mine the fast-growing databases from all around the world analyzing millions of gene sequences within a certain gene of mitochondria – doing this for millions of specimens from tens of thousands of different species of life.
In 2002, the techniques of using a gene sequence within the relatively simple DNA of mitochondria to identify specimens became known as “barcoding” the specimen – just like the use of a barcode for computer identification of items in a grocery store. The researchers use mitochondria in living cells because of their high level of simplicity relative to the DNA within a cell nucleus.
The 2018 report and summary of all this data collected over 15 years from all over the world expressed amazement at the “unexpected finding from the study” – that species have very clear genetic boundaries and there’s nothing much in between.
The tiny average genetic difference in mitochondrial sequences between any two individual people is about the same as the genetic difference between any two elephants or sparrows or whales or moths or chimpanzees. The typical difference within a species, including humans, is about 0.1% or 1 in 1,000 of the “letters” that make up a DNA sequence.
What also amazes the researchers is that the variation does not depend on the numbers of individuals within a species. In other words, with 7.6 billion people living in the world, evolution theory says that we should expect more variation than with only 100,000 sandpipers in the world – many more opportunities to evolve. Yet, they are all about the same variation – 0.1%! And each species is an “island in sequence space” – in other words, they are unique and not intermediate or transitionary to one another, just like what the fossil record has shown.
Furthermore, the report expresses surprise that from the perspective of variation by natural selection over time, it looks like each species arrived on the scene relatively recently and at about the same time as man! Another conclusion from the very similar variation within a species.
Bible-believing people could have told these folks that all this was to be expected. We have the advantage that our worldview and faith are true. At Creation Moments, we know that scriptural truth is vindicated, not only in the moral, spiritual and historical arenas, but in the scientific arena as well.
Ten times in Genesis 1 the Bible says that God created living things “after their kind”, with reproductive integrity “after their kind”. These simple statements encompass several scientific principles of biology proven over and over, including:
- Biological stasis – species variation can only go to certain limits – e.g,, horses are horses and can only run so fast, etc.
- Biogenesis – it takes life to make life.
- Fixity of species – it takes life of one kind to make life of only that kind.
These repeatedly tested and confirmed biological principles go against evolutionism. Species supposedly have changed and are changing in a grand and ongoing continuum from common ancestors which came alive by chance. Modern evolutionary theory has had to make certain assumptions to try to bypass their problems. The theory must now assume that:
- Species have evolved through huge mutational leaps (punctuated equilibria) so that evolutionists don’t really need to find the intermediate forms.
- Change has taken place over extremely long ages – so slow that we can’t see it happening today, thus giving only the “appearance” of fixity and stasis.
The truth is that the common ancestry scenarios of evolution are modern fairy tales in scientific lingo. God is the great Creator of incredibly wonderful life-forms. He is the Grand Designer and Craftsman of the multitude of distinct creatures we find in the creation – just as the Bible presents Him. Satan, on the other hand, is the great “deceiver of the nations” (Revelation 12:9, 20:7-8). He is “the father of lies” (John 8:44). We in our sin nature can be “willingly ignorant” (2 Peter 3:5) and get caught up in the lies of the devil.
This is why the truth of God’s Word is so important. Won’t you help us continue to equip and encourage people with the truth that brings “hope which does not disappoint”? Please give with your prayers and gifts and offerings as we conduct our ministry, using just a tiny fraction of the funds available to academia, the media and the government in their ongoing promotion of evolution. We’re depending on you!
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