Contents

Preposterous Nonsense
Confirmed evolutionist Derek Hough, highly respected author of “Evolution – A case of stating the obvious”, is one of an increasing number of scientists who now regard Charles Darwin’s theory that the staggering variety of life on earth was accidentally created by blind Natural Selection acting on tiny variations or random mutations in reproducing cells as utterly "preposterous" (his word).

The Human Eye and the Hand of God
Oddly, although even Darwin himself admitted that the idea of the complexity of just the human eye being created in such a fashion was “absurd in the highest degree”, he still felt forced to embrace such insanity!

Derek Hough’s rejection of Darwinism, after having been a “true believer” of missionary zeal for many years, has nothing to do with the Bible or geology or rock strata or fossils or extinct life forms or the age of the earth.

It is just that with the discovery of the micro-structure of the cell and its constituent chromosomes, genes and DNA and RNA molecules, biologists now realize that even supposedly "primitive" organisms have an inner complexity far more massive than anything Darwin ever dreamed of when he literally trembled with fear as he tried to close his mind to the absurd improbability of the human eye having been created by the accidental process of evolution rather than by the hand of God.

DNA Copying Errors
According to Hough, the chance of any plant or animal cell having been developed by the fortuitous combination of zillions of DNA copying "errors" is just not credible, especially to mathematicians, who, he says, regard the acceptance of such impossibility thinking by biologists as ignorance and “sheer arrogance”.

The possibility is, he asserts, about as likely as "throwing ten tons of scrap metal into the air and having it come down as an aero-engine". Clearly mindful of the desperate and highly publicized claims of his more illustrious fellow believer, he then comments:“No, Mr Dawkins, you would not get an aero-engine in a thousand years, not in a million years, not in the total age of the universe”.

The Missing Mechanism
Nevertheless, Hough reaffirms his faith that "evolution" MUST somehow have occurred, because the only alternatives are magic and divine creation, and he is not prepared to accept either of those. And so the search for a credible creative mechanism continues – and it seems unfortunate that some Christians, blinded by science, so kindly try to let evolutionists off the hook of their own error by suggesting that perhaps God did make it happen that way by a series of guided miracles, when the Bible and the facts of life on earth tell a different story.

The "Creeps" versus the "Jerks"
The embarrassing intellectual debacle of evolution is in fact well explained in the prestigious British news magazine the “Economist” (December 2004 issue, article "Repeat after me") which describes the two current and conflicting schools of thought. On the one side we have the "Creeps" who believe, like Darwin and Dawkins, that evolution must have taken place gradually and over vast ages of time in order to lend the process any shred of possibility -- and on the other side we have the "Jerks" , the "punctuated equilibrium" pundits who think that evolution must have taken place in jumps, in order to explain the absence of "intermediate” or “unfit” forms in the fossil record.

Although both groups believe with absolute assurrance that evolution DID happen, they have no credible mechanism to explain HOW it could possibly have happened. They simply assume that it happened – and un-informed lay people believe them! The situation is in fact much like that in the Hans Anderson fable of the king’s new clothes, which had inane courtiers praising and comparing the finery of a garments that did not actually exist.

The Self Developing Genome
The intellectually honest Hough therefore postulates the necessary existence of a "self developing genome" -- a complex controlling mechanism in cells that somehow orchestrates and regulates the DNA copying process in order to prevent "errors" and the creation of “unfit” forms that would then have to be weeded out by a process of natural selection. The genome, Hough predicts, is "likely to consist of a complex multi-hierarchal process which will astound us with its ingenuity".

Again, he is trying to explain why the fossil record does not demonstrate the accidental existence of zillions of "unfit" organisms, the discovery of which Darwin said would be essential to the truth of his theory and that he predicted would very soon be found. (Editor's note: As of 3.45pm today they have still not been found!)

Meaningful Mutations
If Hough is correct, then it becomes clear that “mutations”, the sudden unexpected changes in organisms, which result in the famous four-leafed clover, for example, or Mendel’s smooth and wrinkly peas, are not due to accidental “DNA copying errors” as cells divide and multiply, as has long been accepted, but are purposefully generated by an astonishing meta mechanism – the “Self Developing Genome” -- which can actually respond to the needs and pressures of the organism's environment.

But where does Derek think the first magical self developing genome came from? Since it must be far too complex to have possibly evolved on earth, he suggests that it must have arrived on a comet from a distant galaxy, or one of the infinite number of parallel universes envisioned by cosmologists! (Editor's note: Please do not laugh, folks. This is serious science, not your usual creationist nonsense!)

Gene Switching
Astonishingly, however, the "Economist" article reports that just such an orchestrating, or "gene switching", mechanism has now been discovered in dogs -- and can explain how one ancient pair of dogs could have made possible all the breeds we now have. (Editor's note: Ancient Jewish tradition has it that Noah called them "Rover" and "Lassie".)

The Technical Accuracy of Genesis
If God did indeed engineer such mechanisms into all "kinds" of organisms, as he clearly did, then evolutionists now have even more massive complexity to explain the origins of.

Meanwhile the new discovery serves to confirm the scientific accuracy of the Genesis account -- namely that all the organisms we now know are simply breeding variations of the set of "kinds" of organisms that God originally created -- which is why dogs will continue to be dogs, and roses continue to be roses, no matter how exotic they become, and why endless breeding of fruit flies has produced only more fruit flies.

Micro and Macro Evolution
In summary, although variation within "kinds", sometimes called "micro-evolution", is a fact of life and has generated new varieties over the centuries, as Darwin observed and as is evidenced by every seed catalog and book on cattle breeding – "macro-evolution", the creation of new "kinds" of organisms has never taken place, and is simply wishful thinking on the part of those not willing to accept the simple truth of the Genesis account.

The Nature of Life
All of this discussion of the physical structure of organisms does of course ignore the fact that there is more to man and animals, than mere atoms and molecules -- and that there is more to intelligent life and consciousness than repetitive, self-sustaining chemical processes and organic electronic circuitry. Because, as the Bible tells us in both Old (Job 32:8, Ecclesiastes 12:7) and New (1 Corinthians 2:11) Testaments, there is a non-physical element in man, a human "spirit" that imparts intellect and which departs at death and returns to God who gave it -- and the inspired Solomon suggests that the situation may be just the same with animals (Ecclesiastes 3:21)..

Extinct Forms and Fossils
Extinct and exotic organisms, not discussed above but evidenced in the fossil record, were always complete and fully functioning forms, not “unfit” rejects -- and their significance is discussed in the accompanying article on this web site, “Genesis, Genes & Geology”.

Some of those extinct organisms, such as the woolly mammoth and the saber-toothed tiger, for example, were evidently variants on still-extant forms and lived in the pre-Flood world that lasted from Adam to Noah. Others, often exotic, grotesque and even gigantic, were simply part of the earth's flora and fauna in the mysterious and violent pre-Adamic world -- a totally separate creation that scientists and also the Bible account suggest was catastrophically destroyed, leaving the earth in the state of utter desolation described in the very first verses of Genesis.

Embarrassing Admissions
As a result of the shameful connivance of the mass media, the BBC in particular, and the peddling of evolutionary myth in every biology text book and encyclopedia, encouraged by the scientific ignorance and intellectual capitulation of too many religious leaders, evolutionists have understandably but erroneously assumed that the battle against the Bible and divine creation has finally been well and truly won.

As a result, they have now began to crawl out of the trenches and foxholes, so to speak, to make an astonishing and embarrassing admission -- namely that the theory of evolution is unproven, simplistic nonsense.

Derek Hough's book is a prime example, and should be required reading for every Christian person. Also recommended are: "Evolution: a Theory in Crisis", by Michael Denton, and "The Great Evolution Mystery", by Gordon Rattray Taylor.

ADDENDUM -- Mendel would turn in his grave . . .
A recent article of the above title in the British "New Scientist" magazine (27 May 2006, page 16 ) says: "Another direct challenge has been posed to one of the cornerstones of biology, Mendel's laws of inheritance" -- which state that the characteristics of a particular offspring are dictated by dna, by the combination of dominant and recessive genes in the two parents.

However, in direct violation of Mendel's laws, researchers at a university in Nice, in France, have now discovered in breeding experiments involving mice with brown tails and spotted tails that even after several generations, puppy mice may be born with spotted tails when neither parent possesses the relevant genes. The researchers suggest that in addition to DNA, the action of which is govnerned by Mendel's laws, molecules of RNA may also be transferred in the reproductive process and be instrumental in passing on genetic information not present in the DNA in the genes, a kind of back-door delivery. How it does this is not known, but the team leader stated that "such oddities are likely to be just the tip of the iceberg".

Meanwhile, the lay observer could be forgiven for assuming from the confident assertions of evolutionists of the likes of Richard Dawkins, who declare non-believers in the gospel of Darwin to be literally insane, that "Evolution" already has all the answers -- even claiming DNA to be the source of mind, personality, consciousness, emotion and instict. The simple fact is that, despite their wild speculations, science does not even understand the function of most of the DNA found in cells, casually dismissing it as so much genetic waste of "junk".