Evidences Class

Continuing Study on Evolution

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. (Psalms 139:14)

O LORD, how manifold are your works! In wisdom have you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. Here is the sea, great and wide, which teems with creatures innumerable, living things both small and great. (Psalms 104:24-25)

Great are the works of the LORD, studied by all who delight in them. (Psalms 111:2)

The Message ParaphraseGOD's works are so great, worth A lifetime of study--endless enjoyment!

University of Virginia

Ultimately, evolution is not about the scientific details. Ultimately, evolution is about God. (Cornelius Hunter)

If humans are the product of an intelligent design, should we also conclude that pathogens, such as Salmonella and HIV, responsible for killing millions of children every year, are also intelligently designed?Signed by 50+ professors at UVa

Response to an Intelligent Design Club at the University of Virginia

Douglas Futuyma

Do the creation scientists really suppose their Creator saw fit to create a bird that couldn’t reproduce without six feet of bulky feathers that make it easy prey for leopards?

Stephen Jay Gould Orchids manufacture their intricate devices from the common components of ordinary flowers, parts usually fitted for very different functions. If God had designed a beautiful machine to reflect his wisdom and power, surely he would not have used a collection of parts generally fashioned for other purposes. Orchids were not made by an ideal engineer; they are jury-rigged from a limited set of available components. Thus, they must have evolved from ordinary flowers.

J. B. S. Haldane

The Creator has an inordinate fondness for beetles to have created over 250,000 different species.

Change Change

Evolution cannot think ahead

Change

1. Small Change2. Improvement3. More Survivors – S.O.F.

Nose Trunk

Blind Chance???

100,000 RPM

Evolution or Revolution

The eye must connect to the brain somehow. But how does the eye know where the brain is or what the brain is or that it even exists and is required to make the eye useful. And how did the eye then wire itself properly to the brain? And even if it did connect to the brain properly … How did the eye know how to speak a language that the brain would understand and vice versa? (Doug Powell)

Nature Designed (or Created) …

“Defy your genetics; nature designed you to hold as little muscle and as much fat as possible” (internet ad quote)

Natural Selection?

The notion that humans actually evolved from more primitive life forms, supported by vast amounts of data from fields as diverse as paleontology and molecular genetics, is antithetical to those who do not accept evolution. Signed by 50+ professors

Response to an IDEA Club at the University of Virginia

Darwin’s Finches

Darwin’s Mythical Research

Natural Selection in Action???

If the process were to continue indefinitely for some 200 years; it might even produce “a new species of finch”.National Academy of Sciences

Average Height of NBA Players

75

76

77

78

79

80

1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

NBA Season

Ave

rag

e H

eig

ht

(In

ches

)

Two Peppered Moths

Peppered moths do not ordinarily rest on tree trunks

Difficulty in repeating the experiment in other locales

At first glance:

The Strongest Evidence for Evolution is the Fossil Record

But how strong is it???

Things to Remember• Discovery of extinct species is not a

proof of evolution

• Most of the fossil evidence is skeletal

• Evidence is fit to the theory

• You can’t always trust the evidence

DinoraptorNational Geographic shoots itself in the foot.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/dd/Horseevolution.png

University of Florida Website

Step 1: Hyracotherium or eohippus

A horse is a horse of course

Step 2: Orohippus

Found in the same strata

eohippus

18 Ribs

15 Ribs

Step 3: Mesohippus

Big gap between steps 2 and 3

The fossil record does not show a gradual, linear progression from Hyracotherium (Eohippus) to Equus … The fossil record of equids shows that various lineages split into several branches. Evolution was not smooth and gradual; traits evolved at different rates and occasionally reversed. Some species arose gradually, others suddenly.

Talk Origins Website (Evolutionist Site)

Step 6: Merychippus

• Very close• Teeth are different

Step 5

Step 8: Dinohippus

• Almost the same as Step 7• Some with 3 toes and some with 1

What are you left with?

Akin to the differences in dogs????

18 15

19

17-18

Numbers of Ribs

The number of lumbar vertebrae also changes from six to eight and then back to six.

The record of evolution is still surprisingly jerky … What appeared to be a nice progression when relatively few data were available now appears to be much more complex and much less gradualistic.

Raup (an evolutionist)

Why?