"The evolutionary system attempts to explain the origin, development, and meaning of all things in terms of natural laws and processes which operate today as they have in the past. No extraneous processes, requiring the special activity of an external agent, or creator, are permitted...Particles evolve into elements, elements into complex chemicals, complex chemicals into simple living systems, simple life forms into complex life, complex life into man" by means of innate properties.
The theory of evolution makes the following assumptions which cannot be experimentally verified:
1. Non-living chenicals gave rise to living material.
2. Single-celled organisms gave rise to multi-celled organisms.
3. Invertabrates, which have no backbone or spinal column, gave rise to the vertebrates.
4. Fish gave rise to amphbians. For example, frogs begin life in water as tadpoles with gills and later develop lungs. They are cold-blooded and scaleless.
5. Amphibians evolved into reptiles. Reptiles, such as snakes, lizards, turtles, crocodiles and dinosaurs, are cold-blooded vertebrates.
6. Reptiles formed birds and mammals.
On what two foundations does the theory of evolution rest?
The twin pillars of evolutionary thought are chance and eons of time. Mathematical probabilities practically, if not totally destroy pillar number one (the possibility of life originating by chance). Therefore, time must be the hero of the plot. All evolutionists agree that unless there are immense periods of time, evolution hasn't got a ghost of a chance. However, population growth statistics show that if man had been here millions of years, with even a conservative growth rate, we would all be crushed. Millions of people would be standing on top of each other. Thus pillar number two (eons of time) is also destroyed. Yet evolutionists continue to make statements such as "However imprbable we regard the origin of life, given enough time, it will almost certainly happen at least once...the impossible becomes virtually certain. One only has to wait, time itself performs the miracle. Given enough time, things can evolve from the simple to the complex. Even though we cannot observe the process, even though we cannot demonstrate it, even though we cannot prove or verify it, what we need is time."
To prove something scientifically requires it to be observable and repeatable. A scientific investigator can neither observe nor repeat origins. A philosophy of origins can only be achieved by faith. Creation cannot be proved because, if evolution is taking place today, it operates too slowly to be measurable. No one has ever observed that the changes in variations organisms change the kinds into different higher kinds. Even if scientists could create life from non-life, or higher kinds from lower kinds, it would not prove that such changes took place in the past by random natural processes.
1. Epicurius suggested that living things might have developed from simple forms. Paul encountered the Epicureans in Athens (Acts 17:18).
2. Aristotle (384-322 BC) believed in a gradual transition from the imperfect to the perfect and that man stood at the highest point of one long continuous ascent.
3. Lamarck (1744-1829) postulated that the formation of a new organ is the result of a new need which has arisen and continues to be felt by the organism. A worm wanting eyes could develop them or we could develop eyes in the back of our heads by merely wishing for them intensely enough. This postulate is unacceptabel. Another postulate was that all changes occuring during a lifetime of am organism are transmitted to its offspring by the process of reproduction. This theory is known as the "inheritance of acquired characteristics." He would explain the long necks of giraffes as follows: Droughts on the plains of Africa required giraffes to stretch their necks to reach the few leaves and through hundreds of generations the giraffe acquired its long neck. This can be disproved in many ways. For example, a blacksmith's large muscular arm is not automatically passed on to his son. Also, one scientist cut off the tails of twenty-two generations of mice and found that the tails of their descendants were no shorter than those of a similar group whose tails had not been cut off.
4. Darwin (1809-1882) popularized evoultion with the publication of his book in 1859 The Origin of the Species by Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life. His theory proposed that new species arise by the continues survival and reproduction of the individuals best fitted or adapted to the particular environment. This theory is known as the "Survival of the Fittest." Darwin would explain the long necks of giraffes by saying that only the longer-necked giraffes survived and reproduced, thus having only long-necked giraffes. Shorter than average-necked giraffes died of starvation. A problem with this is how did short necked animals in the same region survive? Also, how did we get an;y long necked giraffes in the first place?
5. DeVries in 1905 published his "Species and Varieties, Their Origin By Mutation." He made his observations in his garden with the evening primrose weed. Some of the plants were so different that he suggested that new species might arise by mutation.