Evolution and Darwin have offered “gradualism” to explain
the development of new and beneficial structures, which improve a creature’s
ability to survive and reproduce. Darwin theorized that each successive change (mutation, adaptation) had to produce a
survival advantage in order for it to be “selected” (passed on) by evolution.
But here’s the problem – a new and adaptive structure, like sonar, requires
numerous and simultaneous changes before it can confer a survival advantage,
and the evidence fails to provide any clear examples of this.
To use a very clear example of this problem – for a worm to
become a butterfly, it has to build a cocoon around itself, totally deconstruct,
and be transformed into an entirely different creature. For this to happen,
thousands of pieces of genetic information have to simultaneously exist
beforehand. Without all of this information, the worm will remain dead in its
cocoon.
This problem is explained by the concept of “irreducible
complexity (IC),” which observes that unless all of the materials and
information are simultaneously present, no new functioning structure can naturalistically
arise.
The mouse trap is often used to explain this problem. For a
mousetrap to work, it cannot evolve gradually. All of the five parts must first
be present and properly constructed or the trap will fail to catch a mouse. Nor
can it be reduced to four parts to catch mice.
It is argued that every organ or structure is “irreducibly complex” and therefore defies evolutionary explanations. In Have You Considered: Evidence beyond a Reasonable Doubt, Bruce Malone provides several examples of (IC). Our blood must be able to clot, or any cut can cause us to bleed to death. However:
It is argued that every organ or structure is “irreducibly complex” and therefore defies evolutionary explanations. In Have You Considered: Evidence beyond a Reasonable Doubt, Bruce Malone provides several examples of (IC). Our blood must be able to clot, or any cut can cause us to bleed to death. However:
·
In order for blood to clot, there must be 12
specific individual chemicals reacting in a domino effect for a clot to form.
Malone adds that these chemicals must also be present in the
right amounts lest no clot or too many clots result. How then could an animal
survive unless this entire mechanism
had been present! This reality defies any gradualistic Darwinian explanation.
Malone also offers the example of the carnivorous Venus
flytrap. For it to survive on its exclusively insect diet, five complex systems
have to be in place simultaneously.
1.
The insect has to be lured to Venus by a “sweet
smelling aroma.”
2.
Venus has to “know the insect is there.”
3.
Venus has to “trap the insect.”
4.
Venus has to have the digestive apparatus to
digest the insect.
5.
Finally, Venus has to eliminate the remains.
Lacking any one of
these IC processes could mean starvation and death for Venus. Instead, each of
these had to be present simultaneously.
We encounter this same problem within all species. Malone
also cites the sea cucumber. It survives its predators by secreting its sticky
organs which “can glue a predator’s throat shut.” Malone rhetorically asks:
·
How did the first sea cucumber survive the first
time he spilled his guts? From the very beginning, he had to have the ability
to vomit out his sticky organs and then have the ability to regrow them.
Without all of these complex abilities functioning
simultaneously, the cucumber could not have survived.
Is there any evolutionary record of these adaptations
(gradual changes found in the fossil record)? Not really! Malone offers the
example of the monotremes, egg laying mammals. There are only two – the platypus
and the echidria. Evolutionists believe that mammals had evolved from
amphibians. However, the fossil record is silent about any such transition.
Malone writes:
·
Did the platypus evolve? Fossil platypuses are
essentially identical to modern platypuses; no transitional forms have been
found.
I will offer once last example, among many, of IC. Malone
offers the example of the poisonous snake. In order for this weapon to be
functional, many systems have to be in place simultaneously:
1.
Venom
2.
Venom gland to store venom
3.
Canal to transfer venom to the fangs
4.
Hollow fangs…to inject the poison
5.
Muscles to contract the venom reservoir
6.
A nervous system to signal the muscles to
contract
7.
Spring loaded fangs
8.
Instincts to know when and how to use all this
against prey or predator
To illustrate the problem for Darwinian gradualism, all of
these systems have to be present at the same time for the snake to deliver its
lethal blow. If just one is lacking, the snake will not survive. Only the
Design hypothesis is capable of accounting for the simultaneous appearance of
all of the necessary systems.
As science continues to demonstrate the complexity, functionality,
and profound elements of design, it becomes obvious that to deny design
contradicts the many findings. It also suggests that the denial of an
Intelligent Designer constitutes a rejection of the findings in favor of a
blind faith that someday naturalistic explanations will counter-evidentially
appear.
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