Darwin's work has been built upon since he died but the problems he found are still there. Here are some interesting excerpts from Darwin:
·
See sentences in BOLD below. Portions of
Chapter 6 in Darwin's Origin of Species are included before and after the
sentences in BOLD below, showing that
these are clearly not out of context:
LONG before the
reader has arrived at this part of my work, a crowd of difficulties will have
occurred to him. Some of them are so serious that to this day I can hardly
reflect on them without being in some degree staggered; but, to the best
of my judgment, the greater number are only apparent, and those that are real
are not, I think, fatal to theory.
These difficulties and objections may
be classed under the following heads:—First, why, if
species have descended from other species by fine gradations, do we not
everywhere see innumerable transitional forms? Why is not all nature in
confusion, instead of the species being, as we see them, well defined?
Secondly, is it possible that an
animal having, for instance, the structure and habits of a bat, could have been
formed by the modification of some other animal with widely different habits
and structure? Can we believe that natural
selection could produce, on the one hand, an organ of trifling importance, such
as the tail of a giraffe, which serves as a fly-flapper, and, on the other
hand, an organ so wonderful as the eye?
Thirdly, can instincts be acquired
and modified through natural selection? What shall
we say to the instinct which leads the bee to make cells, and which has
practically anticipated the discoveries of profound mathematicians?
Fourthly, how can
we account for species, when crossed, being sterile and producing sterile
offspring, whereas, when varieties are crossed, their fertility is unimpaired?
Charles Darwin,
Origin of Species, Ch. 6, p133
Origin of Species, Ch. 6, p133
So there we have it, Darwin saw the flaws in his own theory and a hundred and forty odd years later we still have no answers to his problems. He does say that he doesn't find the problems fatal to his Theory. Oh right then! Thats like saying the moon is made of green cheese except it isn;t green and it isn't cheese. But that's not 'fatal to the Theory!' Perhaps his letter to his friend is 'fatal to his Theory'. Its got more text around the quote in bold to give it context:
My dear Lyell,
You seemed to have worked admirably
on the species question; there could not have been a better plan than reading
up on the opposite side. I rejoice profoundly that you intend admitting the
doctrine of modification in your new edition;† nothing, I am convinced, could
be more important for its success. I honour you most sincerely. To have
maintained in the position of a master, one side of a question for thirty
years, and then deliberately give it up, is a fact to which I much doubt
whether the records of science offer a parallel. For myself, also, I rejoice
profoundly; for, thinking of so many cases of men pursuing an illusion for
years, often and often a cold shudder has run
through me, and I have asked myself whether I may not have devoted my life to a
phantasy. Now I look at it as morally impossible that investigators of truth,
like you and Hooker, can be wholly wrong, and therefore I rest in peace. Thank
you for criticisms, which, if there be a second edition, I will attend to. I
have been thinking that if I am much execrated as an atheist, etc., whether the
admission of the doctrine of natural selection could injure your works; but I
hope and think not, for as far as I can remember, the virulence of bigotry is
expended on the first offender, and those who adopt his views are only pitied
as deluded, by the wise and cheerful bigots.
Charles Darwin,
Life and Letters, 1887, Vol. 2, p. 229
Life and Letters, 1887, Vol. 2, p. 229
Also:
Organs of extreme Perfection and
Complication.
To suppose that the
eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different
distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of
spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural
selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree. When it was first
said that the sun stood still and the world turned round, the common sense of
mankind declared the doctrine false; but the old saying of Vox populi, vox Dei,
as every philosopher knows, cannot be trusted in science. Reason tells me, that
if numerous gradations from a simple and imperfect eye to one complex and
perfect can be shown to exist, each grade being useful to its possessor, as is
certainly the case; if further, the eye ever varies and the variations be
inherited, as is likewise certainly the case; and if such variations should be
useful to any animal under changing conditions of life, then the difficulty of
believing that a perfect and complex eye could be formed by natural selection,
though insuperable by our imagination, should not be considered as subversive
of the theory. How a nerve comes to be sensitive to light, hardly concerns us
more than how life itself originated; but I may remark that, as some of the
lowest organisms, in which nerves cannot be detected, are capable of perceiving
light, it does not seem impossible that certain sensitive elements in their
sarcode should become aggregated and developed into nerves, endowed with this
special sensibility.
Charles Darwin,
Origin of Species, Ch. 6, p144
Origin of Species, Ch. 6, p144
I underlined the part where Darwin tells us the important part of his writing that disproves it isn't really important at all. He does start the book with honesty then tip toes through this absurdity:
Portions of Chapter 1 and 2 in
Darwin's Origin of Species are included before and after the sentences in BOLD below, showing that these are clearly not out of
context:
This Abstract, which I now
publish, must necessarily be imperfect. I cannot here give references and
authorities for my several statements; and I must trust to the reader reposing
some confidence in my accuracy. No doubt errors will have crept in, though I
hope I have always been cautious in trusting to good authorities alone. I can
here give only the general conclusions at which I have arrived, with a few
facts in illustration, but which, I hope, in most cases will suffice.
In other words Charles.... 'just believe it.' And herein lies the problem. People don't so much understand evolution as want to have justification for walking away from and idea we have accountability to God. 140 something years later and the 'proofs' for evolution are so ridiculous, weird and whacky that it's amazing people don't fall down laughing at them. But they don't. The agenda is twofold:
1. Do ANYTHING to avoid accountability for sin
2. Never appear to be unintelligent
Many Christians are comfortable with a 16 Billion year age of the earth. God 'evolved' the universe over time. These same people pray for healing for their brothers and sisters and expect the instant response Jesus got in the gospels. Genesis is literal.
Gary Ward
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