Cnails and Slams

As an engineer, I tend to have my feet firmly rooted in science. However, I have great reservations about what scientists say about how the earth was formed and its age. Faith and reason are often portrayed as being at odds and that can create lots of conflict. Recently though, a group of guys got into a discussion about evolution here at work and one of them mentioned this lecture that he had on tape where a biologist went through and pointed out several large flaws in the evolutionary argument. I asked him if I could borrow that tape. I managed to listen to it yesterday and it was quite interesting. I had to listen to it in a disjointed fashion as I was interrupted by normal aspects of life while I was listening to it, but I got several key points out of it.

The first example he gave was against the idea of progressive mutation. This idea is that mutation happens every once in a while and some animal gets something it didn't have before which pushes it forward to become a new species. The example the lecturer gave (and I've forgot his name as of the moment) that hurt this argument was that of a woodpecker. The woodpecker forcefully bangs his head and bill into a tree to make a nest and extract bugs to eat. The impact deceleration of the head striking a tree can produce a force the equivalent of 20-30 G's on the head of the bird. To help against this the woodpecker has a long sturdy bill which cushions the impact and a reinforced skull to resist impact. The woodpecker also has a very long sticky tongue to stick down into the holes it makes to extract the bugs. Conventional theory says that the woodpecker would have gotten each item individually as it mutated. Except that if a woodpecker tried to peck wood before it got all the components, it would have killed itself in the attempt.

The second example was that of polystratic fossils. Strata are the layers of rock that have built up in one formation or another. Conventional wisdom says that this process takes millions of years to accomplish. However, there are quite a few examples of fossilized bones or trees which extend across multiple strata layers. To accomplish this, the bones would have had to be standing on end for thousands or even millions of years to settle in these shapes. With trees it gets even worse because trees rot much more efficiently than bones and should be less likely to produce fossils, especially ones going across several layers of rock. As the tree was partially buried, it would have rotted away and the hole collapsed on itself. The only way to explain these phenomenon would be if the bones and trees were rapidly buried in a sudden imolation of rock or water. Such phenomena has been observed after the eruption of Mt. St. Helens where several trees were fossilized in the same manner over a period of a week when the mountain exploded. Many of these polystratic fossilized trees are found in coal deposits which are supposed to be the product of millions of years of transformation of swampy matter. Now, how can you have swamp matter washing all around a tree, have that matter turn to coal over several million years and still keep the tree not rotting and standing upright as its covered up?

A third example is the age old one that we've never found cross animal hybrids. If you look in the fossil record, you don't find one thing that's halfway between a snail and a clam, you find snails and clams. Also when you go back, you always find more animals, not less. Evolution is supposed to be starting from something small and branching out like a tree. Instead you have thousands of animals and more and more just keep disappearing as time goes on.

There are a few other things that I or other people have thought of that I don't have the time to cover now, such as the error factor of C-14 dating and progression from asexual to sexual. But this gives a little bit for someone to think about. As with all things, weigh the evidence with an open mind. You may be surprised at the things you find out.

Some rocks, dirt, water, sugar, and lightning - now, HORSES!