Disagreements About Evolution – Why?

When a special centennial edition of Darwin’s ‘Origin of Species’ was to be published, Dr. Robert Mitchell, then director of the Commonwealth Institute of Biological Control in Ottawa, Canada, was invited to write its introduction. He stated:

“As we know, there is a great divergence of opinion among biologists, not only about the causes of evolution but even about the actual process.”

This divergence exists because the evidence is unsatisfactory and does not permit any certain conclusion.

“It is therefore right and proper to draw the attention of the non-scientific public to the disagreements about evolution.”

Evolution as ‘Fact’?

Many who support evolution claim it is now an established fact, meaning an actual occurrence or reality. Yet consider historical examples: people once believed the earth was flat, but now we know it is spherical – that is a fact. Similarly, we now know the earth orbits the sun. These were once debated theories but became solid facts through evidence. Does evolution stand on equally firm ground? Ever since Charles Darwin’s book ‘The Origin of Species’ was published in 1859, even top evolutionary scientists have disagreed about key aspects of the theory. Today that dispute is more intense than ever.

Evolution Under Assault

The scientific magazine ‘Discover’ put it this way:

“Evolution is not only under attack by fundamentalist Christians but is also being questioned by reputable scientists. Among paleontologists, there is growing dissent from the prevailing view of Darwinism.”

Evolutionist Francis Hitching, author of ‘The Neck of the Giraffe’, wrote:

“For all its acceptance in the scientific world as the great unifying principle of biology, Darwinism, after a century and a quarter, is in a surprising amount of trouble.”

After a major conference of 150 evolution specialists in Chicago, a report concluded that evolution is undergoing its broadest and deepest revolution in nearly 50 years. Exactly how evolution happened is now a matter of great controversy, and no clear resolution was in sight. Palaeontologist Niles Eldredge, a prominent evolutionist, said doubt has infiltrated the previously smug confidence of evolutionary biology. He spoke of the lack of total agreement even within the warring camps, adding that things really are in an uproar these days. Sometimes it seems there are as many variations on each evolutionary theme as there are biologists.

Problems With Origins

Regarding how life originated, astronomer Dr. Harold Matthews said:

“To their dismay, scientists have no clear-cut answer, because chemists have never succeeded in reproducing nature’s experiments on the creation of life out of nonliving matter. Scientists do not know how that happened.”

He added:

“Scientists have no proof that life was not the result of an act of creation.”

Complex organs like the eye, ear and brain present another difficulty. All are staggeringly complex – far more so than any man-made device. All parts of such organs must work together for sight or hearing to function, making them useless until fully formed. Could undirected chance, thought to drive evolution, have brought all these parts together at the right time? Darwin himself confessed:

“To suppose that the eye could have been formed by evolution seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree.”

More than a century later, the problem remains unsolved. In fact, we now know the eye is even more complex than Darwin realised. Dr Matthews concluded:

“It is hard to accept the evolution of the human eye as a product of chance; it is even harder to accept the evolution of human intelligence as the product of random disruptions in the brain cells of our ancestors.”

Fossil Record Failures

If evolution were a fact, fossils should show ample evidence of one kind of living thing evolving into another. But the ‘Bulletin’ of Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History commented that Darwin was embarrassed by the fossil record because it did not look the way he predicted. After more than a century of collecting fossils, we have even fewer examples of evolutionary transition than in Darwin’s time. The pattern we were told to find for the last 120 years does not exist. Steven Stanley spoke of the general failure of the record to display gradual transitions from one major group to another.

Newer Theories

Some scientists now propose that life began in outer space and floated down to earth, but that merely pushes the problem further back. Others suggest evolution happens by sudden, drastic jumps called ‘punctuated equilibrium’ – the opposite of traditional slow-and-gradual evolution. Yet regardless of the theory, the gaps between different types of life in the fossil record and among living things today still persist.

Fact or Faith?

Francis Hitching observed that the modern theory fails in three crucial areas: the fossil record shows leaps rather than gradual change, genes primarily prevent new forms evolving, and random mutations cannot explain the organised complexity of life. He concluded that the theory is so inadequate it deserves to be treated as a matter of faith. Dr John Richards, a biologist, wrote in ‘The Guardian’:

“Many scientists succumb to the temptation to be dogmatic. Over and over again the question of the origin of species has been presented as if it were finally settled. Nothing could be further from the truth.”