Thursday, December 07, 2006
National Geographics Special, "Was Darwin Wrong?"
I just finished watching a National Geographic Special, "Was Darwin Wrong?" (National Geographics Channel, Dec. 2006). Early on the special showed how fossils are aged using carbon dating and layer dating. So far so good.
Next the evolution scientists showed how a sea animal, a "sea squirt" with a single chambered heart, could have its DNA changed via an electrical shock at a specific location on the gene of a sea squirt embryo, which would cause the embryo to mature with a second functioning heart chamber. This is a rather astounding experiment which the scientists say proves that hearts actually did evolve. The scientists unanimously glowed with this "evidence" that Darwin was correct. They said that this is overwhelming proof for TOE. Not one of them could look at this experiment with a truly objective scientist's eye. The special did not address what happened between no hearts and fully functioning hearts, be they one, two, or four chambered. Why? Because there is no possible explanation for that evolution. They called a single chambered heart "simple". Sorry, but even a single-chambered heart is incredibly complex, requiring blood, vessels, an oxygenating system, nerves, a brain to operate it, etc. What could cause nothing to turn into an exceedingly complex pump system, which even a single chambered heart is? Again, a proto-heart in the process of evolving into a functioning heart would be nothing more than a tumor. Animals would have to carry gradually growing and useless proto-hearts for hundreds of thousands if not millions of years to allow the evolution of finally functioning hearts. This scenario is not even imaginable. Also ridiculous is the idea that an electrical shock of some kind (lightning?) could perfectly modify the DNA of an embryo. A shock of any kind would actually kill the embryo, and if it didn't, it would cause catastrophic damage to the DNA which would certainly never lead to an additional perfectly formed heart chamber.
Further evidence for the TOE in the special was a four legged animal that returned to the sea and became a whale! This is so preposterous that it is truly unbelievable that intelligent people can promote this inane scenario; comical to try to imagine.
The special then went to a recently discovered flat-skulled animal/fossil that was dug up in northern Canada by an evolution scientist. The researchers named it a Tictolic (sp?). Tictolic had short "arms and legs". This was shown as proof that fish grew legs to become land animals. Again, there is absolutely no proof that earlier fish morphed into this "fishopod", or that the fishopod morphed into another specie. Why would it take 170 years since Darwin hatched his ideas to find one fossil that supposedly displayed fish-land animal evolution? Since there are and have been trillions of land animals over the eons, there should be a plethora of fish showing the growth of proto-limbs gradually morphing into full limbs. Again, there are none. This scientist found a new specie, not a transitional animal. These scientists get so excited over any interesting fossil that they find. They try to bend the fossil into a great "evolution proving" piece of evidence. They hopefully think they found the MISSING LINK! Just think what this does for the scientists' reputation in the world of evolution. With good reason they want it to be evidence so badly that they cannot look at it objectively and scientifically. The excitement of the find, group psychology, and the possibility of fame can overwhelm all objectivity. All science should be looked at with a critical and doubting eye. TOE is the one "science" that is not.
Sectioned ping-pong balls are used in the special to prove that eyes could evolve. The "scientist" takes a flashlight and moves it around the ping-pong balls, showing how the light reflecting through the balls also moves! This is touted as an advantage which will cause further evolution to a complete eye. This is not science. This is damaging perfectly good ping-pong balls. Also, the scientists fill a "hollow" lens, constructed with polyethylene windows, with water. The windows bulge and focus well to show how a lens could evolve. These wouldn't even qualify as junior high science projects. And, they are so ridiculous as examples of proof of Darwinian evolution that further discussion is useless.
A quote from this NG special: "Fossil birds appear in the rocks out of nowhere." In reality, all fossils appear out of nowhere. There are no bird fossils that show gradual growth of wings. Can't the NG writer/scientists see that this fact alone is a Darwin killer? Answer: not even a thought. Another quote from this special: "If a single one of these (proofs for TOE) fails, the whole theory will come crashing down." Virtually all of the "proofs" in this special, with the exception of dating of fossils, in reality, fail any objective test of evidence. NG wants Darwin to be right so badly that it can't come close to an objective look at its own "evidence".
Next the evolution scientists showed how a sea animal, a "sea squirt" with a single chambered heart, could have its DNA changed via an electrical shock at a specific location on the gene of a sea squirt embryo, which would cause the embryo to mature with a second functioning heart chamber. This is a rather astounding experiment which the scientists say proves that hearts actually did evolve. The scientists unanimously glowed with this "evidence" that Darwin was correct. They said that this is overwhelming proof for TOE. Not one of them could look at this experiment with a truly objective scientist's eye. The special did not address what happened between no hearts and fully functioning hearts, be they one, two, or four chambered. Why? Because there is no possible explanation for that evolution. They called a single chambered heart "simple". Sorry, but even a single-chambered heart is incredibly complex, requiring blood, vessels, an oxygenating system, nerves, a brain to operate it, etc. What could cause nothing to turn into an exceedingly complex pump system, which even a single chambered heart is? Again, a proto-heart in the process of evolving into a functioning heart would be nothing more than a tumor. Animals would have to carry gradually growing and useless proto-hearts for hundreds of thousands if not millions of years to allow the evolution of finally functioning hearts. This scenario is not even imaginable. Also ridiculous is the idea that an electrical shock of some kind (lightning?) could perfectly modify the DNA of an embryo. A shock of any kind would actually kill the embryo, and if it didn't, it would cause catastrophic damage to the DNA which would certainly never lead to an additional perfectly formed heart chamber.
Further evidence for the TOE in the special was a four legged animal that returned to the sea and became a whale! This is so preposterous that it is truly unbelievable that intelligent people can promote this inane scenario; comical to try to imagine.
The special then went to a recently discovered flat-skulled animal/fossil that was dug up in northern Canada by an evolution scientist. The researchers named it a Tictolic (sp?). Tictolic had short "arms and legs". This was shown as proof that fish grew legs to become land animals. Again, there is absolutely no proof that earlier fish morphed into this "fishopod", or that the fishopod morphed into another specie. Why would it take 170 years since Darwin hatched his ideas to find one fossil that supposedly displayed fish-land animal evolution? Since there are and have been trillions of land animals over the eons, there should be a plethora of fish showing the growth of proto-limbs gradually morphing into full limbs. Again, there are none. This scientist found a new specie, not a transitional animal. These scientists get so excited over any interesting fossil that they find. They try to bend the fossil into a great "evolution proving" piece of evidence. They hopefully think they found the MISSING LINK! Just think what this does for the scientists' reputation in the world of evolution. With good reason they want it to be evidence so badly that they cannot look at it objectively and scientifically. The excitement of the find, group psychology, and the possibility of fame can overwhelm all objectivity. All science should be looked at with a critical and doubting eye. TOE is the one "science" that is not.
Sectioned ping-pong balls are used in the special to prove that eyes could evolve. The "scientist" takes a flashlight and moves it around the ping-pong balls, showing how the light reflecting through the balls also moves! This is touted as an advantage which will cause further evolution to a complete eye. This is not science. This is damaging perfectly good ping-pong balls. Also, the scientists fill a "hollow" lens, constructed with polyethylene windows, with water. The windows bulge and focus well to show how a lens could evolve. These wouldn't even qualify as junior high science projects. And, they are so ridiculous as examples of proof of Darwinian evolution that further discussion is useless.
A quote from this NG special: "Fossil birds appear in the rocks out of nowhere." In reality, all fossils appear out of nowhere. There are no bird fossils that show gradual growth of wings. Can't the NG writer/scientists see that this fact alone is a Darwin killer? Answer: not even a thought. Another quote from this special: "If a single one of these (proofs for TOE) fails, the whole theory will come crashing down." Virtually all of the "proofs" in this special, with the exception of dating of fossils, in reality, fail any objective test of evidence. NG wants Darwin to be right so badly that it can't come close to an objective look at its own "evidence".
# posted by Stephen B.Thomas DDS @ 10:03 PM 
