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As you see, the science of genetics has revealed that the variations that Darwin imagined accounted for the origin of species in fact bear no such significance.
Therefore, evolutionist biologists have been forced to distinguish between variation within species and the formation of new species, and to advance two separate concepts regarding them. They gave the name micro-evolution to variation within species, and defined the formation of entirely new species as macro-evolution.
The concept of macro-evolution was first used in 1927 by the Russian biologist Juri'i Filipchenko.184 The idea that micro-evolution could be used as evidence for macro-evolution was proposed by a student of Filipchenko's, Theodosius Dobzhansky, in the 1930s. In his book Genetics and The Origin of Species, one of the basic texts of Darwinism, Dobzhansky suggested that the mechanisms of micro- and macro-evolution were the one and the same.185 This view received wide acceptance from evolutionist circles and has survived down to the present day. Richard Goldschmidt, a Berkeley University geneticist during those years, expressed the erroneous nature of this view: "The facts of microevolution do not suffice for an understanding of macroevolution."186 In fact, what Goldschmidt referred to as micro-evolution was nothing more than variations within species.
These two concepts have long appeared in biology textbooks, where a deceptive style is often used. The examples of variation that evolutionist biologists describe as micro-evolution actually have nothing whatsoever to do with the theory of evolution. That's because the theory of evolution maintains that living things can acquire new genetic information through the mechanisms of mutation and natural selection. But as we have already seen, variations can never give rise to any new genetic information and therefore, cannot lead to evolution. Referring to variations as micro-evolution reflects an ideological preference on the part of evolutionist biologists.
The variations that they deliberately refer to as micro-evolution are a simple biological phenomenon, examples of which we encounter frequently in daily life. (Think of all the varieties of cats, dogs, apples, tomatoes, plants and animals you have ever seen.) Macro-evolution, on the other hand, refers to major changes such as that of a dinosaur into a bird, or a bear into a whale. In other words, there is no difference between the claims of macro-evolution and fairy tales in which a frog transforms into a prince.
By using the concept of macro-evolution, evolutionist biologists seek to give the impression that is variations can give rise to brand new living species—and even genera—over the course of time. Indeed, many people who lack a sound knowledge of the subject are taken in by the superficial idea that micro-evolution can become macro-evolution in the long term. One can see many examples of this thinking. Some amateur evolutionists suggest that since the average height of human beings has increased by 2 centimeters (0.78 of an inch) over just the last century, that means that all kinds of evolution can occur over millions of years. But the fact is, as we have already seen, all variations such as increases in stature take place within specific genetic bounds and have nothing to do with evolution.
In fact, even contemporary evolutionist authorities accept that the variations described as micro-evolution cannot give rise to new living classes, or lead to macro-evolution. In a 1996 paper published in the journal Developmental Biology, the evolutionist biologists Scott Gilbert, John Opitz and Rudolf Raff stated that:
The Modern Synthesis is a remarkable achievement. However, starting in the 1970s, many biologists began questioning its adequacy in explaining evolution. Genetics might be adequate for explaining microevolution, but micro-evolutionary changes in gene frequency were not seen as able to turn a reptile into a mammal or to convert a fish into an amphibian. Microevolution looks at adaptations that concern only the survival of the fittest, not the arrival of the fittest. As Goodwin (1995) points out, "the origin of species—Darwin's problem—remains unsolved.187
That the variations known as micro-evolution cannot account for the claim of macro-evolution, and cannot explain the origin of species, is also admitted by other evolutionist biologists. The well-known evolutionist paleontologist Roger Lewin set out his conclusion at a four-day symposium attended by 150 evolutionists at the Chicago Museum of Natural History in November 1980:
The central question of the Chicago conference was whether the mechanisms underlying microevolution can be extrapolated to explain the phenomena of macroevolution ... The answer can be given as a clear, No. 188
The evolutionist biologists Fagerstrom, Schuster and Szathmary stated the same thing in an article published in Science magazine in 1996:
Major transitions in evolution—such as the origin of life, the emergence of eukaryotic cells, and the origin of the human capacity for language, to name but a few—could not be farther away from an equilibrium. Also, they cannot be described satisfactorily by established models of microevolution. 189
In short, micro-evolution is a biological phenomenon, and macro-evolution is an unscientific dogma—two entirely distinct concepts. Nonetheless, many evolutionists still believe that these two concepts are one and the same thing, and that micro-evolutionary changes can turn into macro-evolutionary ones over long periods of time.190
Other scientists, however, are aware that such a claim totally conflicts with the picture revealed by scientific findings and the fossil record. Douglas Erwin, from the American Museum of Natural History emphasized this in a paper that appeared in the journal Evolution and Development in 2000.191 According to the American biologists Douglas Erwin and James Valentine, to account for the origin of new physical characteristics with micro-evolutionary changes that are in fact nothing more than variations within species is incompatible with the available evidence.192
The fact is, macro-evolution has never been observed. There is no explanation compatible with reason, logic and science as to how this might take place. Professor of Microbiology Carl Woese expresses his view on the subject: "[T]he term ‘macroevolution' serves more to hide our ignorance than symbolize our understanding."193
Consider the subjects depicted by evolutionists as concrete and observed instances of Darwinism, which they put forward at every opportunity as fundamental proofs of evolution. The Galapagos finches, the Industrial Revolution moths, bacterial resistance to antibiotics, and insects' resistance to DDT immediately come to mind, but it is absolutely misleading to portray these as evidence of evolution. These cases are cases of variations, or micro-evolution, that present no evidence for evolution. The Galapagos finches and the Industrial Revolution moths will be discussed later in this book, where we make it clear that these life forms constitute no evidence for the theory of evolution.
References
- "Macroevolution, Its Definition, Philosophy and History," http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/macroevolution.html ↩
- Theodosius Dobzhansky, Genetics and the Origin of Species, New York: Columbia University Press, 1937. ↩
- Richard B. Goldschmidt, The Material Basis of Evolution, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1940, p. 8. ↩
- Scott Gilbert, John Opitz, Rudolf Raff, "Resynthesizing Evolutionary and Developmental Biology," Developmental Biology 173, Article No. 0032, 1996, p. 361. ↩
- R. Lewin, "Evolutionary Theory Under Fire," Science, vol. 210, 21 November 1980, p. 883. ↩
- T. Fagerstrom, P. Jagers, P. Schuster, E. Szathmary, "Biologists put on mathematical glasses," Science, vol. 274, 20 December 1996, pp. 2039-2040. ↩
- Sean B. Carroll, "The Big Picture," Nature, Vol. 409, 8 February 2001, p. 669; Paul R. Ehrlich, Human Natures, Washington, D.C.: Shearwater Books, 2000, p. 46. ↩
- D.H. Erwin, "Macroevolution is more than repeated rounds of microevolution," Evolution & Development, Vol. 2, 2000, pp. 78-84. ↩
- J.W. Valentine, D.H. Erwin, "Interpreting Great Developmental Experiments: The Fossil Record," in , R.A. Raff, E.C. Raff (editors), Development as an Evolutionary Process, New York: Alan R. Liss, Inc., 1987, p. 95. ↩
- C.R. Woese, "Macroevolution in the microscopic world", C. Patterson (editor), Molecules and Morphology in Evolution, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987, p. 177 ↩