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According to the
theory of evolution, every living species has sprung from a predecessor. A
previously-existing species turned into something else in time and all species
have come into being in this way. According to the theory, this transformation
proceeds gradually over millions of years. If this was the case,
then numerous intermediary species should have existed and lived within this
long transformation period.
For instance, some
half-fish/half-reptiles should have lived in the past which had acquired some
reptilian traits in addition to the fish traits they already had. Or there
should have existed some reptile-birds, which acquired some bird traits in
addition to the reptilian traits they already had. Evolutionists refer to these
imaginary creatures, which they believe to have lived in the past, as
"transitional forms". If such animals had
really existed, there should be millions and even billions of them in number and
variety. More importantly, the remains of these strange creatures should be
present in the fossil record. The number of these transitional forms should have
been even greater than the present animal species and their remains should be
found all over the world. In The Origin of Species, Darwin explained: If my theory be
true, numberless intermediate varieties, linking most closely all of the
species of the same group together must assuredly have existed... Consequently
evidence of their former existence could be found only amongst fossil remains.
(19) Even Darwin himself
was aware of the absence of such transitional forms. It was his hope that they
would be found in the future. Despite his hopefulness, he realised that the
biggest stumbling-block in his theory was the missing transitional forms.
Therefore in his book The Origin of Species he wrote the following in the
chapter "Difficulties of the Theory": ...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?... But, as by this theory
innumerable transitional forms must have existed, why do we not find them
embedded in countless numbers in the crust of the earth?... But in the
intermediate region, having intermediate conditions of life, why do we not now
find closely-linking intermediate varieties? This difficulty for a long time
quite confounded me.
(20) The single explanation
Darwin could come up with to counter this objection was the argument that the
fossil record uncovered so far was inadequate. He asserted that when the fossil
record had been studied in detail, the missing links would be found. Believing in Darwin’s
prophecy, evolutionists have been searching for fossils and digging for missing
links since the middle of the 19th century all over the world. Despite their
best efforts, no transitional forms have yet been uncovered. All the fossils
unearthed in excavations showed that contrary to the beliefs of evolutionists,
life appeared on earth all of a sudden and fully-formed. Trying to prove their
theory, the evolutionists have instead unwittingly caused it to collapse. A famous British
paleontologist, Derek V. Ager, admits this fact even though he is an
evolutionist: The point emerges
that if we examine the fossil record in detail, whether at the level of orders
or of species, we find-over and over again-not gradual evolution, but the
sudden explosion of one group at the expense of another.
(21) Another evolutionist
paleontologist Mark Czarnecki comments as follows: A major problem in
proving the theory has been the fossil record; the imprints of vanished
species preserved in the Earth's geological formations. This record has never
revealed traces of Darwin's hypothetical intermediate variants - instead
species appear and disappear abruptly, and this anomaly has fueled the
creationist argument that each species was created by God.
(22) They have also had to
deal with the futility of waiting for "missing" transitional forms to appear in
the future, as explained by a professor of paleontology from Glasgow University,
T.Neville George: There is no need to
apologise any longer for the poverty of the fossil record. In some ways, it
has become almost unmanageably rich and discovery is outpacing integration...
The fossil record nevertheless continues to be composed mainly of gaps.
(23) 1) 3) 4) 2) Examples exist of fossils aged millions
of years old that are no differentfrom their current "descendants". These
remains are clear evidence forthe fact that they have come into being not as
a result of evolution butby special creation: (1) Shark aged 400 million
years, (2) Grasshopperaged 40 million years, (3) Ant aged 100 million years,
(4) Cockroach aged 320 million years.
Life Emerged on Earth Suddenly
and
in Complex Forms When terrestrial
strata and the fossil record are examined, it is to be seen that all living
organisms appeared simultaneously. The oldest stratum of the earth in which
fossils of living creatures have been found is that of the Cambrian, which has
an estimated age of 500-550 million years. The living creatures
found in the strata belonging to the Cambrian period emerged all of a sudden in
the fossil record-there are no pre-existing ancestors. The fossils found in the
Cambrian rocks belonged to snails, trilobites, sponges, earthworms, jellyfish,
sea hedgehogs, and other complex invertebrates. This wide mosaic of living
organisms made up of such a great number of complex creatures emerged so
suddenly that this miraculous event is referred to as the "Cambrian Explosion"
in geological literature. Most of the life forms
found in this strata have complex systems like eyes, gills, circulatory system,
and advanced physiological structures no different from their modern
counterparts. For instance, the double-lensed, combed eye structure of
trilobites is a wonder of design. David Raup, a professor of geology in Harvard,
Rochester, and Chicago Universities, says: "the trilobites used an optimal
design which would require a well trained and imaginative optical engineer to
develop today".
(24) These complex
invertebrates emerged suddenly and completely without having any link or any
transitional form between them and the unicellular organisms, which were the
only life forms on earth prior to them. Richard Monastersky,
the editor of Earth Sciences, which is one of the popular publications of
evolutionist literature, states the following about the "Cambrian Explosion"
which came as a total surprise to evolutionists: Researchers have
since uncovered thousands of exquisitely preserved fossils that offer a
glimpse back to a pivotal event in the history of life. This moment, right at
the start of Earth’s Cambrian Period, some 550 million years ago, marks the
evolutionary explosion that filled the seas with the world’s first complex
creat5res. In a blink of geological time a planet dominated by simple
sponge-like animals gave way to one ruled by a vast variety of sophisticated
beasts, animals whose relatives still inhabit the world today.
(25) How the earth came to
overflow with such a great number of animal species all of a sudden and how
these distinct types of species with no common ancestors could have emerged is a
question that remains unanswered by evolutionists. The Oxford zoologist Richard
Dawkins, one of the foremost advocates of evolutionist thought in the world,
comments on this reality that invalidates the very roots of all the arguments he
has been defending: For example the
Cambrian strata of rocks, vintage about 600 million years, are the oldest ones
in which we find most of the major invertebrate groups. And we find many of
them already in an advanced state of evolution, the very first time they
appear. It is as though they were just planted there, without any evolutionary
history. Needless to say, this appearance of sudden planting has delighted
creationists.
(26) As Dawkins is forced
to acknowledge, the Cambrian Explosion is strong evidence for creation, because
creation is the only way to explain the fully-formed emergence of life on earth.
Douglas Futuyma, a prominent evolutionist biologist admits this fact and states:
"Organisms either appeared on the earth fully developed or they did not. If they
did not, they must have developed from preexisting species by some process of
modification. If they did appear in a fully developed state, they must indeed
have been created by some omnipotent intelligence."
(27) Darwin himself recognised the possibility of this when
he wrote: "If numerous species, belonging to the same genera or families, have
really started into life all at once, the fact would be fatal to the theory of
descent with slow modification through natural selection."
(28) The Cambrian Period is nothing more
or less than Darwin’s "fatal stroke". This is why the Swiss evolutionist
paleoanthropologist Stefan Bengston confesses the lack of transitional links
while he describes the Cambrian Period and says "Baffling (and embarrasing) to
Darwin, this event still dazzles us".
(29) As may be seen, the
fossil record indicates that living things did not evolve from primitive to the
advanced forms, but instead emerged all of a sudden and in a perfect state. In
short, living beings did not come into existence by evolution, they were
created.
New Scientist, 20 Jan.1984,
National Geographic, vol 159
National Geographic, vol.159
National Geographic, vol.152
LIVING FOSSILS
