The following is taken out of the booklet "Special Creation Vs. Evolution" by Edward F. Blick:
"Looking at high school biology books, one usually finds there are three so-called proofs of evolution. These three proofs are the Peppered moth experiment in England, embryonic recapitulation, and vestigial organs.
In considering the first of these, the Peppered moth experiment, I am referring to a ridiculous article which appeared in Scientific American around 1970. The article stated that at last they had proof of evolution - they admitted that previously there was no proof. Their basis of proof was the Peppered moth of England. Until the fifties, the predominant form of moth was the dark form - there are light, intermediate and dark forms. In the early fifties there was a disastrous smog attack in England which killed scores of people. After this disaster, England cleaned up its smoke stacks, which improved the atmosphere, and caused the tree trunks to become lighter. As a result, the light rather than the dark form of peppered moth became camouflaged. The birds then started eating more of the dark form. Therefore, the light Peppered moth population increased, and the dark Peppered moth population decreased. The article said this was evolution. Well, is it? Professor L. Harrison Matthews wrote in his forward to the 1971 edition of Darwin's "Origin of Species", that this is not evolution. He criticized the concept that the Peppered moth experiment proves evolution. He stated that it beautifully demonstrates natural selection or survival of the fittest, but it does not show evolution in progress. However the population may alter in its content of light, intermediate, or dark form, all moths remain from beginning to end "biston betularia" - their Latin name. In other words, the moth is the same today as it was ten years ago, as it was one hundred years ago. There is simply a shift in the dominance of the light, intermediate, and dark forms. This is not evolution. Evolution requires that one form change to another. Yet, the student is presented this in high school biology text books as proof of evolution.
The second proof, embryonic recapitulation, also called the Biogenic Law, was introduced by Ernest Haeckel, one of Darwin's staunch supporters. Haeckel's theory was that an embryo went through various stages - fish, reptile, mammal etc. Darwin said that Haeckel’s data was the best evidence there was to support his own theory. As it turned out, Haeckel was tried by a Jena University court, for fraudulently forging the important details on his drawings. He admitted in court that he did forge some of the details, he said, "A small percent of my embryonic drawings are forgeries, those mainly for which the observed material was so incomplete or insufficient as to compel us to fill in and reconstruct the missing links by hypothesis and comparative synthesis. I should feel utterly condemned were it not that hundreds of the best observers and biologists lie under the same charge."
This is called science? he was trying to rationalize what he had done! Very few people around the world heard about Haeckel’s confession and conviction, therefore, his concept and drawings spread around the world without the knowledge that these were forgeries and that the concept was invalid. The concept held sway in scientific circles until the twenties or thirties. By this time qualified embryologists around the world had discovered that the things which Haeckel said he saw in the embryos were not there. The Embryonic Recapitulation Theory was discarded by embryologists. Still, in high school textbooks, this is given as proof of evolution. It is not told that Haeckel confessed and was convicted of forgery...This is scraping the bottom of the barrel to find proof of evolution.
The third proof, which students are taught, is the concept of vestigial organs. At one time there was a list of over one hundred and eighty vestigial organs in the human body. A vestigial organ is a organ which is supposedly useless at present, but left over from our evolutionary past. This list included things such as tonsils, parathyroid glands, the appendix, etc. Medical science, physiologists, medical doctors, and others have been erasing items from the list until at present only a few remain. I have faith that these too will be erased. Some of the recent deletions include the:
Tonsils - which supply phagocytes to the mouth and pharynx to destroy certain harmful bacteria.
Parathyroid glands - which regulate the calcium and phosphate balance in the plasma.
Appendix - which plays a part in the control of intestinal flora and fights disease in the intestinal tract.
Thymus gland - studies show that it confers antibody producing capacity to the lymphoid tissue during the early portion of life.
Coccyx bone - Which serves as an attachment to the sphincter anal externus muscle which is used in eliminating waste from the large intestine.
The list goes on and on. However, many of these items are still in high school textbooks, as being vestigial - useless, left from our evolutionary past. Again, this is scraping the bottom of the barrel for proofs of evolution. "
By George Konig
August 6, 2006
www.georgekonig.org
Related article from AboutBibleProphecy.com:
Does the theory of evolution truly conflict with the Bible?
See a list of all of our commentaries