Essay 2

The Darwin-Tinted Spectacles

Revised Version Apr 2018

An all-science account that examines the explanatory limitations of Darwinism in greater detail.  Evolutionary biologists repeatedly state that we can ‘see evolution’ in living populations, while paleontologists make similar statements about ‘seeing evolution’ in the fossil record.  Through careful examination of the major elements of evolutionary theory, this essay contests the integrity of such claims and asserts that they are generally based on false extrapolation.  Genetic change, natural selection and adaptation can indeed be seen in living populations; but if evolution is defined as the origin of new species, the vast majority of these observations do not come close to fulfilling that definition.  In the fossil history of life, the ‘evolution of the whale’ is showcased as one of the best examples of large-scale transmutation seen across geological time.  However, upon detailed analysis of the so-called ‘transitional forms’ of the whale, it becomes apparent that they fail to elucidate the most important part of the structural change: how a foot-powered mode of locomotion mutates into a vertical tail-powered mode of locomotion.  The only place where evolution may be reliably seen is in the Darwinian imagination.

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Read the PDF version:  Darwin-Tinted Spectacles 4-18