'Survival of the Fittest' is not Evolution

on September 1, 1991

Originally published in Creation 13, no 4 (September 1991): 50.

Survival of the fittest is not evolution. It is a fact of life in a world that has been tainted with death and bloodshed, but only since Adam rebelled against his Maker.

Some people think that insects have evolved resistance to DDT and other poisons, and that this somehow proves that everything evolved. But what are the facts?

When man began to spray mosquitoes, some were already resistant to DDT. They were the only ones left, so when they had time to breed up their numbers, all the mosquitoes in that area were resistant. But nothing new was added to the population, so this does not demonstrate how life-forms have evolved into more complicated life-forms.

Imagine a pair of wild geese coming off the Ark. Their first few dozen offspring show a variety of thicknesses in their feathery coats—some thicker, some thinner than the pair that came off the Ark. If they fly off to a region that is very hot, only the thin-feathered geese survive the heat. In a cold region, only those with thick, downy plumage survive and reproduce. This ‘natural selection’ can thus result in a thin-feathered type in hot regions, and a thick-feathered type in colder regions.

Survival of the fittest is not evolution. It is a fact of life in a world that has been tainted with death and bloodshed, but only since Adam rebelled against his Maker.

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