The Greatest Absence of Evolution Ever Reported

Can an organism survive billions of years of evolution without evolving? A senior UCLA professor has evolutionary scientists pondering that question. He has published a paper that shows images of fossilized bacteria found in Australian seafloor rock formations reported to be 1.8 billion years old by evolutionary dating methods. The bacteria discovered in these rocks are incredibly similar—if not identical—to those found in rocks dated at 2.3 million years old and to those living today in similar seafloor depths.

The scientists who made the discovery hypothesize that the bacteria’s environment has not changed for millions and perhaps billions of years. Of course, there are several problems with this idea.

First, during this time Australia was being formed by plate tectonics, a tumultuous process that influenced the entire continent’s geology.

Second, a group of scientists observing bacteria under sterile, unchanging laboratory conditions report that the bacteria have changed in only twenty years.

And finally, bacteria exchange their genetic material more than any other creature. So bacteria should be subject to wide genetic changes over time. Since genetic change is one of the mechanisms of evolution, it’s baffling to evolutionists that these bacteria have remained the same for so long.

Creationists recognize that God created creatures that can be modified slightly to fit their environment. But such slight modifications will never change a bacterium into a bat, a buffalo, or a biologist. God made the first living things to fill the earth with life only a few thousand years ago. So creationists should expect to find similar-looking, life-supporting bacteria throughout the biosphere.