Are the Rules of Evolution Universal?

Well, the article describes evolution, which it calls “a fact of life,” in this way:

Here on Earth, organisms that just so happen to be better adapted, or “fit”, for their environment, perhaps by virtue of a fortuitous mutation, tend to survive longer and leave more offspring. The less fit leave fewer descendants and the unfit none at all. Whatever it was that made the winners fit thus accumulates in the next generation. . .

[For example,] if a gene in a colony of woodlice living under a dead log becomes more or less common for some reason, evolution has happened.

But what they’re describing isn’t evolution—it’s natural selection, the supposed mechanism for evolution. The process and the supposed mechanism are not the same thing! Natural selection is an observable process that works on information that’s already present; evolution requires the addition of brand-new genetic information to create new forms and features to turn an amoeba into an amphibian. And that’s the big (actually, impossible) problem they completely overlook in this article!

But what they’re describing isn’t evolution—it’s natural selection, the supposed mechanism for evolution. The process and the supposed mechanism are not the same thing!

The article states that for “spontaneous, sustained accumulation of complexity in a system” to occur, there must be three things present:

There must be variation, to give raw material for change in the first place; there must be differences in fitness, to give an advantage to change; and there must be heritability, to consolidate and pass on change over time. These three things are nothing more than the preconditions for natural selection – and wherever they come together, natural selection inevitably follows. [emphasis added]

They completely overlook where variation comes from! There’s no known naturalistic mechanism that can create brand-new genetic information. Natural selection doesn’t do it (after all, as they state, you need the “raw material,” i.e., variation in DNA, in order for natural selection to happen!), and they can’t just appeal to random mutations. Mutations are mistakes in already-existing DNA and are nearly always harmful or neutral.

Natural selection is an observable process. Creatures, using the incredible amount of genetic diversity God put into their DNA at the beginning, adapt to their environment. It has nothing whatsoever to do with evolution!

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Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken

This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team.