Is Evolution Possible Without A Creator?


Dr. Zvi Shkedi, June 2009

Evolution biologists claim that evolution of new species is the result of random mutations accumulated over time. We show that Micro-Evolution proves the existence of a Creator.

To understand the probability of mutating DNA by chance into a different survivable DNA, without it being pre-programmed to do so, let's first look at the following thought experiment. We will not ask how long it will take a monkey with a typewriter to produce all the writings of Shakespeare. Instead, we will ask how long will it take a monkey to randomly type the first 12 letters of the ABC in the correct order. At a typing rate of one letter per second, without external guidance, the probability is once in 3 billion years! And, if we want to produce all the 26 letters of the ABC in the correct order, how many monkeys will it take, and how long will it take them? Without external guidance, the probability is that 400 trillion monkeys might do it once in 400 trillion years!

All DNA is encoded with four nucleotide bases which serve as the coding building blocks. The number of different possibilities in arranging all the 26 letters of the ABC is 26 to-the-power-of 26. The DNA equivalent of this number of different possibilities is 4 to-the-power-of 61. From an information contents point of view, that's a survivable change in 61 gene coding locations - not even close to what it takes to change from one strain within a species to another, let alone changing from one species to another. Even if the changes in the DNA were to evolve one step at a time, a random survivable information contents change in 61 gene coding locations would require 400 trillion animals mutating for 400 trillion years.

All DNA must be encoded correctly with the ability to absorb food, metabolize it, and repeatedly reproduce itself, or else it would not survive. Any mutation that damages one of these abilities produces defective DNA. Charles Darwin[1] was much bothered by not finding any transitional creatures between apes and humans, nor was he (or anyone else) ever able to observe this transition, or to explain how this transition actually occurs. Given the low probabilities demonstrated by the monkeys' experiment above, a continuum of transitional creatures would have to exist with a genetic difference of less than 60 gene-coding locations from creature to creature. In the absence of transitional creatures, the transition must occur in a single block of large genetic changes. If creature-to-creature genetic changes were to occur by the accumulation of many small changes over millions of years, we would have had a multitude of such closely related transitional creatures on earth. Needless to say, such closely related transitional creatures (with a genetic difference of less than 60 gene-coding locations) do not exist, not now, and not in the fossil record.

The biological rate of genetic mutation and reproduction is much slower than once per second. The genetic codes of all closely related, yet different, species of animals have an information contents difference of much greater than 61 gene coding locations. Since transitional creatures do not exist, a successful mutation must simultaneously re-encode a large number of gene coding locations - much larger than 61. Therefore, the probability of mutating one species to another by chance, without external guidance[2], and without being pre-programmed to do so, is many orders of magnitude lower than in the monkeys' experiment above. It will take more than 400 trillion animals, mutating and procreating once per second for more than 400 trillion years, to successfully evolve one survivable creature of a new different animal species.

There are no creatures which can procreate every second. Last time we counted, planet earth does not, and never did, contain 400 trillion animals. And, as far as we can remember, the universe does not exist for 400 trillion years.

From an evolution-biologist point of view, however, if planet earth contains less than 400 trillion animals, and, one species of animals did randomly evolve into a different species, it proves that life on planet earth started more than 400 trillion years ago...

Adaptation, a form of micro-evolution, is the process whereby an organism becomes better suited to survive in its environment. For example, thirteen varieties of finches live on the Galápagos, the island group visited by Charles Darwin in the 1830s. The finches have a variety of bill shapes and sizes, all suited to their varying diets and lifestyles. The explanation given by Darwin was that they are all the offspring of an original pair of finches, and that natural selection is responsible for the differences. The popular theories of how long it took for Darwin’s finches to "evolve" from their parent population, range from one million to five million years. However, Princeton zoology professor Peter Grant performed a study of all the Galápagos finches. He showed that all the variations between finches developed following changes in food supply within less than 18 years, and sometimes after only one generation.

Similarly, Raymond Huey et al. at the University of Washington in Seattle, discovered that populations of fruit flies on three separate continents have independently evolved identical gene changes within just two decades, apparently to cope with global warming.

The fact that finches in the laboratory evolved the same genetic changes as Darwin's finches, and the fact that the genetic changes in the fruit flies on three separate continents were identical, prove a few things: a) that the ability to adapt is pre-programmed into the genetic codes; b) that such genetic changes are directed by the pre-programmed genetic codes; and, c) that these genetic changes are not the result of random mutations. The existence of such pre-programmed genetic codes, which quickly and independently produce identical genetic changes in different locations, is sufficient to prove the existence of a very clever programmer who can foresee the future needs of organisms.

The English Professor Anthony Flew was, for half a century, the world's leading authority on atheism. When he learned, in 2004, about the breaking of the genetic code in DNA, he changed his mind and announced that he believes in God as a first cause. The structure of DNA, he explained, was so awesomely complex that it could not have just evolved. It must have been designed and created by God.


References

  1. On The Origin of Species, Chapter VI - Difficulties on Theory
  2. "External guidance" in nature means creation by a creator. Any attempt to shortcut the structural randomity of mutations or to splice-in known beneficial genetic blocks is external guidance. For example, genetic modifications in the laboratory are done under external guidance by an intelligent scientist.

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