Post details: "Junk" DNA: Darwinism's Last Stand?

06/06/09

Permalinkby 09:41:53 am, Categories: Commentary - OpEd, 426 words   English (CA)

"Junk" DNA: Darwinism's Last Stand?

by Denyse O'Leary
ARN correspondent

Here Jonathan Wells writes about the junk that turned out not to be.

Suppose your genome was your late great aunt's attic. You think the stuff in her attic is all just a load of junk. But unknown to you, her great-great grandma's Georgian dressing table is worth US$50 000 on the museum market, and archivists would kill for her great-grandpa's letters from the front.

Darwinists assumed that everything that wasn't being used now was junk, but apparently they were wrong - because they neglected the value of information generally, and stored information in particular. They truly believe in randomness, not information. Anyway, here's Wells:

We are often told that the evidence for evolution is "overwhelming." If "evolution" is defined as "change over time" or "minor changes within existing species," this is a truism. But what if "evolution" means Charles Darwin's theory? According to Darwin, all living things are descendants of a common ancestor that have been modified by unguided processes such as random variation and natural selection.

Despite the hype from Darwin's followers, the evidence for his theory is underwhelming, at best.

Natural selection - like artificial selection - can produce minor changes within existing species. But in the 150 years since the publication of Darwin’s Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, no one has ever observed the origin of a new species by natural selection - much less the origin of new organs and body plans.

As a result, the only evidence that all living things are biologically descended from a common ancestor comes from comparisons of the similarities and differences among fossil and living species. When making such comparisons, however, Darwinists start by assuming common ancestry. Then they try to fit similarities and differences into the branching-tree pattern that would result from it, and they ignore the glaring inconsistencies that often remain.

Read the rest here at Evolution News and Views

See also Wells's book Politically Incorrect Guide to Darwinism and Intelligent Design (Regnery, 2006)

Also just up at The Post-Darwinist:

Creationism: Creationists visit temple of evolution

Darwinism and academic culture: Skepticism not allowed

Design: A military perspective

Darwinism and popular culture: Noticing the growing uproar

Toronto-based Canadian journalist Denyse O'Leary (www.designorchance.com) is the author of the multiple award-winning By Design or by Chance? (Augsburg Fortress 2004), an overview of the intelligent design controversy. She was named CBA Canada's Recommended Author of the Year in 2005 and is co-author, with Montreal neuroscientist Mario Beauregard, of The Spiritual Brain: A neuroscientist's case for the existence of the soul (Harper 2007).

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