Field of Science

Evolution is wrong, creationist tells me

In reply to my post about the Catholic scientists denying evolutionary theory, I received a long email from Dr. Arv Edgeworth of Truth and Science Ministries (motto: In Search of the Truth) about some of the many ways "pro-Darwinists" get the science wrong. I present some of our conversation here with permission.

I thought about what he wrote, emailed him back asking how he learned about evolution, and what kind of research he had done. His answer was that over the last 30 years he has collected (read?) 150 science textbooks and about 400 other science books, as well as about 75 books on the debate between creationists and evolutionists. Impressive. As for his degree:
My degree is actually a Doctor of Divinity degree, and is honorary.  Actually, did you know in England an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree has often been in higher regard than an earned degree? And Darwin's only degree was in theology. Charles Lyell is called the father of geology and his only degree was in law. Since I got this degree I found out I still have to pay the same amount for a Diet Coke. What good is this thing anyway? Well, actually they do let me teach a two-credit college course occasionally. I really enjoy teaching.
No. I did not know that in England an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree has ever been in higher regard than an earned degree. If true, that is truly amazing. I looked it up on Wikipedia, and that seems to support his claim. I am amazed.

The first letter he sent me had eleven paragraphs, including this gem:
The theory accepted by pro-Darwinians for the natural explanation of the existence of the universe violates the first law of thermodynamics, the law of cause and effect, and the law of the conservation of angular momentum, yet it is still accepted.  Whose supernatural explanation for the existence of the universe shall we accept as being scientific?  You cannot have an explosion without energy or matter, that is unscientific.
Usually creationists say that it is the second law of thermodynamics that is violated (the conflation of evolution and cosmology is very common, by the way). I have not before seen the first law invoked. But the big surprise is his reference to conservation of angular momentum. This is truly precious. Angular momentum is a measure of rotation, and this is indeed conserved. I suspect the idea is that he thinks the universe wasn't rotating initially, but now it and galaxies and solar systems are. Again, this has nothing to do with evolution, but no matter.

Then he talks about abiogenesis vs. the law of biogenesis, handedness of amino acids, mutations being only harmful, the supposed lack of transitional fossils, and that information must have a sender to really be information (c.f. DNA), all of which he thinks disproves evolution. He ends with a line about UFOs, which on his website you can see he thinks are the works not of aliens, but of Satan:
Are there any life foms clearly in transition today?  No.  Is there fossil evidence it happened in the past?  No.  If someone were to beam in the DNA from one human being from outer space, the scientists at SETI would go nuts.  That would be absolute proof there is intelligence out there.  It would actually be better proof there is not a lot of intelligence on this planet.
I really have no idea what he means to say here, but clearly Dr. A.E. Edgeworth believes that
the Bible is the divinely inspired, infallible, inerrant word of the living Triune God.  It is the supreme authority in all matters of faith and conduct.
Which means evolution must be wrong. This is his angle to studying science and evolution, and he does so with a foregone conclusion that when it contradicts the Bible, it must be wrong.

2 comments:

  1. DARWINISTS NEVER REALIZE

    In claiming that a dinosaur grew wings while trying to catch flies, Darwinists never realize that the fly already had a perfect wing and flight system with the ability to flap its wings 1,000 times per second.

    Darwinists never realize that the atoms they claim gave rise to all life on Earth are in fact unconscious entities.

    In claiming that atoms such as phosphorus and carbon combined together as the result of coincidences and organized themselves under the effects of natural phenomena such as lightning, volcanoes, ultraviolet rays and radiation in such a way as to give rise to proteins, cells, fish, cats, rabbits, lions, birds, human beings and all of life, Darwinists never realize that these atoms are devoid of consciousness, intelligence, ability, information and of life itself.

    In claiming that life evolved as the result of mutations, Darwinists never realize that 99% of mutations are harmful.

    Darwinists never realize that the theory of evolution is a blind theory put forward in the limited technological atmosphere of the 19th century.

    In claiming that species evolved from one another, Darwinists never realize that not a single piece of evidence to confirm this has ever been obtained from the fossil record.

    In claiming that living species increased in number by evolving from one another over long periods of time, Darwinists never realize that all the known phyla, including others that went extinct, emerged suddenly and at the same time in the geological period known as the Cambrian, immediately after a period in which only the single-celled organisms existed.

    Darwinists never realize that the fossil record proves that living things have remained unchanged for millions of years.

    Darwinists never realize that the theory of evolution, a fictitious hypothesis put forward under the primitive 19th-century understanding of science, has not been confirmed by any scientific findings or experiments so far.

    In claiming that Archaeopteryx is the “missing link” between reptiles and birds, Darwinists never realize that Archaeopteryx was a complete flying bird.

    In suggesting that Archaeopteryx was an incompletely developed bird, Darwinists never realize that birds were living in the same period, and even earlier.

    In claiming that life emerged as the result of blind chance, Darwinists never realize that the odds of a single, average-sized protein molecule forming by chance are 1 in 10300.

    Darwinists never realize that the chances of a functional protein forming by chance are 1 in 10950.

    In analyzing these probabilities, Darwinists never realize that in mathematics, probabilities smaller than 1 in 1050 are in practical terms ?impossible?.

    Darwinists never realize that the cell, which they maintain came into being by chance, and that given the state of 19th century technology was regarded as a balloon filled with water, has a structure as complex as that of the city of New York.

    Darwinists never realize that the power station known as the ?mitochondrion? inside the cell, itself no larger than 1/100 millimeters, is far more complex than an oil refinery or hydroelectric station.

    Darwinists never realize that a single DNA molecule that exists in every one of the 100 trillion cells that constitute the human body and which they maintain came into being as the result of blind coincidences, contains enough data to fill 1 million encyclopedia pages.

    In claiming that the eye came into being by chance, Darwinists never realize that the eye is irreducibly complex and that it cannot function unless all its 40 main components are all present and working in harmony together, nor that this by itself totally undermines the theory of evolution.

    Darwinists never realize that the human eye provides an image that is far superior to and clearer than that of the most advanced cameras.

    Darwinists never realize that every neuron in the human brain has about 1,000 to 10,000 synapses (connections with other cells), that there are 1 quadrillion synapses in the brain, that this means some 1,000,000,000,000,000 acts of communication, and that it is impossible for all this to have come about by chance.

    Darwinists never realize that while the fastest data processing man-made computers perform 109 operations per second, the human brain, which they claim came into existence by chance, can perform 1015 operations a second.

    Darwinists never realize that it is absolutely impossible for chance to organize nerve cells in such a way as to establish an astonishing communications network.

    Darwinists never to realize that by producing substances known as ?antibodies? against microbes known as ?antigens? or other foreign bodies, the cells of the defense system try to kill these or else prevent them from reproducing, that the most important feature of these antibodies is that they can distinguish between hundreds of thousands of different microbes in nature and prepare themselves to destroy them.

    Darwinists never realize that there are even antibodies capable of recognizing artificial antigens produced in the laboratory and then injected into the human body.

    Darwinists never realize that antibodies immediately identify and produce the most effective weapon to be used against the foreign body in question.

    Darwinists never realize how it is possible for the queen bee, whose brain is just a few cubic millimeters in size and consists of very simple nerve nodes, to understand of her own will and with her own intelligence for what purpose the comb cells are built and to lay the appropriate eggs, with no confusion ever arising.

    Darwinists never realize that the human kidneys are around 10 cm in size and weigh 100 grams and contain more than 1 million micro purification plants, that the blood that carries everything essential for our survival is constantly purified in these plants, and that not even the giant machines built by human beings can replicate the functions of the kidney.

    Darwinists never realize how when cells need to be manufactured and when a cell needs to be destroyed, these functions are performed with perfect timing and in a perfect order inside the human body, completely beyond our will or knowledge.

    Darwinists never realize although the enzymes that carry electrons by floating through the fluid between the cells are not conscious entities, were they one day to decide to randomly scatter the messages they carry in the body?s flawless communication system rather than to their correct destination, the resulting chaos in the brain would totally demolish the sense system, and all links with the outside world would be severed.

    Darwinists never realize that the way that the cells in bone known as osteoclasts perform such functions as altering the length and shape of the bones and shrinking notches on the bone surface, and that while the osteoclast wreaks destruction in the bone, osteoblast cells begin manufacturing bone in such a way as to constitute the skeleton, and that all these take place in perfect order in every bone cell in the human body.

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  2. Hey, anonymous, thank for the copy-and-paste.

    I guess you never realize that everything you claim here that Darwinists never realize are really discovered by scientists doing real research, and not by any creationists reading the Bible.

    I've got time for a single rebuttal:

    "In claiming that life evolved as the result of mutations, Darwinists never realize that 99% of mutations are harmful."

    Indeed, most mutations are harmful or neutral. Populations spend most of their time sitting on a fitness peak, which means it is very rare indeed that a mutations is advantageous. However, when the environment changes, the population all of a sudden has plenty of opportunity to find beneficial mutations, adapting to the new environment. Blount et al. from Lenski's group has a paper in PNAS this year about E. coli evolving to a novel environment by beneficial mutations.

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