EVOLUTION & VARIATION

IN the Genesis account of creation there is a recurring phrase 'According to their kinds...' Each of these kinds, both plants and animals, had the potential for wide variation within the boundaries God had set due to the rich gene pool with which each kind was endowed. Such diversification within a created kind can be quite rapid. For example, over 500 varieties of sweet pea have been developed from a single type since the year 1700, and of course, we are all familiar with various breeds of domestic animals, such as dogs, cattle and sheep, all having been developed from a very few originals.¹

Variation within created kinds can be depicted as an 'orchard' of bushes, as opposed to an evolutionary 'tree'.

VARIATION, NOT EVOLUTION

Such variation perfectly fits the Biblical record of special creation, so it is strange that evolutionists so often point to this variation as proof that evolution has occurred. The theory of evolution is based on the belief that completely new types of living things have been developed over the course of millions of years, e.g. fish developed legs and became amphibians, amphibians became reptiles, some reptiles evolved into birds, others into mammals, and finally into humans. However, whilst there is abundant evidence of variation within a created kind, there is not a shred of evidence for the evolution of new kinds, either from fossils or experiments with living species. The accompanying illustration depicts the creation model of variation with a created kind. This resembles an 'orchard' of bushes, as opposed to the familiar 'tree' of evolution. Similar diversification would also have happened after the Flood, since Noah, as God commanded, took representatives of each kind into the ark, not each species.² Evolutionists have tried very hard to prove that new types of living things can emerge by conducting experiments with insects which breed rapidly. The most publicised are the experiments with fruit flies, in which the insects were subjected to radiation to induce mutations. This resulted in fruit flies with extra legs, twisted wings, or no eyes, etc., but they remained fruit flies! Almost all books on evolution quote the case of the Peppered Moth as evidence of evolution action. These moths appear as two main varieties — dark and light coloured. During the Industrial Revolution, when trees in the industrial areas of Britain became darkened by soot, the darker type of the month predominated, but when cleaner conditions returned, the lighter type became dominant again.

Typical photographs of the peppered moth. The dark and light variety pictured (left) on a light, unpolluted tree-trunk, and (right) on a soot-blackened trunk.

It has recently been revealed that the Peppered Moth experiments were faked, with moths glued to tree-trunks — where they do not normally alight. In 1999, a newspaper reported, “Evolution experts are quietly admitting that one of their most cherished examples of Darwin's theory, the rise and fall of the peppered moth, is based on a series of scientific blunders.”³ However, even if the original claims had been correct, the experiment began and ended with two varieties of Peppered Moth, and provided absolutely no evidence for evolution!

A CONSERVING PROCESS

Natural selection is actually a conserving process, which works to make each type of living thing better fitted to its own environment. It would actually eliminate anything which made the creature less adapted, as for example a partly developed wing on a reptile, which would be a hindrance to it. Take the case of the Polar Bear. At some time in the past, darker and lighter types of bear would have existed side by side, but in areas with prolonged snow cover, the whiter cubs would be less easily seen by predators. Therefore the white bears would tend to predominate. So natural selection would work to enable the bear to continue to exist as a bear, but not to evolve into anything else. Bears are still bears — and always will be!

Evolutionists observe the variations in the living world, and then assume that, given enough time, completely new organisms will involve. In this they are certainly mistaken, since variation is limited to the genetic information contained within an organism.⁴ There is no evidence, either in the fossil record or the living world, for evolution from one kind to another. However, the wonderful diversity of living things on the earth fully accords with what the Bible teaches about the creation of specific kinds with great potential for variation, within the limits ordained by God, the Creator.

REFERENCES:

1. See Selection — Natural and Artificial, CRT Factsheet No 29.
2. Genesis 7:13-15.
3. The Sunday Telegraph, March 14th, 1999.
4. See Mutations and Miracles, CRT Factsheet No 3.

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