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Creationists recognize that small microevolutionary changes occur, but small changes do not imply large changes, so the theory of macroevolution is unjustified.

...condition can happen, for example, under a gradual climate change or in evolutionary arms races. Even if there is no selective pressure at all, the changes will tend to diverge further and further from the starting point. Small changes will not lead to large changes only if there is stabiliz...

Darwin, C. 1872. (see below) Theobald, D. 2004. (see above)

Evolution has not been, and cannot be, proved. We cannot even see evolution (beyond trivially small change), much less test it experimentally.

...m's immediate ancestors. We only see atavisms consistent with organisms' evolutionary histories. Ontogeny (embryology and developmental biology) gives information about the historical pathway of an organism's evolution. For example, as embryos whales and many snakes develop hind limbs that ar...

...Mercer, John M. and V. Louise Roth. 2003. The effects of Cenozoic global change on squirrel phylogeny. Science 299: 1568-1572. Theobald, D. 2004. (see above) Previous Claim: CA201 | List of Claims | Next Claim: CA210 created 2003-4-21, modified 2005-2-24

In an interview in 1997, Richard Dawkins was asked to "give an example of a genetic mutation or an evolutionary process which can be seen to increase the information in the genome." Apparently unable to answer, he paused a long time and finally responded by changing the subject.

...bout their motives. He paused to think about how to handle them, and the change of subject occurred due to the several minutes when he confronted them being omitted from the video (Dawkins 2003). The question is equivalent to asking how complexity could evolve, which Dawkins has covered in at...

Dawkins, Richard, 2003. The information challenge. In: A Devil's Chaplain , Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. http://www.skeptics.com.au/journal/dawkins1.htm

Various aspects of the change in frequencies of the varieties of peppered moth and their geographical distribution are inconsistent with its proposed explanation in terms of natural selection resulting from differential predation.

...could also have been an important factor. In fact, I am not aware of any evolutionary biologist who has ever suggested that natural selection resulting from differential predation would by itself account completely for all details of the geographical distributions of the peppered moth's varie...

Berry, R. J., 1990. Industrial melanism and peppered moths ( Biston betularia (L.)), Biological Journal of the Linnean Society , 39: 301-322. Bishop, J. A., L. M. Cook and J. Muggleton, 1978. The response of two species ...

Peppered moths are commonly claimed as evidence of evolution, but falsely so. The moths only changed color; they remain peppered moths.

...eppered moths were never claimed as evidence of a new species. They show evolutionary change as a result of selection. Creationists themselves admit such microevolution is a reality. Peppered moths show microevolution and one of its causes. Links: Tamzek, Nic, 2002. Icon of obfuscation: Jonat...

If evolution proceeds via the accumulation of small steps, we should see a smooth continuum of creatures across the fossil record. Instead, we see long periods where species do not change, and there are gaps between the changes.

...inction). It should be noted that even Darwin did not expect the rate of evolutionary change to be constant. [N]atural selection will generally act very slowly, only at long intervals of time, and only on a few of the inhabitants of the same region. I further believe that these slow, intermit...

Darwin, C. 1872. The Origin of Species , 6th Edition. Senate, London. http://www.literature.org/authors/darwin-charles/the-origin-of-species-6th-edition/index.html Previous Claim: CC200.1 | List of Claims | Next Claim: C...

The second law of thermodynamics says that everything tends toward disorder, making evolutionary development impossible.

...nd heat (with higher entropy) radiates off. This flow of energy, and the change in entropy that accompanies it, can and will power local decreases in entropy on earth. entropy is not the same as disorder. Sometimes the two correspond, but sometimes order increases as entropy increases. (Arand...

Aranda-Espinoza, H., Y. Chen, N. Dan, T. C. Lubensky, P. Nelson, L. Ramos and D. A. Weitz, 1999. Electrostatic repulsion of positively charged vesicles and negatively charged objects. Science 285: 394-397. Brooks, D. R. ...

Parasites are degenerate forms of free-living or mutualistic organisms. They became parasites when something went wrong as a result of the Fall. For example, the parasite came to invade the wrong host or the wrong organ within the host, or it changed to harm the host where it did not before.

...me. The virulence of a pathogen is generally predictable on the basis of evolutionary principles. For example, parasites are less virulent at low host population densities where the parasites risk destroying available hosts and themselves with them (Nesse and Williams 1994, 57-61; Zimmer 2000...

Eberhard, William G., 2000. Spider manipulation by a wasp larva. Nature 406: 255-256. Hajek, A. E. and R. J. St. Leger, 1994. Interactions between fungal pathogens and insect hosts. Annual Review of Entomology 39: 293-32...

...any specific gradualistic explanatory mechanisms for the origin and evolution of macroevolutionary adaptations. This is why scientists call universal common descent the "fact of evolution". As explained in the introduction, none of the predictions directly address how macroevolution has occurred; nevertheless, the validity of the macroevolution...

...ectly address how macroevolution has occurred; nevertheless, the validity of the macroevolutionary conclusion does not depend on whether Darwinism, Lamarckism (i.e. inheritance of acquired characaters), or something else is the true mechanism of adaptive evolutionary change. The macroevolutionary conclusion stands, regardless. This point has an...

...ritance of acquired characaters), or something else is the true mechanism of adaptive evolutionary change. The macroevolutionary conclusion stands, regardless. This point has an interesting parallel in physics. Newton's theory of universal gravitation describes a phenomenon of matter, just as macroevolution describes a phenomenon of life. The t...

...otypic change follows genetic change. This obviously should be one of the areas where evolutionary change is seen, and genetic change is truly the most important for understanding evolutionary processes. Confirmation: Extremely extensive genetic change has been observed, both in the lab and in the wild. We have seen genomes irreversibly and her...

...nary change is seen, and genetic change is truly the most important for understanding evolutionary processes. Confirmation: Extremely extensive genetic change has been observed, both in the lab and in the wild. We have seen genomes irreversibly and heritably altered by numerous phenomena, including gene flow, random genetic drift, natural selec...

...species. Macroevolution requires that organisms' morphologies have changed throughout evolutionary history; thus, we should observe morphological change and variation in modern populations. Confirmation: There have been numerous observations of morphological change in populations of organisms ( Endler 1986 ). Examples are the change in color of...

...the biological sciences, in fact embraces a plurality of theories and hypotheses. In evolutionary debates one is apt to hear evolution roughly parceled between the terms "microevolution" and "macroevolution". Microevolution, or change beneath the species level, may be thought of as relatively small scale change in the functional and genetic co...

...volution is evolution on the "grand scale" resulting in the origin of higher taxa. In evolutionary theory, macroevolution involves common ancestry, descent with modification, speciation, the genealogical relatedness of all life, transformation of species, and large scale functional and structural changes of populations through time, all at or a...

...cestry entails the transformation of one species into another and, consequently, macroevolutionary history and processes involving the origin of higher taxa. Because it is so well supported scientifically, common descent is often called the " fact of evolution " by biologists. For these reasons, proponents of special creation are especially hos...

...ars ago. And at that time, according to Dr. Preston Cloud, one of the world's leading evolutionary geologists, there were no undoubted precambrian fossils. [ crowd noise ] That's what he said. [ More crowd noise ] And I quoted, many years ago, Dr. Cloud to that effect. Because he said, first of all, you would not know, you could not establish w...

...ntists and creationists deal with error. Duane Gish and Creationism at Rutgers This exchange between Richard Trott and Duane Gish appeared in a student newspaper at Rutgers University. Here is an exercise for anyone who wants to claim that creationists have any interest in giving honest information to people: Call the ICR's publishing house (Ma...

...have three lies. That is their scientific publication. [ The diagram appears to be unchanged in the current copy. ] We turn now to page 9. And we read, "not a single indisputable multicellular fossil has been found anywhere in the world in a rock supposedly older than Cambrian rocks." That is a lie. But what (?) we see is a repetition of these...

..."straw man", implying that his "catastrophist" view of geology was something new and revolutionary in the geologic world, and that the "uniformitarian" (ie, mainstream) geologists totally ignore the role of volcanoes and other catastrophic events in the shaping the earth. One of our group leaders, a Ph.D. paleontologist, took Austin to task for...

...he St. Helen's eruption to convince us that catastrophes can cause rapid, large-scale changes on the earth's surface. Austin said that he had once been an evolutionist, but that his observations of the Mt. St. Helens eruption had converted him to catastrophism and creationism. (More about that later). He set up a "straw man", implying that his...

...alleges that he was responsible for the "conclusive demolition of the then-prevalent evolutionary concept of spontaneous generation," and that "in his lifetime he was the object of intense opposition by almost the entire biological establishment because of his own opposition to spontaneous generation and to Darwinism. It was only his persisten...

...1800's. However, there is no evidence that spontaneous generation was a specifically evolutionary concept; it was simply the best explanation of a phenomenon that scientists had until Pasteur's experiments. There is also no evidence that Pasteur "was the object of intense opposition by almost the entire biological establishment because of his...

...rmation did not come directly out of Genesis , and his views on the fixity of species changed with time. Linneaus believed that fossils were not products of a supernatural flood, but formed naturally in the open ocean. He proposed a unique process to construct the sedimentary limestone and shale layers: large mats of sargasso in the ocean preve...

...on rate: the above-cited reference indicates that rate would have been greater in the evolutionary past, presumably as a result of the lack of plant cover to retard erosion. Radioactivity in Geology (Eric M. Durrance, John Wiley, no earlier than 1977), when dealing with another subject, says the rate was lower in the past, but gives no details...

...hich I did not verify, gave the actual rate as perhaps 100 times greater, which would change 1 million to 10,000.) The assumption, as stated by Eric Durrance (see above), is that the helium is light enough to escape into space. However, Dr. Cook gives a formula for the escape rate as a function of temperature, and shows that, at a temperature w...

Evolutionary and Geological Timelines Niel Brandt Evolutionary Timeline Time (Myr ago) Event 4600 Formation of the approximately homogeneous solid Earth by planetesimal accretion 4300 Melting of the Earth due to radioactive and gravitational heating which lead...

Evolutionary and Geological Timelines Niel Brandt Evolutionary Timeline Time (Myr ago) Event 4600 Formation of the approximately homogeneous solid Earth by planetesimal accretion 4300 Melting of the Earth due to radioactive and gravitational heating which leads to its differentiated interior structure as well...

...en molecules into the atmosphere and steadily works to strengthen the ozone layer and change the Earth's chemically reducing atmosphere into a chemically oxidizing one 2400 Rise in the concentration of oxygen molecules stops the deposition of uraninites (since they are soluble when combined with oxygen) and starts the deposition of banded iron...