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Evolution leaves lots of things unexplained, such as gravity, the origin of life, biological complexity, and morals.

No theory explains everything, and evolution makes no pretense of being different. Evolution does not even apply to some areas, such as cosmology and physics. In biology, evolution is broadly applicable, and it explains ...

...r macroevolution: The scientific case for common descent. http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/comdesc/ Previous Claim: CA100 | List of Claims | Next Claim: CA110 created 2003-11-7

Charles Darwin became chronically ill shortly after returning from his voyage on the Beagle , making him an invalid for much of his life. His symptoms -- depression, vomiting, palpitations, etc. -- match no organic illness and appear to be psychogenic (originating in his mind). The cause of this illness could be anxiety that his theory was wrong or guilt from rejecting God.

...ences of the above organic illnesses. For example, a relatively secluded lifestyle and occasional depression are normal reactions to a chronic illness. Other symptoms, such as anxiety upon leaving home on the Beagle , may be entirely normal. The timing of his symptoms does not fit all that we...

Alder, J., R. Colp Jr., G. M. FitzGibbon, A. G. Gordon, T. J. Barloon, and R. Noyes Jr. 1997. The dueling diagnoses of Darwin. Journal of the American Medical Association 277: 1275-1277. Alder, S. 1959. Darwin's illness....

If man arose by chance, life would have no purpose or meaning.

...life has purpose. Nothing else is relevant. Purpose is not determined by origins. Things can have purpose even if their origin is due to chance. The North Star, for example, came to its position by chance, but people still find a purpose for it. Like most people, virtually all creationists al...

Even the simplest, most primitive forms of life -- bacteria -- are incredibly complex, much too complex to have arisen by chance.

...dy claims the first life arose by chance. To jump from the fact that the origin is unknown to the conclusion that it could not have happened naturally is the argument from incredulity . Links: Musgrave, Ian. 1998. Lies, damned lies, statistics, and probability of abiogenesis calculations. htt...

Sievers, D. and G. von Kiedrowski. 1994. Self-replication of complementary nucleotide-based oligomers. Nature 369: 221-224. Previous Claim: CB010 | List of Claims | Next Claim: CB010.2 created 2001-2-18, modified 2003-10...

The most primitive cells are too complex to have come together by chance. (See also Probability of abiogenesis .)

...is an example of the argument from incredulity . Nobody denies that the origin of life is an extremely difficult problem. That it has not been solved, though, does not mean it is impossible. In fact, there has been much work in this area, leading to several possible origins for life on earth...

...com/nsu/010308/010308-5.html Cairn-Smith, A. G. 1985. Seven Clues to the Origin of Life , Cambridge University Press. de Duve, Christian. 1995a. The beginnings of life on earth. American Scientist 83: 428-437. http://www.americanscientist.org/template/AssetDetail/assetid/21438?fulltext=true F...

New claims are linked in bold red . Updates to previously existing files are regular links. 2007-02-20 CB360.1 : The human appendix is functional, not vestigial. 2007-02-18 CB921.1 : What use is half an eye? 2006-12-05 CC300 : The Cambrian explosion shows all kinds of life appearing suddenly. 2006-11-05 CC200 : Transitional fossils are lacking. 2006-11-02 CB300 : Complex organs couldn't have evolved. 2006-10-30 CA510.1 : Problems with evolution are evidence for creation. 2006-09-12 CB200.1.1 : The flagellum has 30 or so unique (non-homologous) proteins. 2006-09-07 CB910 : No new species have been observed. 2006-09-07 CB731 : Finger development disproves birds descended from dinosaurs. 2006-09-06 CA005 : Evolution is racist. 2006-08-29 CC202 : Transitional fossils do not show direct ancestry. 2006-08-29 CA320.3 : Darwinists had Dembski removed from his position at Baylor. 2006-08-04 CA341 : Evolutionists have not met Hovind's challenge to prove evolution. 2006-08-04 CA006.2 : Stalin's policies were influenced by Darwin. 2006-07-24 CH102.1 : Genesis must be literal; it is straightforward narrative. 2006-07-15 CC200 : Transitional fossils are lacking. 2006-06-28 CC371.1 : Soft tissues from a Tyrannosaurus bone indicate recent burial. 2006-06-28 CA343 : Evolutionists refuse Mastropaolo's "Life Science Prize" challenge. 2006-06-08 CB121 : The cost of natural selection is prohibitive (Haldane's dilemma). 2006-05-30 CB150 : Functional genetic sequences are too rare to evolve from one to another. 2006-05-12 CD701 : The earth's magnetic field is decaying, indicating a young earth. 2006-04-23 CB805 : Evolution predicts a continuum of organisms, not discrete kinds. 2006-04-07 CA301.1 : Naturalistic science will miss a supernatural explanation. 2006-04-05 CB921.1 : What use is half an eye? 2006-03-31 CB620 : Human population growth indicates a young earth. 2006-03-03 CA041.1 : Federal law (Santorum Amendment) supports teaching alternatives. 2006-02-25 CC216.1 : There are gaps between land mammals and whales. 2006-02-23 CI131 : Every machine's origin, where determinable, is by intelligent agency. 2006-02-06 CE412 : Gravitational time dilation made distant clocks run faster. 2006-02-02 CD016 : The U-Th-Pb method, properly corrected for neutron capture, gives recent dates. 2006-01-31 CH110 : Prophecies prove the accuracy of the Bible. 2006-01-26 CE420 : The big bang theory is wrong. 2006-01-20 CD410 : World War II airplanes are now beneath thousands of "annual" ice layers. 2006-01-13 CF001.2 : The second law of thermodynamics, and the trend to disorder, is universal. 2006-01-13 CF001.1 : Systems left to themselves invariably tend toward disorder. 2006-01-05 CI001.4 : Intelligent design has been published in peer-reviewed journals. 2006-01-03 CD011.1 : Variable C-14/C-12 ratio invalidates C-14 dating. 2005-12-14 CB010.2 : First cells could not come together by chance. 2005-12-07 CI001.2 : Intelligent design is not creationism. 2005-12-01 CI190 : SETI researchers expect that they can detect design. 2005-11-25 CA114 : Many famous scientists were creationists. 2005-11-24 CA602 : Evolution is atheistic. 2005-11-22 CA114.4 : Babbage was a creationist. 2005-11-19 CA114.4 : Babbage was a creationist. 2005-11-18 CH581 : The Grand Canyon was carved by retreating Flood waters. 2005-11-17 CB921.2 : What use is half a wing? 2005-11-05 CA211.1 : Karl Popper said Darwinism is not testable. 2005-11-04 CB910 : No new species have been observed. 2005-11-03 CA210 : Evolution does not make predictions. 2005-11-01 CB921.2 : What use is half a wing? 2005-10-31 CF001.3 : Instructions are necessary to produce order. 2005-10-14 CI001.1 : Intelligent design theory is not religious. 2005-10-14 CA041.1 : Federal law (Santorum Amendment) supports teaching alternatives. 2005-10-14 CA041 : Teach the controversy. 2005-10-07 CI401 : The methodology of science rules out even considering design. 2005-10-07 CA001.1 : Crime rates etc. have increased since evolution began to be taught. 2005-10-05 CG041 : Agriculture is too recent. 2005-10-05 CG040 : Written history is too short. 2005-10-05 CB928.2 : Humans have stopped evolving. 2005-10-05 CB144 : Human and chimp genomes differ by more than one percent. 2005-10-03 CD102.1 : Out-of-order strata occur at the Lewis Overthrust. 2005-09-24 CH102.5 : God's promise of no more floods fails if Noah's flood was local. 2005-09-24 CC381 : There are too few Stone-Age remains for a long history of humanity. 2005-09-24 CB930.4 : A pterodactyl was found alive in Jurassic limestone. 2005-09-24 CB301 : The eye is too complex to have evolved. 2005-09-24 CB200.2 : Blood clotting is irreducibly complex. 2005-09-24 CA115.1 : Design arguments converted atheist Anthony Flew to theism. 2005-09-21 CA602 : Evolution is atheistic. 2005-09-14 CB035.2 : Earth's early atmosphere had no reducing gases. 2005-08-30 CB010.2 : First cells could not come together by chance. 2005-08-24 CI190 : SETI researchers expect that they can detect design. 2005-08-16 CA041 : Teach the controversy. 2005-08-13 CA008 : Evolution encourages promiscuity and lust. 2005-08-12 CE420 : The big bang theory is wrong. 2005-08-09 CC216.1 : There are gaps between land mammals and whales. 2005-08-05 CI301 : The cosmos is fine-tuned to permit human life. 2005-08-02 CA114.2 : Linnaeus was a creationist. 2005-08-02 CA111.1 : Over 300 scientists express skepticism of Darwinism. 2005-07-31 CF011 : Evolutionary algorithms smuggle in design in the fitness function. 2005-07-18 CB922 : No two-celled life exists intermediate between one- and multicelled. 2005-07-13 CH101.1 : If part of the Bible is wrong, none of it can be trusted. 2005-07-04 CA602 : Evolution is atheistic. 2005-07-03 CH110 : Prophecies prove the accuracy of the Bible. 2005-07-01 CA006.1 : Hitler based his views on Darwinism. 2005-06-29 CD031 : KBS Tuff shows the flaws of radiometric dating. 2005-06-29 CB751 : Bilateral symmetry is improbable under evolution. 2005-06-28 CB200.4 : The immune system is irreducibly complex. 2005-06-18 CB822 : Evolution's tree-like pattern is discredited. 2005-06-18 CB035.2 : Earth's early atmosphere had no reducing gases. 2005-06-18 CB035 : Miller's experiments had an invalid assumption of the type of atmosphere. 2005-06-16 CG202.2 : The Chinese Hihking flood myth is very like the story of Noah. 2005-06-16 CG202.1 : The Miao flood myth is very like the story of Noah. 2005-06-16 CA341 : Evolutionists have not met Hovind's challenge to prove evolution. 2005-06-05 CB701 : Haeckel falsified his embryo pictures. 2005-05-26 CB952 : The evolution of specialized diets would not be adaptive. 2005-05-26 CB811 : Homologous structures are not produced by homologous genes. 2005-05-26 CA602 : Evolution is atheistic. 2005-05-25 CG201 : There are flood myths from all over the world. 2005-05-16 CA006.1 : Hitler based his views on Darwinism. 2005-05-12 CC373 : Jurassic shells from mud springs are remarkably preserved.

According to the theory of evolution, life evolved with different forms branching from a common ancestor. Recent scientific work contradicts this expectation. Molecular data indicate that the tree of life should be uprooted and discredits the homology concept.

...ury 2001). Links: Tamzek, Nic. 2002. Icon of obfuscation. http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/wells/iconob.html#Treeoflife

Daubin, V., N. A. Moran and H. Ochman. 2003. Phylogenetics and the cohesion of bacterial genomes. Science 301: 829-832. See also: Pennisi, E., 2003. Passages found through labyrinth of bacterial evolution. Science 301: 7...

According to standard models of the sun, the sun's luminosity has increased by 40 percent since the origin of the earth (the "faint young sun paradox"). This would mean that the early earth could not have supported life. Thus an old earth is impossible; the earth must be young.

...drastic as it sounds. Much of the change would have occurred before the origin of life; the luminosity increase since the origin of life is about 25 percent. And this translates to a 7 percent increase in temperature when the earth's heat outflow is taken into account. The 7 percent change d...

...biogenesis is under constant attack from creationists, who continually claim that the origin of life by natural processes is so unlikely as to be, for all practical purposes, impossible. Following are some articles that challenge this claim and demonstrate the fundamental misconception at the core of the creationists' arguments. Lies, Damned Li...

...ows why the creationists' probability calculations do not matter. Borel's Law and the Origin of Many Creationist Probability Assertions Creationists have asserted that a statistical principle called "Borel's Law" mathematically demonstrates that abiogenesis is impossible. This article explains what Borel's Law is and shows that Borel himself cl...

...el himself clearly understood that his law was not relevant to the probability of the origin of life. Spontaneous Generation and the Origin of Life Creationists often claim that Louis Pasteur disproved spontaneous generation and hence any naturalistic origin of life. This article shows what Pasteur really demonstrated and gives a history of the...

...ns of prebiotic evolution. Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing . Alberti, S. 1997 . The origin of the genetic code and protein synthesis. Journal of Molecular Evolution 45 (4):352­8. Bada, J. L. 1995 . Origins of homochirality. Nature 374 (6523):594­5. Baltscheffsky, H., C. Blomberg, H. Liljenstrom, B. I. Lindahl, and P. Arhem. 1997. On the origi...

...nd protein synthesis. Journal of Molecular Evolution 45 (4):352­8. Bada, J. L. 1995 . Origins of homochirality. Nature 374 (6523):594­5. Baltscheffsky, H., C. Blomberg, H. Liljenstrom, B. I. Lindahl, and P. Arhem. 1997. On the origin and evolution of life: an introduction. Journal of Theoretical Biology 187 (4):453­9. Bernal, John Desmond. 1967...

...scheffsky, H., C. Blomberg, H. Liljenstrom, B. I. Lindahl, and P. Arhem. 1997. On the origin and evolution of life: an introduction. Journal of Theoretical Biology 187 (4):453­9. Bernal, John Desmond. 1967 . The origin of life . London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. Bohler, C., P. E. Nielsen, and L. E. Orgel. 1995 . Template switching between PNA and...

The Origin of Life by Albrecht Moritz Copyright 2010 [Posted October 31, 2006] Update July 1, 2010 Abstract Even the simplest currently living cells contain hundreds of proteins most of which are essential to their functioning. Yet such complexity cannot have stoo...

...hich are essential to their functioning. Yet such complexity cannot have stood at the origin of life. Based on research in the field it is proposed here how, once a self-replicating genetic molecule existed, life might have started and gradual evolution of complexity was made possible in contrast to the sudden appearance of complexity that crea...

...rth are reviewed, and gene-first and metabolism-first models are discussed. While the origin of the homochirality of amino acids and sugars has been a puzzling problem for decades, recent findings provide plausible explanations. Other Links: Origin of Life Wikipedia's article on the Origin of Life. RNA World hypothesis Wikipedia's article on th...

Feedback Compilation Feedback for April 2004 Selected reader letters and TalkOrigins responses from April 2004. Previous Archive Year Index Next Entry 1 Feedback Letter From In Love With The Creator Comment Dear talkorgins, Why do you make it seem as if CREATION is such a far-fetched Truth? Let me run something by you really quick. Can...

...ly or symbolically. Evolutionary argument is about detailing a physical model for the origins of living diversity. The religious aspects only crop up only in response to fundamentalist objections; and even then most of the time we are just correcting egregious errors and confusions on empirical facts. There is a vast flood of material being pub...

...lutionary biologist at Brock University, asked her third-year students to explain the origins of life on Earth as part of a written exam. For five students, the answer began with the words, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." "I was so surprised. Here I am teaching a third-year course on *evolution*, and these students we...

Feedback Compilation Feedback for April 2006 Selected reader letters and TalkOrigins responses from April 2006. Previous Archive Year Index Next Entry 1 Feedback Letter From jonathan p decker Comment I found an excellent website that discusses horse evolution for the lay person. It is on the Florida Museum of Natural History's website...

...ations, but the information to produce other breeds already existed in the DNA of the original dog pair. Many generations will produce only other dogs, and not another type of creature. This is exactly as Genesis 1 states, and holds true for all life from bacteria to plants to monkeys to humans. Finally, a five year-old can make a sand castle;...

...of difference. This means there is a continual source of new variation not present in original DNA. For dogs, new breeds are obtained by a combination of three methods ( offsite link ): limiting the ancestral variety to emphasize desired traits, cross breeding to bring traits from one breed into another, and breeding from dogs that have some ne...

Feedback Compilation Feedback for August 2004 Selected reader letters and TalkOrigins responses from August 2004. Previous Archive Year Index Next Entry 1 Feedback Letter From Matt Comment I have to commend your excellent website. I am a confirmed evolutionist and always will be with resources like this available. I have to ask though:...

...ays try to recall that ignorance is always reborn). Regarding your question about the origin of life, the best single reference for general readers I have is Iris Fry, "The Emergence of Life on Earth: A Historical and Scientific Overview" 2000:Rutgers University Press. Although this is only 4 years old, it is already due for revision to reflect...

...ates that it was genereally reducing, but not to the same extent as the gasses in the original Miller/Urey experiment. However, there is additional evidence of Early Archaen highly reduced "oasis" and even for oxic "oasis." Consider that even today there are highly reduced locations on Earth such as methane seeps, hydrogen sulfide seeps, and hy...

Feedback Compilation Feedback for August 2005 Selected reader letters and TalkOrigins responses from August 2005. Previous Archive Year Index Next Entry 1 Feedback Letter From Max Comment I always read the feedback every month and hear that you get about 500 emails each month from IDist, creationist, ignoramist, and christians. I would...

...ys can put all the best or worst or funniest feedbacks together and post them in talk origins. I love those guys. I know there isnt much room in the feedback for all the crazy emails but can you put them in a separate feedback. Response From John Wilkins Response Hmmm. I think that it would be pretty boring - almost all of these fall into one o...

...fe forms. Have scientists EVER formed life from non-living matter? 2. What were these origingal "building blocks". How sure are scientists that these were the original? 3. In your opinion, how much longer before we do establish life in a lifeless environment? Thank you and please continue your awesome work!! Response From Chris Ho-Stuart Respon...

Feedback Compilation Feedback for August 2006 Selected reader letters and TalkOrigins responses from August 2006. Previous Archive Year Index Next Entry 1 Feedback Letter From Teresa Beck Comment The very fact that the purpose of your site is to discredit "anti-evolutionists" makes me suspect that you're unreasonably biased against Chri...

...es me suspect that you're unreasonably biased against Christians who believe that the origin of life is God. Your calling creationists "anti-evolutionists" says that you are seeking to bring about a desired mindset, which is akin to the pro-abortionists calling the pro-lifers "anti-choice." Creationists, as far as I can tell, are pro-God and ar...

...t facts to suit their own purposes. Why should you care what people believe about the origin of life? I hear over and over that it is because the U.S. is behind other countries in science education. Is that deficit because of a lack of belief in evolution concerning origins? I think not. I'm a teacher in the public school system, and I can assu...