Introductory:
Scientists Speak about Evolution —
2
There are scientists all over the world who know that
evolutionary theory is bankrupt. Such men as *Charles Darwin,
*Thomas and *Julian Huxley, and *Steven Jay Gould have admitted
it. But you will not find these statements in the popular press.
Such admissions are only made to fellow professionals.
An asterisk ( * ) by a name indicates that
person is not known to be a creationist. Of over 4,000 quotations
in the set of books this Encyclopedia is
based on ,
only 164 statements are by creationists. (see Book Store)
"Paleontologists [fossil experts] have paid an exorbitant
price for Darwin's argument. We fancy ourselves as the only true
students of life's history, yet to preserve our favored account
of evolution by natural selection we view our data as so bad that
we almost never see the very process we profess to study."*Steven
Jay Gould, The Panda's Thumb (1982), pp. 181-182 [Harvard
professor and the leading evolutionary spokesman of the latter
half of the twentieth century].
"The problem of the origin of species has not advanced in
the last 150 years. One hundred and fifty years have already
passed during which it has been said that the evolution of the
species is a fact but, without giving real proofs of it and
without even a principle of explaining it. During the last one
hundred and fifty years of research that has been carried out
along this line [in order to prove the theory], there has been no
discovery of anything. It is simply a repetition in different
ways of what Darwin said in 1859. This lack of results is
unforgivable in a day when molecular biology has really opened
the veil covering the mystery of reproduction and heredity . .
"Finally, there is only one attitude which is possible as
I have just shown: It consists in affirming that intelligence
comes before life. Many people will say this is not science, it
is philosophy. The only thing I am interested in is fact, and
this conclusion comes out of an analysis and observation of the
facts."*G. Salet, Hasard et Certitude: Le
Transformisme devant la Biologie Actuelle (1973), p. 331.
"The theories of evolution, with which our studious youth
have been deceived, constitute actually a dogma that all the
world continues to teach; but each, in his specialty, the
zoologist or the botanist, ascertains that none of the
explanations furnished is adequate . . It results from this
summary, that the theory of evolution is impossible."*P. Lemoine, "Introduction: De L' Evolution?" Encyclopedie
Francaise, Vol. 5 (1937), p. 6.
"Darwinism is a creed not only with scientists committed
to document the all-purpose role of natural selection. It is a
creed with masses of people who have at best a vague notion of
the mechanism of evolution as proposed by Darwin, let alone as
further complicated by his successors. Clearly, the appeal cannot
be that of a scientific truth but of a philosophical belief which
is not difficult to identify. Darwinism is a belief in the
meaninglessness of existence."*R. Kirk, "The
Rediscovery of Creation," in National Review, (May 27,
1983), p. 641.
"I have always been slightly suspicious of the theory of
evolution because of its ability to account for any property of
living beings (the long neck of the giraffe, for example). I have
therefore tried to see whether biological discoveries over the
last thirty years or so fit in with Darwin's theory. I do not
think that they do. To my mind, the theory does not stand up at
all."*H. Lipson, "A Physicist Looks at
Evolution," Physic Bulletin, 31 (1980), p. 138.
"Evolution is baseless and quite incredible."*John
Ambrose Fleming, President, British Association for Advancement
of Science, in "The Unleashing of Evolutionary Thought."
"Unfortunately, in the field of evolution most
explanations are not good. As a matter of fact, they hardly
qualify as explanations at all; they are suggestions, hunches,
pipe dreams, hardly worthy of being called hypotheses."*Norman
Macbeth, Darwin Retried (1971), p. 147.
"It is not the duty of science to defend the theory of
evolution, and stick by it to the bitter endno matter which
illogical and unsupported conclusions it offers. On the contrary,
it is expected that scientists recognize the patently obvious
impossibility of Darwin's pronouncements and predictions . .
Let's cut the umbilical cord that tied us down to Darwin for such
a long time. It is choking us and holding us back."I.L.
Cohen, Darwin Was Wrong: A Study in Probabilities (1985).
"This general tendency to eliminate, by means of
unverifiable speculations, the limits of the categories Nature
presents to us, is the inheritance of biology from The Origin
of Species. To establish the continuity required by theory,
historical arguments are invoked, even though historical evidence
is lacking. Thus are engendered those fragile towers of
hypothesis based on hypothesis, where fact and fiction
intermingle in an inextricable confusion."*W.R.
Thompson, "Introduction," to Everyman's Library issue
of *Charles Darwin's, Origin of Species (1956 edition).
" `Scientists who go about teaching that evolution is a
fact of life are great con men, and the story they are telling
may be the greatest hoax ever. In explaining evolution we do not
have one iota of fact.' A tangled mishmash of guessing games and
figure juggling [Tahmisian called it]."*The Fresno
Bee, August 20, 1959, p. 1-B [quoting T.N. Tahmisian,
physiologist for the Atomic Energy Commission].
" `The theory [of evolution] is a scientific mistake.'
"*Louis Agassiz, quoted in H. Enoch, Evolution or
Creation, (1966), p. 139. [Agassiz was a Harvard University
professor and the pioneer in glaciation.]
"[In Darwin's writings] possibilities were assumed to add
up to probability, and probabilities then were promoted to
certitudes."*Agassiz, op. cit., p. 335.
"The origin of all diversity among living beings remains
a mystery as totally unexplained as if the book of Mr. Darwin had
never been written, for no theory unsupported by fact, however
plausible it may appear, can be admitted in science."L.
Agassiz on the Origin of Species, American Journal of Science, 30
(1860), p. 154. [Darwin's book was published in 1859.]
"[Darwin could] summon up enough general, vague and
conjectural reasons to account for this fact, and if these were
not taken seriously, he could come up with a different, but
equally general, vague and conjectural set of reasons."*Gertrude
Himmelfarb, Darwin and Darwinian Revolution (1968), p. 319.
"Ultimately the Darwinian theory of evolution is no more
nor less than the great cosmogenic myth of the twentieth century
. . the origin of life and of new beings on earth is still
largely as enigmatic as when Darwin set sail on the [ship] Beagle."*Michael
Denton, Evolution: A Theory in Crisis (1986), p. 358.
"It has been estimated that no fewer than 800 phrases in
the subjunctive mood (such as `Let us assume,' or `We
may well suppose,' etc.) are to be found between the covers
of Darwin's Origin of Species alone."L.
Merson Davies [British scientist], Modern Science (1953), p. 7.
"I can envision observations and experiments that would
disprove any evolutionary theory I know."*Stephen
Jay Gould, "Evolution as Fact and Theory," Discover
2(5):34-37 (1981).
"Unfortunately for Darwin's future reputation, his life
was spent on the problem of evolution which is deductive by
nature . . It is absurd to expect that many facts will not always
be irreconcilable with any theory of evolution and, today, every
one of his theories is contradicted by facts."*P.T.
Mora, The Dogma of Evolution, p. 194.
"Darwinism is a creed not only with scientists committed
to document the all-purpose role of natural selection. It is a
creed with masses of people who have, at best, a vague notion of
the mechanism of evolution as proposed by Darwin, let alone as
further complicated by his successors."*S. Jaki,
Cosmos and Creator (1982).
"In essence, we contend that neo-Darwinism is a theory of
differential survival and not one of origin . .
"We are certainly not arguing here that differential
survival of whole organisms does not occur. This must inevitably
happen [i.e. some species become extinct]. The question that we
must ask is, does this represent the controlling dynamic of
organic evolution? Cannot a similar argument be equally
well-constructed to `explain' any frequency distribution? For
example, consider rocks which vary in hardness and also persist
through time. Clearly the harder rocks are better `adapted' to
survive harsh climatic conditions. As Lewontin points out, a
similar story can be told about political parties, rumors, jokes,
stars, and discarded soft drink containers."*A.J.
Hughes and *D. Lambert, "Functionalism, Structuralism, `Ways
of Seeing,' " Journal of Theoretical Biology, 787 (1984),
pp. 796-797.
"Biologists have indeed built their advances in
evolutionary theory on the Darwinian foundation, not realizing
that the foundation is about to topple because of Darwin's three
mistakes.
"George Bernard Shaw wisecracked once that Darwin had the
luck to please everybody who had an axe to grind. Well, I also
have an axe to grind, but I am not pleased. We have suffered
through two world wars and are threatened by an Armageddon. We
have had enough of the Darwinian fallacy."*Kenneth
Hsu, "Reply," Geology, 15 (1987), p. 177.
"Therefore, a grotesque account of a period some
thousands of years ago is taken seriously though it be built by
piling special assumptions on special assumptions, ad hoc
hypothesis [invented for a purpose] on ad hoc hypothesis,
and tearing apart the fabric of science whenever it appears
convenient. The result is a fantasia which is neither history nor
science."*James Conant [chemist and former
president, Harvard University], quoted in Origins Research, Vol.
5, No. 2, 1982, p. 2.
"It is inherent in any definition of science that
statements that cannot be checked by observation are not really
saying anythingor at least they are not science." *George
G. Simpson, "The Nonprevalence of Humanoids," in
Science, 143 (1964) p. 770.
"In accepting evolution as fact, how many biologists
pause to reflect that science is built upon theories that have
been proved by experiment to be correct or remember that the
theory of animal evolution has never been thus approved."*L.H.
Matthews, "Introduction," Origin of Species, Charles
Darwin (1971 edition).
"Present-day ultra-Darwinism, which is so sure of itself,
impresses incompletely informed biologists, misleads them, and
inspires fallacious interpretations . .
"Through use and abuse of hidden postulates, of bold,
often ill-founded extrapolations, a pseudoscience has been
created. It is taking root in the very heart of biology and is
leading astray many biochemists and biologists, who sincerely
believe that the accuracy of fundamental concepts has been
demonstrated, which is not the case."*Pierre P. de Grasse, The Evolution of Living Organisms (1977), p. 202.
"The over-riding supremacy of the myth [of evolution] has
created a widespread illusion that the theory of evolution was
all but proved one hundred years ago and that all subsequent
biological researchpaleontological, zoological and in the
newer branches of genetics and molecular biologyhas
provided ever-increasing evidence for Darwinian ideas. Nothing
could be further from the truth.
[In a letter to Asa Gray, a Harvard professor of biology,
Darwin wrote:] "I am quite conscious that my speculations
run quite beyond the bounds of true science."*Charles
Darwin, quoted in *N.C. Gillespie, Charles Darwin and the Problem
of Creation (1979), p. 2 [University of Chicago book].
"The fact is that the evidence was so patchy one hundred
years ago that even Darwin himself had increasing doubts as to
the validity of his views, and the only aspect of his theory
which has received any support over the past century is where it
applies to microevolutionary phenomena. His general theory, that
all life on earth had originated and evolved by a gradual
successive accumulation of fortuitous mutations, is still, as it
was in Darwin's time, a highly speculative hypothesis entirely
without direct factual support and very far from that
self-evident axiom some of its more aggressive advocates would
have us believe."*Michael Denton, Evolution: A
Theory in Crisis (1986), p. 77.
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