.
-Neuron:.consisting
of the nerve cell body and all its processes ...more
-one is:.Language
& Problems of Knowledge: The Managua Lectures, (1987) M I T Press.
-Parasitic
dodder:.(Cuscuta
epithymum): grows over other plants, extracting all its food from them
through specially designed attachments which can penetrate the cells of
its host. The diversity God built into creation is astounding!
-Peppered
Moths:.excerpts
from an article in.The
Telegraph, London, England, as appeared in.The
Calgary Herald, March 21, 1999, page D3: "Evolution experts are quietly
admitting that one of their most cherished examples of Charles Darwin's
theory, the rise and fall of the peppered moth, is based on a series of
scientific blunders. Experiments using the moth in the 1950s and long believed
to prove the truth of natural selection are now thought to be worthless,
having been designed to come up with the right answer. Scientists now admit
that they do not know the real explanation for the fate of Biston betularia,
whose story is recounted in almost every textbook on evolution.
According to the standard
account, only one version of Biston existed before the mid 19th century;
a white variety peppered with black spots.
During the Industrial Revolution
its numbers plummeted because pollution made it an easy prey for birds
as (this mostly white moth) rested on the blackened (from pollution) trunks
of trees. It its place (allegedly
having adapted to its environment), a mutant, pitch black form of the peppered
moth began to thrive, as it could rest on tree trunks without fear of being
eaten. Precisely as predicted by Darwin's theory of natural selection,
this 'fitter' mutant
moth rapidly outnumbered the white version, reaching 100 per cent levels
in some industrial areas.
However, in the 1950s, researchers
discovered a resurgence
of the white variety, prompting the idea that Darwin had struck again through
the Clean Air Acts, which had led to the return of unpolluted trees. These
allowed the white moths to regain their Darwinian ascendancy,
while the numbers of the now all to visible black variety fell.
This neat example of Darwinian
evolution in action has been thought to be supported by solid evidence
in the form of experiments begun in the 1950s by the late Oxford University
scientist Dr. Bernard Kettlewell. But now, evolution experts are pointing
to blunders in Kettlewell's research that undermine the theory about the
rise and fall of Biston.
Scientists are beginning
to concede that
the white variety
flourished
again well before the return of pollution free trees, while the black type
continued to thrive in areas unaffected by industry.
Experiments have also shown
that neither moth chooses resting places best suited to its camouflage.
Most damning of all, despite
40 years of effort, scientists have seen only two moths resting on trees
– the key element of the standard story and Kettlewell's experiments.
According to Dr. Michael
Majerus, an expert on the moth at the University of Cambridge, Kettlewell
tried to confirm the standard story simply by pinning dead moths on to
parts of the trees where they could be seen easily by birds.
Majerus said "He stuck them
in low branches because he wanted to sit in his hide and watch them being
eaten. They actually seem to rest in the shadows under branches, which
makes even the black ones difficult to spot by birds."
Scientists are now beginning
to doubt even the basic presumption that birds were responsible for the
changing fortunes of the different types of Biston.
According to Professor Jerry
Coyne, an expert on evolution at the University of Chicago, when Kettlewell
could not get the moths he needed naturally, he bred them in his laboratory.
"That could affect their vigour, so the level of bird predation he saw
was just due to the fact that his moths were raised in the lab" said Coyne.
"In one case, Kettlewell
actually used to warm them up on the bonnet (hood) of his car." "I'm certainly
not saying that Darwin is wrong," he said. "The real cause is probably
connected with pollution.–.but
beyond that, I wouldn't want to go." He added, however, that Kettlewell's
widely quoted experiments are essentially useless. "There's a lot of wishful
thinking and design flaws in them, and they wouldn't get published today."
Richard Dawkins, professor
of the public understanding of science at Oxford University and author
of.The Selfish
Gene.said,
The details of any experiments done 40 years ago are bound to be vulnerable
to detailed criticism. But in any case, nothing momentous hangs in these
experiments." END OF ARTICLE
Chris D. Osborne's Master's
Thesis.A Reevaluation
of the Engilish Peppered Moth's Use as an Example of Evolution in Progress,
available from the Institute for Creation
Research, Santee, CA. 1985, provides more on the above.
It is alleged in the 'phraud'
that it took decades for the adaption to occur. However, the African savannah
grasshopper can change color instantly!
University professor Gary
Parker in his book.Creation
Facts of Life, 1994, Master Books, states: "Darwin
himself was a cautious scientist, painstaking in his work. But others,
especially T.H. Huxley and Herbert Spencer, insisted on making natural
selection the touchstone of a new religion, a 'religion without revelation'
as Julian Huxley later called it. For them, as for many others, the real
significance of the Darwinian revolution was religious and philosophic,
not scientific. These early evolutionists were basically anti creationists
who wanted to explain design without a Designer."....continues
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