"Evolutionary biologists have been shamed about storytelling for decades, often by their own
colleagues. For instance, back in 2004, George Williams—an influential evolutionist—expressed his disgust with some of his colleagues who exchanged scientific rigor for ad-hoc scenarios. The storytellers would claim that any adaptation “had evolved because it provided some benefit” to an individual or population. Anyone can imagine a benefit leading to a trait, but where is the connection between cause and effect? In fact, as we have pointed out, it’s illogical to say something “evolved to” do something, because natural selection is supposed to be blind and purposeless. One case Williams heard about was the notion that dying of the elderly “evolved to do it so we get out of the way, so the young people can go on maintaining the species.” He called this “absolute nonsense” and called on his fellows to act more scientific. This was also a theme of the late Stephen Jay Gould, who dubbed the storytelling habit “Darwinian fundamentalism.” The phrase “just-so story” is itself pejorative to Darwinism, reflecting a caricature of explanation like the childish stories of that name written by Rudyard Kipling for children.
So have evolutionists learned their lesson? Look at this brazen headline in Current Biology: “Just So Stories about the Evolution of Apoptosis” (i.e., programmed cell death). Douglas Green and Patrick Fitzgerald aren’t writing to confess and repent. They’re bragging:
H
ow early mammals evolved night vision to avoid predators: We’re told that “early mammals evolved night vision to find food and survive” but then later, “our ancestors later evolved to take advantage of the daylight hours again.” No rigor at the BBC News, either: Helen Briggs employs the same Kipling formula in, “How early mammals evolved night vision to escape dinos.”
Mathematicians may have found an answer to the longstanding puzzle as to why we have evolved to cooperate: Aren’t mathematicians rigorous? Usually, but not when they join evolutionists in the storytelling game. Not only did these mathematicians trade in stories, they committed two other fallacies:
(1) attributing cooperation to chance, which is no explanation at all, and
(2) falling into the self-refuting trap of ridding cooperation of morality, which means bystanders could accuse them of being the cheaters. On what basis could they refute the criticism that their paper is an evolutionary strategy to cheat and pass on their genes? Isn’t just-so storytelling for a scientist a kind of cheating by definition?
Real reason turtles have shells: Burrowing tool: A lot of reporters jumped on the bandwagon of evolutionists who published in Current Biology a new story for the origin of turtle shells. The shells did not evolve for protection, they say; “Adaptation related to digging was the initial impetus in the origin of the shell” instead. They extend their tale by adding, “Fossoriality [burrowing] likely helped stem turtles survive the Permian/Triassic extinction.” The folly in this story is immediately evident. If this were a law of nature, why didn’t all the other burrowing animals, like rodents and badgers, evolve shells? No reporters asked these simple questions." CEH
Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools...
Romans 1:22 NIV
So have evolutionists learned their lesson? Look at this brazen headline in Current Biology: “Just So Stories about the Evolution of Apoptosis” (i.e., programmed cell death). Douglas Green and Patrick Fitzgerald aren’t writing to confess and repent. They’re bragging:
We suggest scenarios for the evolution of one pathway of apoptosis, the mitochondrial pathway, and consider how they might be tested. We conclude with a ‘Just So Story’ of how the mitochondrial pathway of apoptosis might have evolved during eukaryotic evolution.
This “scenario” is just as nonsensical as the one about seniors evolving to die so young people could evolve, but the editors of Current Biology let it through anyway, despite the blatant title. Other evolutionists may not be so up front about it, but are just as guilty. Some recent examples:H
ow early mammals evolved night vision to avoid predators: We’re told that “early mammals evolved night vision to find food and survive” but then later, “our ancestors later evolved to take advantage of the daylight hours again.” No rigor at the BBC News, either: Helen Briggs employs the same Kipling formula in, “How early mammals evolved night vision to escape dinos.”
Mathematicians may have found an answer to the longstanding puzzle as to why we have evolved to cooperate: Aren’t mathematicians rigorous? Usually, but not when they join evolutionists in the storytelling game. Not only did these mathematicians trade in stories, they committed two other fallacies:
(1) attributing cooperation to chance, which is no explanation at all, and
(2) falling into the self-refuting trap of ridding cooperation of morality, which means bystanders could accuse them of being the cheaters. On what basis could they refute the criticism that their paper is an evolutionary strategy to cheat and pass on their genes? Isn’t just-so storytelling for a scientist a kind of cheating by definition?
Real reason turtles have shells: Burrowing tool: A lot of reporters jumped on the bandwagon of evolutionists who published in Current Biology a new story for the origin of turtle shells. The shells did not evolve for protection, they say; “Adaptation related to digging was the initial impetus in the origin of the shell” instead. They extend their tale by adding, “Fossoriality [burrowing] likely helped stem turtles survive the Permian/Triassic extinction.” The folly in this story is immediately evident. If this were a law of nature, why didn’t all the other burrowing animals, like rodents and badgers, evolve shells? No reporters asked these simple questions." CEH
Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools...
Romans 1:22 NIV
