Creation Moment 8/31/2023 - Magic Words of Darwinism

Because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Romans 1:21

"The most empty, meaningless phrase in science is Darwin’s concoction, “natural selection.” That’s a bold statement, but we can

prove it. All we need to do is show you how Darwinians themselves use it.

Anything biology needs to do, from great transformations to nothing (stasis), is natural selection’s specialty. It’s like a genie that Darwinists can summon out of a bottle. 

Too lazy to explain things the old scientific way, they say the magic words “natural selection” (NS) and get published, passing peer review with no questions asked. But unlike a genie, the NS genie doesn’t just offer three wishes. It offers Darwinians an endless supply.

 

MSU research suggests natural selection could slow evolution (Michigan State University, 24 Aug 2023). Sometimes the Darwinian needs its genie to stop evolution. NS complies cheerfully, obeying its masters. This article shows Prof. Jeff Conner at UMich conjuring up the Genie of Stasis: natural selection. He “flips the script,” showing selection could lead to similarities as well as differences, the stage assistant (aka press writer) says without a blush. Conner teases his audience before his act.

“We always talk about the vast diversity of life and we should. It’s incredible. Natural selection has given us a lot of that, probably most of that diversity,” said Jeff Conner, a professor with the College of Natural Science and the W.K. Kellogg Biological Station, or KBS. “But natural selection can also cause similarities.”

**Conner gives his genie a new word: constraint. He tells his genie, “The idea behind constraint is that, as species evolve, they can lose genetic flexibility in certain areas. This drives specific traits to stabilize and persist through generations.” The genie winks to indicate he gets it. ‘I need you to constrain evolution in the case of wild radish. Show that we scientists cannot get it to evolve.’

Roughly speaking, then, it’s tempting to think of natural selection as the accelerator of evolution, driving different or divergent traits and constraint as the brakes, maintaining or conserving similarities.

“Our work flips the script on that a little bit,” Conner said. “We’re suggesting that selection can also slow things down, that it can cause similarities as well as differences.”

Q: How can this be? 

--Well, Conner speculates that a lack of genetic diversity constrains this plant from evolving. 

--But the genie had no problem with getting a whale from a four-footed mammal in a few million years. 

Q: What’s the problem? 

A: For mysterious reasons, the wild radish kept its ancestral pattern of stamens. It didn’t evolve, “thanks to natural selection.” The genie obeys with a smile as Conner praises him for a job well done.

So wild radish still holds some mysteries, but it’s provided a

potent reminder of the power of natural selection.

Natural selection is very important," Conner said. "A lot of things people have thought selection couldn’t do, we’re learning selection can do.”

 

It can do something, and it can do nothing. The audience claps at this mysterious, unexpected end to the act. 

The handkerchief did not turn into a rabbit as Conner pulled it out of the hat; it was still a handkerchief." CEH