| Creation Truth Outreach, Inc. Pamphlet |
| © 2007 Creation Truth Outreach, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This pamphlet may be freely copied provided it is copied in its entirety, its contents are not altered in any manner, and additional or tighter copyright restrictions than these are not imposed on it. Revised May 5, 2008 |
| Chapter 4. Limitations On Natural Selection. 2. Natural Selection Cannot Choose Towards A Target Before A Target Exists. Natural Selection Cannot Choose Towards A Target Before A Target Exists. This effectively makes the first appearance of something new a single-step process. Evolutionists like to claim that evolution is a random wanderer, that it has no real target. It can look back to see where it went but cannot predict where it is going. These words sound impressive, but they are nonsense. Any function that requires multiple components to work properly has as a target getting the last few members to work with the previous ones. Almost anywhere one looks in cell structure, he finds examples of where this would apply. For instance, most birds do not have oil glands for their feathers, but ducks and geese do. The development of an oil gland becomes a target for a bird spending time in the water. At the molecular level whenever several enzymes are implementing a complicated process such as the citric acid cycle, providing for any missing steps becomes a target. For instance, at a certain point the enzymes processing energy in a cell need an enzyme such as succinate dehydrogenase to carry out certain critical steps in order to work properly. Getting such an enzyme becomes a target. However, natural selection cannot select towards a target before the target exists. This becomes most critical when a large number of components need to work in a cooperative manner, such that all of them need to show up simultaneously. In fact, this is the underlying principle upon which the argument of irreducible complexity is built. There is a big gap between a generalized need and turning that need into a group of specific tasks capable of meeting the need. In fact, professional design engineers make a living using experience and creativity to do this very thing, it is what their job is about. Evolutionists like to think in general terms, that if a high-level function needs to be performed, natural selection will somehow mysteriously figure out how to do it. This is naive. Converting a general need into specific steps is what design is all about. There is no such thing as a generalized enzyme to burn sugar and transform it into a controlled bit of energy that a cell can use. Instead, a general requirement needs to be defined by a series of interlocked, cooperating tasks and then the components need to be formed and synchronized with each other to meet these tasks. Geneticists talk about a term called “survival advantage.” Natural selection can work only where a difference in survival advantage exists between alternative choices. However, there is no survival advantage for the various components capable of performing a new function until enough components show up at the same time to allow the function to be met to a minimum degree. An elephant does not need feathers. |