A
headline from ScienceAlert.com reads, “A
New Bird Species Has Evolved on Galapagos And Scientists Watched It
Happen” The opening sentence claims, “For
the first time, scientists have been able to observe something
amazing: the evolution of a completely new species, in the wild, in
real-time. And it took just two generations.”
Wow! Scientists watched evolution
happen in real time? I guess I should just give up and quit
blogging! //RKBentley
shakes his head//
I'm
not really sure what all the fuss is about. First off, this isn't
even news. The ScienceAlert.com article was published 11/24/2017 and
it cites a Psy.org article that was published a day earlier.
However,
I found this same study discussed on Wired.com
on 11/6/2009. Second, the article is talking about hybridization
– the cross-breeding of two different species. Hybridization is
ridiculously common. It's been observed and understood for
centuries. For example, how long have there been mules? A mule is
the offspring of a donkey bred with a horse.
Hybrids
are usually (but not always) sterile so we wouldn't necessarily
consider a hybrid a new species. Species
is a largely subjective term but when speciation is determined to
have taken place, there is always someone anxious to label it
“evolution.” Here are a few examples I've talked about before:
- Scientists watch as a new species evolves before their eyes: “Speciation, the formation of new species through evolution, is not usually an event you can directly observe. Organisms typically take many generations to accumulate enough changes to diverge into new species; it's a slow process... But biologists working at the University of California, San Diego, and at Michigan State University, may have just put a rest to all of those naysayers. They report to having witnessed the evolution of a new species [of virus] happen right before their eyes, in a simple laboratory flask, according to Phys.org.”
- World-first hybrid shark found off Australia: “Australian scientists hailed what they described as a world-first discovery of two shark species interbreeding Tuesday, a never-before-seen phenomenon which could help them cope with warmer oceans... It’s very surprising because no one’s ever seen shark hybrids before, this is not a common occurrence by any stretch of the imagination... This is evolution in action.”
- Pressured by Predators, Lizards See Rapid Shift in Natural Selection: “Countering the widespread view of evolution as a process played out over the course of eons, evolutionary biologists have shown that natural selection can turn on a dime -- within months -- as a population's needs change. In a study of island lizards exposed to a new predator, the scientists found that natural selection dramatically changed direction over a very short time, within a single generation....”
God
created organisms “according to their kind.” Grass, herbs, and
fruit have kinds (Genesis 1:11); Marine animals and birds have kinds
(Genesis 1:21); Cattle, beasts, and every animal that walks upon the
earth has kinds (Genesis 1:24-25). At the time of the Flood,
representative animals from each terrestrial kind were brought aboard
the Ark to keep them alive (Genesis 6:19-20). All of the various
species of animals that exist today are descended from the smaller
kinds originally created by God.
When
I read headlines like these, it's my opinion that what we observe is
better explained by Genesis than by evolution. For example, we have several instances of speciation happening rapidly.
Creationists have been saying this is the case all along yet
evolutionists still act surprised every time it does. They're so
ingrained into their “millions
of years”
way of thinking that they act shocked when a new species forms in
only few generations. They see a a new species of finch appear in
two generations yet they scold creationists by claiming the 4,000 years
since the Flood is not enough time for a bear to become a polar bear
or a wolf to become a dog.
Which
brings me to another point – how are these people defining
evolution? When most people think of evolution, they think of
dinosaur to bird or ape to man. However, evolutionists describe any
change in a population of animals as evolution.
If there were a population of moths where 60% of the moths have light
pigment, the population is said to have evolved if the next
generation has only 50% with light pigment. It's
evolution by definition. The examples of “evolution” we observe don’t demonstrate any
mechanism that could eventually turn a molecule into a man.
The
sensational headlines that talk about evolution happening before
our eyes
are seldom anything more than hype. Even if we are occasionally
surprised, it is ultimately nothing more than an anecdotal example of
a rather mundane phenomenon – a new recombination of traits that
have already existed in the population. Two lizards giving birth to
a bird would be news. Two finches giving birth to a finch is click
bait.
Further
reading:
