Scientists mostly ignore creationists such as Duane Gish and his colleagues of the Institute for Creation Science. The creationists interpret this "conspiracy of silence" as an inability to refute their claims and a disdain for biblical truth. The following is a rebuttal by Professor William J. Dickensen, PhD, Professor of Biology at the University of Utah. It takes a lot of valuable time and energy to rebut the same threadbare arguments again and again. His recent debate at the U. of U. with the creationists was the topic of discussion for the July meeting of the Utah Humanists.

Evolution and The Public Schools

Resistance to teaching evolution in U.S. Public schools has a long history. legal actions pursued by creationists have failed. The courts struck down laws forbidding the teaching of evolution, and laws that require equal time in the classroom for creationism. Presently, there are no legal barriers to teaching evolution in the public schools but that does not mean the creationists have given up the fight. If courses were altered to placate the creationists much of biology, geology, astronomy, physics, chemistry, anthropology, linguistics, and ancient history would disappear from the curriculum.

Creationist Strategy

One tactic use by the creationists is to oversimplify the question of origins and creation into two choices: supernatural creationism (biblical, of course, but often not acknowledged), or naturalistic evolution. In actuality, most people do not fall neatly in either one. Offering only two choices tends to force those who are a bit uncomfortable with evolution into the creationist camp.

Another approach is quoting evolutionary authorities out of context. There are two aspects of evolution that scientists assign different degrees of certainty: (1) that evolution has taken place (high level of certainty) and (2) the mechanism that causes evolution (less certainty). By quoting scientists that are discussing the second aspect, it appears that scientists disagree with each other and are themselves uncertain about evolution.

A third strategy of creationists is to place questions of origins in the realm of the supernatural beyond the limits of science. Dr. Dickensen illustrated this with an analogy. Suppose you switch on a lamp but it does not light up. Using simple common sense, you are likely to construct hypotheses about the lamp's failure such as, the light globe is burned out, the lamp in not plugged in, there is a power failure in the area, etc. These hypotheses are directly testable. We have here a simple model of how science is done, and the point is, it works. Now let us suppose that we made the hypothesis that the lamp in not working because the spirits of the lamp are displeased. This hypothesis is not amenable to scientific inquiry. It will likely divert you from solving the problem, and supernatural creationism does this. This should make clear why the term creation science is an oxymoron.

Evidence For Evolution

Dr. Dickensen pointed out that scientists accept evolution because there is supporting evidence. Because the quantity of evidence is large, it is difficult to do it justice in a one hour presentation. Included are two examples of his lecture.

Years before the idea of evolution was common, biologists classified species according to similarity. This grouping, for example places swallows in one group (birds), and bats in another (mammals). As the fossil evidence began to accumulate, it was clear that the system of classification reflected evolutionary history. The bird group separated from the mammal group over 100 million years ago and all mammals share a more recent common ancestor with common characteristics. Recently new methods of showing similarity were discovered. The DNA of swallows and penguins is more similar than bats and swallows, even though bats and swallows both have wings and earn their living catching airborne insects. Chimpanzees are more closely related to humans than they are to gorilla. Testing shows that humans and chimps differ in only 1% of their DNA composition.

Another example of evidence comes from biogeography, which presents a set of facts that creationists have particular difficulty explaining. There are about 2,000 known species of fruit flies and of these 700 species live only in the Hawaiian islands. When the ark released its horde on Mt. Ararat, how did those 700 species make it to the Hawaiian islands and nowhere else? That a set of oceanic islands have many species of fruit flies fits the evolutionary model of specification precisely. It doesn't matter what distribution of species you take, it gives the creationists trouble. Why did kangaroos make it only to Australia, humming birds only to the Americas, and hippos only to Africa?

Creation Arguments

The heart of Dr. Dickensen's lecture dealt with refuting the arguments of seven creationist arguments. They were: (1) Thermodynamics, (2) Probability, (3) Transition fossils, (4) Order of randomness, (5) Appeal to authority, (6) Evolution is not testable, and (7) Evolution leads to immorality. For the sake of brevity, Numbers (1), (2) and (4) will be discussed.

The second law of thermodynamics says that free energy, the kind used for doing work, is always being downgraded. Water running down hill has energy that can be harnessed by a water wheel or a hydroelectric dam. Once the water runs into the ocean, all the energy is dispersed or degraded and can't be harnessed anymore. Another aspect of the law is that it takes energy to keep things organized, otherwise chaotic randomness results. Much of what we do, whether it is repairing the car or cleaning the house, is an effort to reverse entropy (measure of disorder). The creationists argue that since everything in the universe tends to run down, disperse energy, and become chaotic and that evolution contradicts natural law. Evolution does produce intricately organized matter, namely life. In this argument the creationists give attention to only part of the law, and ignore the rest. If nature runs down over time the rivers should have stopped running long ago and all water on the planet should be in the oceans. The sun provides the energy through evaporation from the ocean to replenish fresh water in the mountains. The point here is that entropy can be, and is reversed all the time if you have an input of energy. The energy source which powers plants and animals, keeps their molecules organized rather than chaotic, and drives the uphill process of evolution is the sun which has produced a steady flow of energy to planet earth for 5 billion years.

Creationists are quick to point out a major tenet of evolutionary theory, that the raw material of evolution, the changes (mutations, genetic recombination, etc.), are purely random. How, they quibble, can we get the exquisite organization of a life out of randomness and chaos? They then present an example of this. Please switch into math mode now because this requires an understanding of a branch of algebra called permutations and combinations. Suppose we consider a particular protean found in an animal (proteins are long chains and the links in the chain are amino acids. Insulin and hemoglobins are examples of proteins). Suppose the protean polymer chain is 150 amino acids long (a small protein). Since there could be any of 20 amino acids that could fill that first site in the protein strand, the probability is 1/20 (read one chance in 20), the second is 1/20, etc. The probability that this protein would randomly come together in the right sequence is 20 multiplied by itself 150 times, or 1/20 to the 150th power. Such a number would have over 150 digits in it making such a chance occurrence highly improbable. This argument by itself is completely valid.

The important idea left out of the creationists argument is natural selection. Neither randomness or natural selection by themselves will cause evolution. By linking them, the probabilities become more realistic. Take the protein molecule example described above. Suppose that you had a die with 20 sides (each of the 20 amino acids). Then you roll the die until by chance you get the first amino acid. If you could keep it in its first position while you rolled the die for the second amino acid, the calculation changes dramatically. It now becomes 1/20 plus 1/20 etc. for the 150 amino acids. This produces a probability of 1/3,000. This example has included both the principle of reproduction and selection with randomness.

Because organisms can reproduce, they can duplicate and retain what organization they have already achieved. Each time they reproduce, if copying errors creep in (random mutations) we have modifications added by chance. Those modifications that are useful and help the organism survive are retained. If the change causes a disadvantage, the organism is selected out in the struggle for survival.

The course of evolution does require fantastically low probabilities to occur. A chance event of 1/1,000,000 looks pretty unlikely to occur but if the event is repeated 1,000,000 times, it will occur. In the history of the earth there have been billions of organisms alive at any one time for chance events to occur and billions of years for them to accumulate. With such a breadth of time and events, the improbable becomes probable.

Creation Science

Dr. Dickensen ended his presentation by discussing some of the principles of creation science. He listed five serious problems in their case: (1) The orderly flood, (2) The "slippery kind", (3) The negative proof, (4) The incredulous observer, and (5) The omnipotent loophole. Just number (1) will be discussed here.

The Grand Canyon exposes a column of sedimentary rocks over a mile thick. Creation science would have us believe that those layers were ALL laid down in only a few month's time during the "universal flood." They explain the sequence of fossils thus: helpless invertabrates succumbed first and are in the bottom layer, reptiles succumbed next and are in the middle layers. Birds, being able to fly, and mammals and humans, with their intelligence succumbed last and are found in the top layers. The Colorado River cut through these solidified sediments since the flood, a few thousand years ago. Draw your own conclusions about creation science.

--Richard Teerlink

Suggested Reading

Futuyma, Douglas J. Science On Trial: The Case For Evolution, New York, Pantheon Books, 1982.

Dawkins, Richard. The Blind Watchmaker; Why The Evidence Of Evolution Reveals A Universe Without Design, New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 1987.