DARWIN'S
CASE -
NATURAL
SELECTION
For
with my
test
cases of
species
stability,
I
completely
persuaded
myself
of the
truth of
Darwin's
introductory
point
that "I
am well
aware
that
scarcely
a single
point is
discussed
in this
volume
on which
facts
cannot
be
adduced,
often
apparently
leading
to
conclusions
directly
opposite
to those
at which
I have
arrived".
In
my
several
readings
of
Darwin's
"one
long
argument",
I
noticed
that he
freely
admitted
that his
case was
not
supportable
by even
one real
live
visible
test
case of
evolutionary
transformation
of one
species
into
another.
When
Darwin
wrote,
near the
end of
his
life,
that "Not
one
change
of
species
into
another
is on
record
... We
cannot
prove
that a
single
species
has
changed
into
another".
So,
Darwin
chose to
believe
that one
species
could
change
into
another
in spite
of his
facts
that all
his live
visible
evidence
was
against
it.
Now,
DARWIN
WAS
RIGHT
to make
the
basic
fundamentalism
of his
case
perfectly
clear
when he
wrote, "In
order to
make it
clear
how, as
I
believe,
natural
selection
acts, I
must beg
permission
to give
one or
two
imaginary
illustrations".
Whenever
I
consider
this
beggarly
request
of
Darwin's,
I am
greatly
tempted
to deny
him my
reader's
permission
in the
name of
science.
Darwin
also
said, "But
I must
confess
that,
with all
my faith
in
natural
selection..."
Now,
why does
Darwin
beg to
be
allowed
to
freely
use his
imagination
to show
his
great
faith in
natural
selection
and
evolution?
Because
he had
no real
live
visible
data to
support
his
hypothetical
evolutionary
pipe
dream
anywhere
in his "one
long
argument".
Throughout
his
writings
about
his own
peculiar
brand of
hypothetical
biology,
Darwin
practiced
his
favorite
theoretical
scientific
methodology
which I
call
explanation
by
imagination.
This
is the
method
by which
imaginary
questions
are
given
imaginary
answers
and
visible
effects
are
given
invisible
causes.
For
example,
Darwin
chooses
to
invent
the
imaginary
question;
how did
the
giraffe
get its
extra
long
neck?
He
then
invents
his
imaginary
answer,
that by
his
imaginary
process
of
natural
selection,
"it
seems to
me
almost
certain
that an
ordinary
hoofed
quadruped
might be
converted
into a
giraffe".
Darwin
wrote
that his
natural
selection
idea was
in the
image
and
likeness
of the
human
selection
used in
domestic
breeding.
By
means of
a great
many
such
easygoing
uses of
his
imagination,
Darwin
developed
a very
high
degree
of
certainty
in his
own
great
powers
of
imagination
which he
called
natural
selection.
Darwin
called
natural
selection
a
"metaphorical
expression",
and also
said, "In
the
literal
sense of
the
word, no
doubt,
natural
selection
is a
false
term ..."
A
present-day
lawyer, Norman
Macbeth,
writing
about
his
retrial
of his
faith in
evolution,
says, "The
biologists
have
innocently
confessed
that
natural
selection
is a
metaphor,
and
every
experienced
person
knows
that it
is
dangerous
to work
with
metaphors.
As
the road
to hell
is paved
with
good
intentions,
so the
road to
confusion
is paved
with
good
metaphors.
Perhaps
the
sober
investigators
should
not have
staked
so much
on a
poetic
device:..
When
writing
about
his
great
fanciful
powers
of
natural
selection
to
change
one
species
into
another,
to say
about
his
visible
observations,
"We
see
nothing
of these
slow
changes
in
progress..."
However,
when he
writes
of his
invisible
observations,
he says,
"I
can see
no limit
to the
amount
of
change..."
It
seems to
me
almost
certain
that
Darwin
hung his
whole
case for
unstable
species
on his
own
personal
subjective
powers
of wishful-hopeful
thinking
in spite
of all
the
visible
evidence
of
stable
species
to the
contrary.
So
Darwin
was able
to write
that he
was
fully
convinced
of the
"truth"
of his
transmutation
of
species
theory.
Darwin
wrote
that "no
one
ought to
feel
surprise
at much
remaining
as yet
unexplained
on the
origin
of
species,
if we
make due
allowance
for our
profound
ignorance
on
the
mutual
relations
of the
inhabitants
of the
world at
the
present
time,
and
still
more so
during
past
ages".
Many
times
Darwin
wrote
just
such
complete
confessions
of his
perfect
ignorance
of any
visible
connections
between
any two
species
-
present
or past.
Concerning
species,
Darwin
wrote, "No
one
definition
has
satisfied
all
naturalists;
yet
every
naturalist
knows
vaguely what
he means
when he
speaks
of a
species".
Darwin
well
proves
the
truth of
that
statement
when he
gives
his own
very
vague
definition:
"I
look at
the term
species
as one
arbitrarily
given,
for the
sake of
convenience,
to a set
of
individuals
closely
resembling
each
other".
To
so well
describe
the
completely
subjective
value
judgments
which
make up
all
biological
classification
systems
from
species
to plant
and
animal
kingdoms.
DARWIN
WAS
RIGHT
to
soberly
consider
the fact
that his
theory
directly
contradicts
the
visible
evidence.
Darwin
wrote: "These
difficulties
and
objections
may be
classed
under
the
following
heads:
First, why,
if
species
have
descended
from
other
species
by fine
graduations,
do we
not see
innumerable
transitional
forms? Why
is
not all
nature
in
confusion,
instead
of the
species
being,
as we
see
them,
well
defined"?
And
again: "The
distinctness
of
specific
forms,
and
their
not
being
blended
together
by
innumerable
transitional
links,
is a
very
obvious
difficulty".
Darwin
used his
standard
hypothetical
scientific
method
to answer
all
these
objections
which
was that
of using
his
own
miraculous
supernatural
powers
of
imagination
to
invest
the
innumerable
transitional
links he
so
greatly
desired
to
justify
his
theory.
When
he wrote
concerning
the
fossil
record,
to
confess
that it
was
against
his
theory,
"so
must the
number
of
intermediate
varieties,
which
have
formerly
existed
be truly
enormous.
Why
then
is not
every
geological
formation
and
every
stratum
full of
such
intermediate
links?
Geology
assuredly
does not
reveal
any such
finely
graduated
organic
chain;
and
this,
perhaps,
is the
most
obvious
and
serious
objection
which
can be
urged
against
the
theory. The
explanation
lies, as
I
believe,
in the
extreme
imperfection
of the
geological
record".
NOW,
THIS IS
AN
EXCELLENT
EXAMPLE
OF
DARWIN'S
CHIEF
METHODOLOGY
OF
EXPLANATION
BY
IMAGINATION.
First,
he has
expressed
his
evolutionary
preconceived
notion
of what
the
fossil
record
ought to
be like
if the
record
were in
perfect
agreement
with his
theoretical
organic
chain of
life.
So,
the
perfect
geological
record
exists
entirely
as a
product
of
Darwin's
imagination.
Second,
he
understands
that the
geological
record
contradicts
his pet
theory;
so,
rather
than
give up
on his
fantasy,
he
chooses
to
imagine
that the
record
is
perfect
just at
those
missing
link
points
where he
needs it
most.
It
is only
by the
powers
of
imagination
that any
fossil
can be
connected
to any
other
fossilo
or
presently-living
species.
DARWIN
WAS
RIGHT.
To
reveal
the
metaphorical
nature
of his
thinking
Darwin
wrote, "when
we
contemplate
every
complex
structure
and
instinct
as the
summing
up of
many
contrivances,
each
useful
to the
possessor,
in the
same way
as any
great
mechanical
invention
is the
summing
up of
the
labour,
the
experience,
the
reason,
and even
the
blunders
of
numerous
workmen;
when we
thus
view
each
organic
being,
how far
more
interesting
- I
speak
from
experience
- does
the
study of
natural
history
become"!
In
another
passage,
Darwin
explains,
"or
where,
if we
may use
the
expression,
the
manufactory
of
species
has been
active,
we ought
generally
to find
the
manufactory
still in
action,
more
especially
as we
have
every
reason
to
believe
the
process
of
manufacturing
new
species
to be a
slow
one".
Darwin,
in
another
place,
uses his
highly
metaphorical
expression
"the
whole
machinery
of
life".
Thus,
Darwin
makes it
perfectly
clear
that his
hypothetical
evolutionary
change
processes,
called
natural
selection,
are made
in the
image
and
likeness
of the
ordinary
human
machine
invention
and
manufacturing
processes.
The
ordinary
literal
machine
invention
and
manufacturing
process
goes
from the
small
and
simple
toward
the
large
and
complex.
So
Darwin
made his
figurative
evolution
of life
machine
processes
go from
amoebae
to fish
to
reptile
to rat
to ape
to man.
DARWIN
WAS
RIGHT to
show his
metaphorical
thinking
when he
wrote
that he
often
thought
of his
mind as "a
kind of
machine
for
grinding
general
laws out
of large
collections
of
facts".
DARWIN
WAS
RIGHT to
know
that "I
AM QUITE
CONSCIOUS
THAT MY
SPECULATIONS
RUN
QUITE
BEYOND
THE
BOUNDS
OF TRUE
SCIENCE".
I
agree
with
what one
present-day
evolutionary
biochemist,
named Chargaff,
has
written
about
present
evolutionary
theory
spinning:
"In
my
opinion
it would
be more
honest
to
confess
that we
know
very
little
indeed
about
these
things,
and to
say that
the road
to the
future
should
not be
uselessly
cluttered
up with
shoddy,
and
often
entirely
baseless,
hypotheses...for
I
believe
that our
science
has
become
too
mechanomorphic,
that we
talk in
metaphors
in order
to
conceal
our
ignorance..."
Darwin
was
right to
argue
that his
evolutionary
notions
should
not be
taken
literally,
but,
rather,
figuratively
and
metaphorically.
I
will now
make use
of a
machine
metaphor
for my
own
case.
I
have
observed
that
copying
machines
are
designed
to make
copies
of
original
paperwork;
but,
they
cannot
make
originals.
So,
biological
creations,
like
copy
machines,
are
designed
to be
able to
make
copies;
but,
they
cannot
make
original
creations
and
originate
new and
different
species.
The
Christian
believer
in
creation
according
to
Christ
will
say,
"Christ
said it
and I
believe
it";
and the
Darwinian
believer
in
evolution
according
to
Darwin
will
say, "Darwin
said it
and I
believe
it".
There
is a
sharp
contradiction
between
Christ's
method
of
knowing
(science)
and
Darwin's
method
of
knowing
(science).
Christ,
speaking
as the
Creator
and
Originator
of
species,
gives
His
eyewitness
reports.
Christ
spoke of
His
reasons
to know
about
creation,
and
Darwin
spoke of
his
reasons
to
believe
about
evolution.
Christ
talked
about
His
presence
at the
beginning
when He
made
them
male and
female
by His
own
power,
and
Darwin
talked
about
his
absence
at the
beginning.
Christ
argued
from His
profound
knowledge
of His
own
business
of
creating
all
living
creatures
with the
stability
to
reproduce
their
own
kinds,
and
Darwin
spoke
from his
"profound
ignorance
of the
mutual
relationships
of
living
beings".
CHRIST
SAID
THAT
THORNS
CANNOT
PRODUCE
FIGS AND
BRAMBLE
BUSHES
CANNOT
YIELD
GRAPES.
DARWIN
MIGHT
EASILY
HAVE
SAID
THAT THE
UNLIMITED
POWER OF
HIS
NATURAL
SELECTION
IMAGINATION
COULD,
IN THE
COURSE
OF
MILLIONS
OF
YEARS,
HAVE
CAUSED
EVEN A
FAMILY
LINE OF
THORNS
TO
PRODUCE
FIGS AND
BRAMBLE
BUSHES
TO YIELD
GRAPES.
Christ
called
true the
record
of the
history
of the
earth
written
in the
Bible
concerning
the six
days of
creation,
Adam and
Eve,
Noah and
the
Flood,
the
Tower of
Babel,
and the
whole
record
of the
Holy
Scriptures.
Darwin
called
false
the
history
of the
earth in
the
Bible
and
fabricated
his own
history
of the
earth
out of
his own
wishful/hopeful
thinking.
Christ
preached
His
Gospel
of
Observation
of that
which He
had seen
and
heard,
and Darwin
preached
his
gospel
of
imagination
of
that
which he
had not
seen and
had not
heard.
Christ
revealed
His
Gospel
of
Salvation,
and
Darwin
revealed
his
gospel
of
speculation.
John
Farison
1066
Blachleyville
Rd.
Wooster,
Ohio
44691
(216)
264-3052
GOD
BLESS
YOU
