The Origin's 150th Anniversary - But Darwin's Theory Still Not Beyond the Reach of Reasonable Doubt

The vast majority of data presented as evidence for the Darwin's Theory of Evolution, including that in The Origin, is irrelevant to his primary assertion, namely that of great but gradual organic changes via vast sequences of intermediate life forms.

How vast? As Darwin puts it: '...the number of intermediate and transitional links, between all living and extinct species, must have been inconceivably great. But assuredly, if this theory be true, then such have lived upon this earth.' (The Origin Of Species, 1859).

If such inconceivably great numbers of intermediate and transitional links have lived upon this earth, then intermediate sequential life forms, such as those linking the distinct vertebrate groups (fish, reptiles etc) might have left direct evidence of their once-existence in sequences of living descendants and/or in sequences of fossil remains.

Regarding living sequences--Molecular Biologist Michael Denton, in his 1985 book 'Evolution - A Theory In Crisis' says that '...out of all the millions of living species known, only a handful can be considered to be in any sense intermediate between other well-defined types' - i.e. no living sequences exist. This was the case in Darwin's day, and has remained true for 150 years, in spite of the many, many new species discovered in that time.

Regarding fossils sequences--An extract from the Guardian Weekly, 26 Nov 1978, entitled 'Missing, Believed Non-Existent' says that '...the smooth transition from one form of life to another is...(Dr. Niles Eldredge) says, not borne out by the facts... If life had evolved...little by little...then one would expect to find fossils of transitional creatures which were a bit like what came before them and a bit like what came after. But no one has yet found any evidence of such transitional creatures. This oddity has been attributed to gaps in the fossil record which gradualists expected to fill when rock strata of the proper age had been found. In the last decade, however, geologists have found rock layers of all divisions of the last 500 million years, and no transitional forms were found in them.'

In 1972 Eldredge and Gould proposed a theory called Punctuated Equilibrium - its purpose was to try to account for the gaps in the fossil record. Whether one finds it convincing or not, the very need to produce such a theory confirms that the fossil gaps are a reality well known to palaeontologist, and not a fabrication of Darwin's detractors.

The lack of fossil sequences was certainly a matter of concern to Darwin - In The Origin, he wrote: 'Why does not every collection of fossil remains afford plain evidence of the gradation...of the forms of life?' Presumably he fully expected that in time such fossil evidence would be found to confirm his theory. However, 150 years on, and Darwin's question still stands as a direct challenge to his own theory of life on earth. He also said that the absence of intermediate sequences of fossils 'is probably the gravest and most obvious all the objections which may be urged against my views'. Most of the palaeontology that has ever been done has been done since Darwin wrote those words, and if the lack of fossil sequences was so grave in 1859, how much more magnified a threat to the credibility of his theory is their continuing absence 150 years later?

Darwinists will point to a handful of so-called 'missing-links' as examples of intermediate life forms - but these are stand-alone individuals of dubious status with no sequences leading to them or from them. If such individuals permit us to infer Darwin's massive sequences of organic change, then (to almost quote G K Chesterton) not only does a swallow make a summer - it makes a summerhouse as well!

The Darwinian Theory of Evolution is a theory like any other, namely 'a particular interpretation of particular data'. As such it can only stand or fall based upon the data and arguments relevant to it - and not upon any arbitrarily preferred belief about the nature of truth and reality (which is clearly a driving force behind its more aggressive historical and current apologists). And if one investigates beyond the material that is usually presented in school textbooks or in the media, it becomes apparent that Darwin's Theory OF Evolution has failed to get beyond the reach of reasonable doubt - even by its 150th anniversary.