Having watched Journey to the Enchanted Isles January 12, it is easy to see why Darwin was struck by the curious beauty of the flora and fauna on Galapagos. The forms are truly unique. As elsewhere, in places of less fame and infamy, observing the wildlife delights everyone. Crabs scuttle across the water surface, penguins and flamingoes are brought together by the unusual confluence of cold water and warm currents. Many charming birds, from the famous Darwin's finches to the flightless cormorants, captivate and amuse us, as they did him.
Darwin set sail 27 December 1831 from Devonport, on a five year voyage that sowed the seed of organic evolution in his thoughts. When Darwin embarked he took Lyell's Principles of Geology along, and read it. The twin concepts of gradualism and the immense time crucial to biological evolution he got from that book festered in a mind turned from his Creator.
On the Beagle came a turning point. It was to him a liberating journey through time and space which freed him from the constraining influence of Genesis. He saw different geographical regions that were populated by quite distinct, yet closely related species. To Darwin, this challenged the concept of fixity of species. Had such clearly related species been created separately in Europe from that in South America? Darwin thought Galapagos provided irrefutable evidence that species is not an immutable entity. Darwin was right.
Scripture teaches that God created animals in such a way that each reproduce after its kind. The churchmen of Darwin's day erroneously equated species with kind. The men of the cloth had looked to a great contemporary man of science for the answer. Georges Cuvier, who virtually founded the modern sciences of paleontology and comparative anatomy, believed in fixity of species. But, fixity of species is simply false.
Fixity didn't seem to explain what was observed, and intellectuals rejected it. As well, they threw the baby out with the wash water by rejecting catastrophism, which didn't appear to explain what was observed from their vantage point. Cuvier and the churchmen were rejected. So was God and His word. Thinking men, rejecting God, saw change in species that they took to support evolution. Since 1859, when Origin of Species was published, there has developed a dynamic, continuous model of origins basic to nature, coinciding with the secularization of Western society.
Scientific discovery is "...reciprocal interaction between a multifarious and confusing natural realm and minds sufficiently receptive (many are not) to extract a weak, but sensible pattern from the prevailing noise." Stephen Jay Gould says, "There are no signs on the Galapagos that proclaim: evolution at work. Evolution is an inescapable inference, not a raw datum." Don't just write Gould off: he does a better job of getting out what he believes, as a thinking man, than we often do as believers.
Often as believers, we feel constrained to believe. Like Darwin, we condescend to the church proscribing what we see: the body of knowledge encumbering us. It is constraint never intended by God. Furthermore, the answer does not lie in throwing off what Scripture teaches, fleeing the church, and looking to the sciences for answers. The responsibility falls on the individual believer. First, knowledge of Him, then of what He has created, is what God expects of us. The Christian has no escaping the fact that he needs too be in the Word of God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
Without doubt, bias will determine how we view Galapagos, no less than anything else we see. But, what we see on Galapagos is not evidence for evolution. Nor is it fixity of the species. Rather, it seems to be better explained by selective inbreeding and line breeding. Assured by physical isolation on these oceanic peaks, these are just as effectively accomplished as in a dog fancier's kennel.
In Time magazine December 12, 1994, the cover article "That's No Way To Treat A Dog" describes the evils of selective breeding of dogs. Genetic anomalies abound in the quest for coveted characteristics. Plaguing the industry are hip dysplasia, congenital skin disorders, cataracts, and so on. These are brought on by relentless inbreeding done to achieve what the magazine calls "A Terrible Beauty" Carefully controlled isolation allows these to breed true to type. As genetic characteristics diverge, it becomes impossible for cross breeding between such different examples as great danes and poodles. Yet none denies that both are dogs.
In much the same manner, isolation and circumstantial selective breeding of species on the Galapagos similarly cause these to breed true to type, but diverging markedly from their South American relatives. The resultant celebrated Darwin's Finches are an example. Merely differing as breeds of dog differ, all are still finches. There is no evolution here.
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