Macroevolution

The Darwinian theory of macro evolution is based upon a concept that would be called in politics a reform agenda…substantial, across-the-board, continually occurring, progressive new change…to create the massive diversity we now see in the natural living world today.

As Charles Darwin observed the radiation…the diversification…of finch birds into varying sizes, colors, beak sizes, song patterns, and lifestyle habits on the 13 islands of the Galapagos Archipelago in the 1830’s…finches of the same species still able to interbreed…yet adapting more precisely to the different geographical ecologies of these islands through the natural selecting of variant physical characteristics…this led Darwin to the pioneering leap of imagination that this might finally be the key that unlocks our scientific understanding of how new species of animals and plants are created.

Darwin spent over 20 years researching and perfecting this innovative idea…culminating in his famous 1859 book The Origin of Species.

Darwin’s bold theoretical extrapolation…the speculative, conjectural stretch…of the minor-league microevolutionary changes he observed…advancing into major-league, universal macroevolutionary change through an accumulating progression of incremental small steps…like the diversification of finches observed on the oceanic islands of the Galapagos…but on a broader, long-range, and continual basis without limits…requires developmental boundaries around species that are open or semi-open to revolutionary genetic variation.

This hypothetical concept should exhibit the putting-out of radical new, variant physical traits…albeit according to Darwinism spread-out into small progressive steps over long periods of time…chosen after-the-fact in the reactive mode by natural selection for improved functional survivability and thus reproductive advantage…that can change fish into amphibians…amphibians into reptiles…reptiles into birds…and primitive ancestral mammals into intellectually mature, upright walking, and language speaking human beings…by way of gradual change over long periods of time through continuous common descent…the lynch-pin of macroevolution as shown on Darwin’s tree-of-life drawing.

But as we look at the current natural world all around us…the political illustrative analogy of a reform agenda…touched upon above…presents a far different, contrary picture…that is as conservatively unchanging…on the whole…in the macro sense…as is imaginable.

A radical, reform agenda of dynamic, fluid, ongoing change is not what we see…as the works-in-progress, change-agent reality in the living world…as we should expect in a macroevolutionary program that is genetically open-ended and without boundary limits.

The natural living world instead appears to be organized and structured to preserve the current status quo…to be static, well-defined, and unchanging…fully developed to its logical physical and lifestyle-habit end-points in the billions of living things…fish, birds, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, insects, echinoderms, microbes, bacteria, plants, trees, fruits and vegetables… precisely coordinated to fit near-perfectly within exclusively individualized niches…interacting seamlessly within a mind-boggling ecological balance…and apparently bracketed top and bottom by brilliantly determined genetic limits.

We do not see open-ended and randomly defined genetic boundaries around species…with unlimited gene pool variations lined-up in waiting to put out radical new physical characteristics to be chosen by natural selection…which we would expect to see if in fact macroevolution is true.

In the large African land mammals on the savanna plains…elephants, water buffalo, hippopotamus, zebra, giraffe, rhinoceros, wildebeest, and lions…we observe no new physical characteristics…zero in number or scope…being put forward by genetic variation for natural selection to choose…driving forward visually apparent radical new change.

Where would further macro evolutionary development take these extraordinary African land mammals?  They appear to be fully developed in their unique physical traits, lifestyle habits, and conceptually imagined architectural body-plans for survivability and reproduction.

There is no further developmental place for elephants, water buffalo, hippopotamus, zebra, giraffe, rhinoceros, wildebeest, and lions to go ecologically or physically…to evolve up or down…backwards or forwards…within the imaginative conception of human beings.

This is a major point of refutation of the theory of Darwinian macroevolution.

Within ourselves…human beings…we detect no new radical genetic variations of physical or lifestyle-habit developments…no new input of revolutionary genetic information…and no ancient, latent genetic capacities coming to the forefront…to be chosen by natural selection… gradually or otherwise…to create new beneficial characteristics in human beings.

There is a reason why I am 6-feet tall and not 10-feet tall.  There is a reason why I cannot “jump out of the gym” with springs in my legs…giving me an exceptional leaping ability…that would make me a sensation in the NBA (National Basketball Association).

There is a reason why I cannot run 50 miles per hour.  There is a reason why my I.Q. is much, much lower than 300.  There is a reason why I do not have wings, claws, and eat my prey raw.

Human genetic boundaries set limits to the variant traits that human beings can put-out for natural selection to choose from…creating on the one hand the incredible human diversity that makes “people watching” such an interesting activity amongst the international crowds in New York City’s Times Square or Hollywood Boulevard’s Walk of Stars in Southern California, for example…but on the other hand this same diversity is brilliantly limited within the strict borders of the availability of change-agent options within the human gene pool range…above and below a static, basic norm…that defines human beings.

Naturally fixed, rigidly closed genetic boundaries are why human breeders cannot…through artificial selection…create dogs that are as large as elephants.

The reason simply is that dogs are not putting-out increasingly larger size Great Danes, German Shepherds, or Labrador Retrievers for human breeders to proactively select…after-the-fact…in the reactive mode.  The maximum size of dogs has reached its genetic limits.

But genetic limits…on the low side of the norm…also exist.  We cannot breed dogs below a certain size.  We cannot breed dogs that run at a very slow speed…that cannot chase after and retrieve a thrown tennis ball…or that are not smart enough to obey the command to “sit” at attention, to “wait” before jumping into the car, or to “stop” before running into the street.

Genetic variability does not give us these heading-in-reverse options.  Gene pools that define a “dog” fall within a range that has definite limits on the high side and the low side…in the areas of physical traits and lifestyle habits.

There are no open-ended genetic boundaries at these high-side and low-side limits…observable in the natural living world today.

What is observable and recognizable in the living world today…are genetic high-side and low-side limits that define the distinctive characteristics of living things like apples, oranges, pears, bananas, wheat, oats, barley, soy beans, and corn…all uniquely different from one another…but also having the capacity for variation within their own specific, individualized types.

How would an apple…for example…a living entity…reach the conceptual end-point of the upper boundary-line that defines the shape, color, size, taste, aroma, and nutritional value of an apple…yet also achieve a very tight lower boundary-line range that allows for variations in apple types…but excludes any possible confusion between an apple and other fruits?

According to Darwinian macroevolution…this requires a purely naturalistic process of radical progressive development, distinctive differentiation from other fruits and vegetable, and an inconceivably targeted end-point outcome that falls within a narrow bandwidth of upper and lower boundary-lines that define an apple in today’s natural living world.

The same can be said of an orange, pear, banana, grapes, watermelon, grapefruit, and a host of other fruits that have recognizable boundary-line limits of discontinuity…yet each having a degree of internal genetic variability that allows for differences in their types.

This same targeted, pin-point precision that creates distinctive definitions for every living thing…bracketed top and bottom within narrow ranges of physical characteristics, lifestyle habits, and fitting functionally within ecological niches of enumerable variations…is not only way beyond a naturalistic explanation for its origin and maintenance…but it is light-years in complexity and coordination beyond anything that we as intelligent designers could create and manage as an entire, integrated system.

The breadth and the complexity of the information content from the microbiological level of DNA to the macro level of the environmental ecologies…adding in the features of the non-living world such as the properties of water, the strength of gravity, the make-up of our atmosphere…and dozens of other components necessary to support complex life like ourselves…this breadth and complexity of information content far exceeds any conceptual system based on things simply falling into place on their own…according to the philosophical concept of naturalistic materialism.

This should give the student of Darwinian evolution pause as to the validity and truthfulness of the macro half of the theory…there being no visual scientific fact-based evidence for open-ended genetic boundaries…as undeniable, empirical, obvious phenomenon observable in the present-day natural living world.