Limited Physical Terrain 1

            In our modern world today, we have many more realities we can utilize to form theoretical, skeletal explanatory frameworks in which to conduct scientific research programs.

            As one area of research expands into two or more new avenues of interest to investigate in the natural world, the breadth and depth of knowledge increases at an exponential rate, which then likewise increases the number of new explanatory stories needed to add meaning, structure, and intelligibility to the raw data.

            This modern reality also generates enumerable possible analogies that can be spun-off these skeletal explanatory frameworks which permeate science, that were non-existent in 1859 when Darwin published The Origin of Species.

            For example, anyone living in Southern California in 2022 understands the concept that after putting a few warm-up miles on a recently purchased new automobile, that upon the first time entering onto one of our major freeways our new automobile must get quickly up to at least 65 miles per hour on the on-ramp in order to blend safely into the flow of traffic (except during the start-and-stop traffic congestion at rush-hour).

            There is no such thing as entering onto the 405 freeway in a 1920 Ford Model-T automobile having a top-speed of 30 miles per hour, and then safely navigating into the number two lane with the other automobiles driving 70 miles per hour.

            This analogy regarding the immediate required fit of adequate velocity on the freeways of Southern California, of having an automobile that can enter into the fast-lane and survive within the biodiversity of different models of modern automobiles all driving within the narrow parameter of 65 to 75 miles per hour, was obviously a concept unavailable to the people of Darwin’s time.

            The required conditions of driving on roadways in 1920 for the Ford Model-T no longer apply to the high-speed freeways of today, not only in the vehicles being driven but also in the quality of the roads.

            But what is most important to understand from this modern analogy, that was not accessible in 1859 to help formulate accurate scientific theories, is that there is no space or lanes on the modern freeway set-aside or designated for experimental, trial-and-error, incrementally improving automobiles half-way towards fully functional development.

            A person owning and driving a 1920 Model-T as a member of a local classic car club, can get from one weekend classic car show to the next by using the non-freeway surface streets, or by going in-mass as a large group early in the morning on one or more of the freeways staying exclusively in the far-right, slow lane.

            But a person owning a classic, old-model car would not venture-out daily into the morning commuter traffic at 5 A.M. on the major freeways of Southern California into traffic going 70 to 75 miles per hour, in a vehicle only capable of driving at a top-speed of 30 to 35 miles per hour.  

            And we do not see on these freeways a mix of experimental vehicles all blending together at various speeds, of one-man solar powered vehicles, or one-man aerodynamic human-powered bicycles, or battery powered skateboards, or hybrid cars that can also fly, or jet-propelled cars that can travel at a top-speed of 400 miles per hour on the Bonneville Salt Flats.

            These major freeways in Southern California do not have 10 lanes going each direction, with some lanes being used within the common range of 65 to 75 miles per hour, and the remaining lanes set-aside for a hybrid-blend of vehicles still in the trial-and-error, experimental phases of development.

            The obvious, crossover question we can draw from this analogy to the natural living world, is do we see unlimited physical terrain on the African savanna plains for as-yet undeveloped cheetahs having a top running speed of only 35 miles per hour, chasing as-yet not fully developed Thompson’s gazelles with a top running speed of 30 miles per hour, in areas separated from fully developed cheetahs and Thompson’s gazelles running at top speeds of 70 mph and 65 mph respectively?

            And are there additional intermediate zones where we find Cheetahs with top running speeds of 20 mph, and still other incremental zones with cheetahs having variable running speeds of 40 to 60 mph?

            Do we see giraffes off in another area of a vastly larger continent of Africa, with half-way developed neck lengths feeding on the leaves part-way up trees mid-height, in a separate geographical zone set-aside for an enumerable number of developing organisms, all part-way along their journey towards their full architectural body-plans and lifestyle habits?

            One of the modern daggers through the heart of the worldview of naturalistic materialism is that there is not enough physical terrain to support the concept of a blind, mindless, accidental, trial-and-error, gradual process to reach function for the ten-million living species on earth…utilizing small-step, transitional, progressive development.

            Our earth would need many more times its surface area to support the quality of trial-and-error development that Darwinian evolution contemplated, similar to the ten or more lanes going each direction on our major freeways to accommodate a varied blend of vehicles all going at different speeds.

            What should have been obvious to Charles Darwin observing the finches on the 13 islands of the Galapagos Archipelago, is that these finches were already at their functionally developed phase of being able to drive 70 mph in the fast-lane, on the freeway of the unique biodiversity and ecology of these slightly varied islands.

            What appeared to Darwin as microevolutionary adaptation, might be analogous to these finches as they flew the relatively short distances (for birds) in the long-ago past to spread-out over these 13 islands, as speeding-up from 65 mph to 70 mph to changes lanes on the freeway, to move into a slightly faster lane.

            Darwin did not observe macroevolution actually taking place in the finches living on these islands, but observed differing finches all existing at the mature levels of survival and reproduction…of change having already occurred.

            All of Darwin’s finches on the Galapagos Archipelago at the time he observed them, were in essence driving on the freeway at 70 mph.

            As a layman reading books and watching presentations and debates on the Internet, if I am not mistaken the Galapagos Island chain does not have the necessarily broad ecosystem to support birds-of-prey. 

            There is not a profusion of small rodents as prey for hawks, eagles, and owls, and there are no small cats to catch and eat finches.

            It would appear that Darwin’s finches have no serious predators on these islands situated roughly 600 miles west of the South American continent at the equator.

            Because the Galapagos Archipelago is an island chain with limited surface area separated by water, the finches are the perfect test-tube subject for highlighting limited physical terrain that validates the concept of living organisms entering into existence at the completed end-points of development…able to immediately enter from the on-ramp into the fast-lane of the freeway at 65 to 70 mph in order to be able to survive and to reproduce.

            The challenging environment of the Galapagos Islands, which Darwin described as barren and visually inhospitable, yet teaming with incredibly varied and interesting life-forms, is the fast-lane of biodiversity and ecological balance.

            If we do not find Darwin’s finches or anything else part-way along a slowly developing path towards some future end-point of typologically defining essence on these isolated islands, then we will not find it anywhere else.

            If the earth can be described, in any geological era as always being a Southern California type freeway having narrowly defined parameters for the required velocity to enter into the flow-of-traffic, and to maintain a safe speed of 65 to 70 mph to blend into the predator/prey relationships of the various models of automobiles on these freeways, then the gradualism of Darwinian evolution lacks the available physical space to be considered a sensible option for explaining the vast diversity of life today.