Evolution: Bacteria to Beethoven
For a century Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution has been as unquestioned as Newton’s theory of gravity. But science never stops asking questions. Or at least it’s not supposed to. Stephen Meyer, Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute, takes up the challenge in this video. Are there questions about the origins of life that Darwinism can’t answer?
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Script:
Evolution.
You learned about it in high school.
It goes like this: Life started out with very simple forms and then gradually, over hundreds of millions of years, morphed into all the forms we see today. Bacteria to Beethoven. Not a straight line, of course…but that’s roughly how it went.
This was the theory proposed by Charles Darwin in 1859, and, with some modification, it has been embraced as unassailable by the science community over the last century. As evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins says, “If you meet somebody who claims not to believe in evolution, that person is either ignorant, stupid or insane.”
But is that right? Are there no scientific reasons to doubt the evolutionary account of life’s origins?
In November 2016, I attended a conference in London convened by some of the world’s leading evolutionary biologists. The purpose: to address growing doubts about the modern version of Darwin’s theory.
Let’s look at just two scientific reasons to doubt this theory.
First, the Cambrian Explosion. A weird and wonderful thing happened 530 million years ago: A whole bunch of major groups of animals—what scientists call the “phyla”—appeared abruptly within a geologically short window of time—about ten million years.
These novel animal forms—exhibiting proto-types of most animal body designs we see today—emerged in the fossil record without evidence of earlier ancestors.
Did you catch that? A huge number of diverse animals appeared, with no discernible antecedents.
So where did they come from?
This question really bothered Darwin. And he acknowledged that he could give it “no satisfactory answer.” Nor can scientists today.
The renowned biologist Eugene Koonin, of the National Center for Biotechnology Information, describes the abrupt appearance of the Cambrian animals and other organisms such as dinosaurs, birds, flowering plants and mammals as a pattern of “biological Big Bangs.”
So what caused all these new forms of life to arise? That question leads to a second big doubt: the DNA enigma.
In the 1950s, James Watson and Francis Crick made a startling discovery: The DNA molecule stores information as a four-character digital code. Strings of precisely sequenced chemicals inside the DNA helix store the instructions—the information—for building the crucial proteins that cells need to survive. Unless the chemical “letters” in the DNA text are sequenced properly, a protein molecule will not form. No proteins; no cells. No cells; no living organisms.
Bill Gates has said, “DNA is like a software program.” Let’s think about that for a second. For computers to run faster and perform more functions, they require new code. Well, the same is true for life: To build new forms of life, the evolutionary process would need to produce new genetic information—new code.
But this raises questions about the creative power of natural selection and mutation. Natural selection is a simple sorting process. Species keep favorable mutations that allow them to survive but eliminate bad mutations that cause their members to die out. No one doubts that natural selection is a real process and that it produces minor variations, but many biologists now doubt that it produces major innovations in biological form.
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It is fascinating how many commenters truly do not understand the purely scientific arguments put forth by Meyer. Darwin himself said the Cambrian explosion needed to be solved for his theory to be true. Evolutionary biologists themselves are dissatisfied with neo-Darwinian theory of natural selection + mutation. None of it has been proven, only small adaptions have been observed. I suppose those who believe Darwin have a sort of blind faith, and since it is a religious belief in evolution, they cannot view it scientifically.
Prager U. lies abut evolution.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcZOzHMOXoQ
Creationists lies about the Cambrian “Explosion”
Creationist claim a sudden emergence of life forms (with no ancestor life forms) during the Cambrian period. With this claim they assert “creation” of all life forms as they appear at the present day, thus asserting that no evolution took place or was required (only variations in “kinds” — whatever “kinds” means).
Placing the Cambrian period into perspective, we understand that this geological period lasted 52 million years (from 541 mya until 489.5 mya) and was preceded by the Ediacaran period, which lasted 39 million years. Again, hardly an eye blink.
The Ediacaran Period was marked by considerable tectonic activity, including the end of the Pan-African episode—a long interval of mountain building, rifting, and reorganization spanning most of the Neoproterozoic Era. The Ediacaran Period produced some of the earliest known evidence of the evolution of multicellular animals (the metazoans). Metazoans required an increased oxygen levels (a large colony of metasoans were discovered in South Australia in 1946). The predominant Ediacara fauna in the fossil record is a group of unusual soft-bodied (invertebrate) forms that predated the Cambrian period. The life forms of the Ediacaran were direct ancestors of oncoming (evolved) forms of the Cambrian. Thus creationists tell lies. All Cambrian life forms had ancestors.
The Cambrian period is divided into four series (epochs) (Terreneuvian, Miaolingian, Series 2 and Furongian). Each of these sub-periods has its own evolutionary history. The average temperature of 54 degrees rose to 72 degrees during the Cambrian; the increase in oxygen levels followed as well. The climate conditions helped to speed up the rate of evolution. The Precambrian-Cambrian biotic transition to the Cambrian, once thought to be sudden or abrupt, has been found to include a succession of events spread over many millions of years. It commenced with the appearance of the animal kingdom (i.e., multicelled organisms that ingest food At least three informal phases in the transition can be identified by progressively more diverse and complex.
The earliest phase of late Precambrian age is characterized by fossils of soft-bodied animals known from many localities around the world. Based on fossils of animal embryos, it is thought that elements of the Ediacaran fauna appeared more than 600 million years ago. The fossils are predominantly the imprints of soft-bodied animals.
The second phase of the Precambrian-Cambrian biotic transition is characterized by a marked increase in the diversity of its shelly fauna and a lack of trilobites. It is near the lowest stratigraphic occurrence of this fauna that the Precambrian-Cambrian boundary stratotype has been placed. Fossils of the second phase, which may be locally abundant, represent several new animal groups of Paleozoic aspect. Calcified archaeocyathans (extinct group of sponges thought to have helped construct the first reefs) diversified rapidly and were the first skeletal metazoans (multicellular animals with differentiated tissues) to develop a modular growth habit.
The third phase of the Precambrian-Cambrian biotic transition commenced with the appearance of mineralized trilobite skeletons. The subsequent adaptive radiation of the trilobites was exceptional, and their remains dominate most the later Cambrian deposits.
Here we need to note the fraudulent propaganda of Stephen Meyer and Jonathan Wells from the Discovery Institute (as advertised by the DI mouthpiece” “EvolutionNews”). This creationist nonsense conveniently uses the Cambrian period to declare that “all life forms had suddenly appeared fully created – not evolved”. This is just the claim of supernatural creation (religion) in disguise.
The scientific evidence disputes and destroys the ID claim. Each living organism in the Cambrian (and also prior and post the Cambrian) descended (evolved) from other organisms within one of the sub-periods of the Cambrian or from the Edicaran period. Darwin and his genius laid the basic foundation for a common descent, and the last 160 years provided the vast amounts of evidence to support his discovery.
A very details explanation of the Cambrian period is published by the National Academy of Sciences
Stephen Meyer (who has no education in biology) is a senior member of the Discovery Institute, and anti-science creationist cult. He gets paid for preaching creationist propaganda. Evolution is a fact and a scientific theory. It has been observed in nature and duplicated in the laboratory. There is not a single science organization anywhere in the world that rejects evolution. This video is just the thousand times repetition of lies and the creationist propaganda from the Discovery Institute. Stephen Meyer one of the chief mouthpieces for the anti-science trash, has been totally discredited at Kitzmiller v. Dover 2005 trial, where Intelligent Design was exposed and made a laughing stock
Atheistic evolutionists think they're highly evolved pond scum fizzing randomness in a random chaotic universe and yet they apparently know what the truth about mans origins and being is… They're delusional. Macro Evolution is laughable, unproven nonsense and takes absolute believers to embrace it.
What did the proto-Pteranodon look like? What advantage did having a longer little finger provide? And a web between its arm and the finger? Why would they get longer and larger? Wouldn't that require additional mutations- more accidental changes in the DNA?
Very funny to defer to "basic biology" when it is expedient but just outright refuse it when it isn't
As a great admirer of your work, I have to say that I am not happy seeing you on this ridiculous propaganda platform.
The Cambrian explosion is easily explained by evolution
Most people don't realize that the entire phylogenetic tree of life is an unconfirmed hypothesis, without any proof.
Imagine being dumb enough to believe this.
Oh, look, it’s Stephen Meyer. The guy who tried to push intelligent design in Dover, Pennsylvania, but then had to drop out because he lost control of the Biblical creationists he was using to propagate his absurd ideas.
Wow, he’s had work done.
Evolution is a myth
actually hot garbage lmfao
"Even 4 billion years of life's history is not enough time to overcome a search problem this big." Far from an objective standpoint, and therefore inherently unscientific. Seriously, just admit that it isn't currently explainable and move on, whether moving on is giving up or continuing to try finding an explanation.
I was skeptical of the "Truth" or FACT of evolution way back in High School in the 1960's!
Since then I've spent almost 50 years looking for the so called "Truth" or provable "Science" behind their whole "Theory". IT'S NOT THERE!
Darwinism has become a religious Dogma. Our children are being tought to "just accept" someone else's Philosophical choices rather then to Look at the "Scientific Evidence"!
And THAT is wrong.
Stephen C. Meyer: It was the magic sky Jew
What's up with these dummy computer scientists talking against evolution. Bro study evolution first.
I feel bad for the kids that have this as their primary source of education. Academically hobbling them for the sake of religious indoctrination. What an embarrassing era to be a Christian.
Darwinian theory to this date is still a theory. Lest anyone forget.