Speaking of evolutionary diehards and the desperate defense of the “Junk DNA” myth, Jonathan Wells in Zombie Science quotes the best of all. It’s evolutionary biologist Dan Graur of the University of Houston.

To call him Darwin’s reactionary is an irony, I realize, since this guy is a flaming left-winger, as a glance at his Twitter feed will confirm (the profile photo shows an upside-down American flag). But read what he says about Junk DNA, quoted by Jonathan Wells in his new book:

In 2013, biologist Dan Graur criticized the “evolution-free gospel of ENCODE” and accused its researchers of “playing fast and loose with the term ‘function,’ by divorcing genomic analysis from its evolutionary context.”⁸¹ In a lecture at the University of Houston, Graur argued that “if the human genome is indeed devoid of junk DNA as implied by the ENCODE project, then a long, undirected evolutionary process cannot explain the human genome.” In other words: “If ENCODE is right, then evolution is wrong.” But for Graur, evolution can’t be wrong. His solution to the problem? “Kill ENCODE.”⁸²

That puts it pretty plainly. What comes first is the evolutionary gospel. Everything else must be understood in its light. Evolution must be right, as Jonathan Wells summarizes, “no matter what”:

Lots of evolutionists think that way but only the rare Darwinian atheist materialist is willing to state the matter as nakedly as this. No wonder Dr. Graur is among a list of individuals thanked by Dr. Wells in his Acknowledgments for “making embarrassingly candid or unwittingly humorous statements.” You are welcome.

Photo: University of Houston, by Another Believer (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons.