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Luskin: The Dead Talk Back to Darwin

Photo: Archaeopteryx, by H. Raab (User: Vesta), CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons.

In his review of Return of the God Hypothesis, I was struck by Leonard Sax’s quote from Friedrich Nietzsche, the year before Darwin’s death. Nietzsche reflected on the meaning of Darwinism for man: 

Formerly one sought the feeling of the grandeur of man by pointing to his divine origin: this has now become a forbidden way, for at its portal stands the ape, together with other dreadful beasts, grinning knowingly as if to say: no further in this direction!

The image of “dreadful beasts” blocking the way is vivid and seemed correct at the time. The fossil record, in particular — a record of beasts (and other life forms) that lived and died — has often been presented by Darwinists as confirmation of their theory. Charles Darwin himself recognized that the voices of the dead were not entirely with him. Events like the Cambrian Explosion were not at all what was predicted by his theory of gradual, unguided change over time.

As geologist Casey Luskin explains in a bonus video accompanying the latest Science Uprising video, the fossils speak with an increasing insistence against Darwinian evolution. Darwin could predict that the fossil record was incomplete and that with time and additional digging, it would vindicate him.

Something Beyond Evolution

Not so, however. Luskin notes that the so-called “collector’s curve” tells us that the fossils are complete enough now to draw a conclusion. They reflect multiple genuine explosions of new forms, from the Cambrian to the abrupt rise of our genus Homo, while the expected transitional forms are either rare or totally lacking. On the other hand, population genetics and the waiting time problem are decisive in indicating that something beyond an unguided material process must be involved.

The “dreadful beasts, grinning knowingly,” have a message for evolutionists: “no further in this direction!” They are, in their way, part of the Science Uprising. If you missed the latest episode, watch it now: