by Bill Nugent
Article #86
The secular media is abuzz with information about the recent find of fossils of a birdlike creature with flight feathers on both forelimbs and hindlimbs. The creature is called “Microraptor gui” and was found in China. Neo-Darwinian evolutionists boldly promote it as a transitional form between dinosaurs and birds. Evolutionists apparently believe that dinosaurs are the ancestors of birds.
(After I wrote this article I found out that National Geographicmagazine has publicly admitted that the archaeoraptor fossils are fakes that were produced in China. See National GeographicMarch 2000 issue. I discuss this embarrassment for evolution inDTF 182. – Bill Nugent)
No one disputes the fact that this is an unusual fossil. It is a creature that has unusual features, namely feathers like a bird but skeletal characteristics unlike any living species of bird. I would point out that the duckbilled platypus, an animal species living today in Australia has a bill like a bird yet also has fur like a mammal. Many animals like platypus and also the lungfish have unusual features. Unusual features alone do not offer proof positive of a transitional form.
To accept Microraptor as a transitional form one has to presuppose belief in Darwinian evolution. In other words if someone has a prior belief in evolution then that person finds it reasonable to believe that Microraptor is a transitional fossil. On the other hand let’s suppose that another person does not have a prior belief in evolution because he sees the deficiencies in evolution such as the impossibility of the first living cell forming from nonliving chemicals and also the fact that genetic mutations don’t add information to the genes but just scramble pre-existing genes. Such a person who logically rejects evolution on the above mentioned points will regard Microraptor as simply an example of an animal with unusual features.
To use an illustration from criminal law let’s say that in a murder case Smith’s fingerprints were found all over the gun used to kill Jones and this fact was broadcast to the whole nation. People would immediately be convinced that Smith killed Jones. However let’s suppose that at the time of the murder Smith was on a fishing trip a thousand miles away with the district attorney! I’d say that Smith’s alibi totally clears him of involvement with Jones’ murder. What about the fingerprints? Smith’s fingerprints got on the gun at some time or other but do not in any way prove that Smith did the dastardly deed. Microraptor does, if taken alone, seem to point to evolution but the glaring deficiencies in evolution, namely the impossibility of life coming from nonlife and the lack of genetic mechanism, are more than enough to totally discredit not only evolution itself but also Microraptor as an alleged proof. The impossibility of life coming from nonlife and the lack of genetic mechanism is the “alibi” that proves that evolution could not have taken place.
A large number of simultaneous beneficial genetic mutations would have to occur to add the information to the DNA of a small dinosaur to cause feathers to grow on that dinosaur or its offspring. The probability of such simultaneous mutations occurring is so small as to be rendered impossible. Let me list a wide range of scientific sources which prove that genetic mutation is not a credible mechanism for evolutionary change. Jonathan Sarfati, Ph.D. Refuting Evolution, Master Books, 1999, pp. 39-41; Scott Huse Ph.D. The Collapse of Evolution, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, 1983, pp. 89-95; Henry M. Morris, Ph.D.,Creationism, Master Books, El Cajon, CA 1974 pp. 54-57. I also refer you to Dr. Lee Spetner’s book Not by Chance! and to the work of German information scientist Werner Gitt.
Evolutionists shy away from any hard discussion of genetics because genetics is precise, measurable, subject to computer driven probability analysis and has little wiggle room for speculation. The science of genetics clearly proves that random mutation cannot be the mechanism of evolution. Evolution has no alternative mechanism. Therefore on this point alone (and other points I won’t go into here) evolution has been falsified. Those who regard Microraptor as a transitional form do so by faith. If such a faith in evolution takes them away from faith in God I pity them and I pray for them to return to God and to receive salvation.