The NAS’s Error in Portraying the Distribution of Species As Evidence of Evolution

In the chapter entitled "The Distribution of Species," the NAS portrays the subject of biogeography, which is still the topic of much debate amongst evolutionists, as evidence of evolution (Science and Creationism, p. 15). The NAS's views on this subject are summed up in these words:

And why are island groups like the Galápagos so often inhabited by forms similar to those on the nearest mainland but belonging to different species? Evolutionary theory explains that biological diversity results from the descendants of local or migrant predecessors becoming adapted to their diverse environments. This explanation can be tested by examining present species and local fossils to see whether they have similar structures, which would indicate how one is derived from the other. Also, there should be evidence that species without an established local ancestry had migrated into the locality.

Let us examine the NAS's account. According to the NAS, living things on islands such as Hawaii or Galápagos, which are surrounded by vast reaches of ocean, either evolved from other living things in the region or else in some way evolved from "migrant predecessors" that came to the islands. There is a geographical obstacle between these islands and other land masses. For that reason, these living things adapt to the features of a particular region and acquire specific features. As we have already seen, this is what biologists call "microevolution"—that is, variation, in which an organ does not acquire new genetic information and which is therefore not an example of evolution. As we saw in the chapter "The NAS's Errors Regarding Speciation," no species can evolve into another, no matter what that species may be nor how long it may remain geographically isolated. We examined in some detail in that chapter why it is wrong to portray variation as evolution.

In fact, that example is important because it introduces us to a deceptive method frequently employed by evolutionists. That is the way they refer to any change in nature, or even in society, as "evolution" and portray it as evidence for the theory. Sometimes, evolutionists employ an even more deceptive variety of this method and say, "Evolution is gradual change." According to this misleading definition, all kinds of changes could be portrayed as "living examples of evolution." In fact, as we saw at the beginning, human cultural and technological change is even described an "evolution" and immediately linked to Darwinism. All these distortions are deceptions which can only mislead those who lack sufficient information on the subject or fail to consider it properly. They show just how despairing the proponents of the theory of evolution are when it comes to finding evidence.

On the other hand, the verbiage employed in the NAS book is also of interest. For instance, the NAS authors suggest that some snail and fruit fly species found on Hawaii evolved from a few common ancestors that reached the area in the past. Yet, for some reason, there is no fossil evidence to back this up. The NAS is employing the familiar old evolutionist logic, saying, "All living things came into being by evolution; that means they all descended from a common ancestor."

Hawaii

Biogeography, the geographical distribution of living things, offers no evidence of evolution. This branch of science concerns such subjects as mapping, the extinction of organisms, and ecology. Despite being evolutionists, G. Nelson and N. Platnick of the American Museum of Natural History in New York, admit that biogeography has nothing to do with the theory of evolution:

We conclude, therefore, that biogeography (or geographical distribution of organisms) has not been shown to be evidence for or against evolution in any sense.1

NOTES

1. G. Nelson, N. Platnick, Systematics and Biogeography: Cladistics and Vicariance, Columbia University Press, 1981, pp. 223, 375.