Darwinian Frauds

Our Evolution Myth #3 contends that Darwinism, being a science, is firmly grounded in empirical methods. In fact, the history of Darwinian evolution is founded on a speculation about the origin of species, has been perpetuated by some of the most egregious frauds in the history of science, and to this day hides its many deficiencies. We will see that the Darwinian’s eagerness to prove what they believed was a dangerous prescription for fraud.

Ernst Haeckel (b1834) was perhaps the most embarrassing of the Darwinian liars. Darwin believed that early embryos “show more or less completely the condition of the progenitor of the whole group in its adult life.” Darwin argued in The Descent of Man that since all vertebrate embryos look alike in early development, one “ought to admit frankly to their community of descent.”

Haeckel drew pictures comparing embryonic development of fish, reptiles, birds, mammals and humans to illustrate this so called “Biogenetic Law.” Over a century later, nine out of ten high school and college biology texts use the Haeckel drawing to make the case for Darwinian evolution. The 1994 edition of Molecular Biology of the Cell by National Academy of Sciences president Bruce Alberts states that “evolution explains why embryos of different species so often resemble each other in the early stages, and as they develop seem to replay the steps of evolution.”

Unfortunately, Haeckel’s drawing was a patent fake and the biology community had rejected the idea that cross-species embryos look alike over a century ago. Finally, in a 1995 issue of Science magazine was an admission: “The Haeckel illustration is turning out to be one of the most famous fakes in biology.” In the March 2000 issue of Natural History, revered scientist Steven Jay Gould admitted that he had known that “Haeckel faked his drawings for more than 20 years.” Then why did all these noted scientists perpetuate the lie in generations of school books?

In 1909 the “Piltdown Man” was discovered in England and proclaimed to be the missing link between ape and man. It was not until 1953 that the British Museum took the time to run a chemical analysis on the bones. The results showed that the skull was that of a 20th century human, the jaw was pure orangutan, with teeth that were deliberately filed to look human, and the remains were stained to appear ancient. Another fraud!

In Nov. 1999, National Geographic Magazine breathlessly announced the discovery of a fossil called archeoraptor. What might be termed “Piltdown Bird” was billed as the missing link between dinosaur and bird. Chinese paleontologists, who seem to have less reverence for Darwinian evolution than their American colleagues, examined the dino-bird and discovered that some rascal had merely glued a tiny dinosaur tail onto the body of a bird.

Fraud in the name of Darwin even finds its way into the arts. “Inherit the Wind” is a play that purports to tells the story of the Scopes “monkey trial.” Unfortunately the play and the movie that followed are full of lies and half truths about Christian opposition to science.

What motivates these egregious falsehoods in the name of science?

Darwinist Richard Lewontin of Harvard: We take the side of science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs, in spite of its failure to fulfill many of its extravagant promises of health and life ….. because we have a prior commitment to materialism. … materialism is absolute for we cannot allow a divine foot in the door.

While acknowledging “the extreme rarity of transitional forms in the fossil record,” Steven Gould admited that this potential major embarrassment “has been held as a trade secret of paleontology.” As Niles Eldrege sums up: “We paleontologists have said that the history of life supports the Darwinian theory all the while really knowing that it does not.”

Or, in the words of Darwinian bulldog Richard Dawkins: “The theory is about as much in doubt as the earth goes around the sun.” Yeah, RIGHT.


References

Hoodwinked by Jack Cashill
For the Glory of God by Rodney Stark