PART 3
17 EVIDENCES AGAINST EVOLUTION
4. EMBRYONIC RECAPITULATION
Darwin said that embryological evidence was "second to none
in importance." The idea of embryonic recapitulation, or the
theory that higher life forms go through the previous evolution-
ary chain before birth, was popularized by Ernst Haeckel in 1866.
It was later found that Haeckel forged the diagrams which he used
is evidence for the theory.
The main arguments for embryonic recapitulation are the sup-
posed "gill slits" (left over from fish), "yolk sac" (left over
from the reptile stage), and "tail" (from the monkeys) in the
human embryo. The gill slits, so called, are never slits, nor do
they ever function in respiration. They are actually four pairs
of pharyngeal pouches: the first pair become germ-fighting or-
gans; the second, the two middle ear canals; the third and fourth
pairs become the important parathyroid and thymus glands.
The yolk sac does not store food because the mother's body
provides this to the embryo. In fact, the "yolk sac" is not a
yolk sac at all, but its true function is to produce the first
blood cells.
The "tail" is just the tip of the spine extending beyond the
muscles of the embryo. The end of this will eventually become the
coccyx, which is instrumental in the ability to stand and sit as
humans do.
Also arguing against recapitulation is the fact that differ-
ent higher life forms experience different stages in different
orders, and often contrary to the assumed evolutionary order.
5. PROBABILITY
The science of probability has not been favorable to evolu-
tionary theory, even with the theory's loose time restraints. Dr.
James Coppedge, of the Center for Probability Research in Biology
in California, made some amazing calculations. Dr. Coppedge
"applied all the laws of probability studies to the
possibility of a single cell coming into existence by
chance. He considered in the same way a single protein
molecule, and even a single gene. His discoveries are
revolutionary. He computed a world in which the entire
crust of the earth - all the oceans, all the atoms, and
the whole crust were available. He then had these amino
acids bind at a rate one and one-half trillion times
faster than they do in nature. In computing the possi-
bilities, he found that to provide a single protein
molecule by chance combination would take 10, to the
262nd power, years." (That is, the number 1 followed by
262 zeros.) "To get a single cell - the single smallest
living cell known to mankind - which is called the my-
croplasm hominis H39, would take 10, to the 119,841st
power, years. That means that if you took thin pieces
of paper and wrote 1 and then wrote zeros after (it),
you would fill up the entire known universe with paper
before you could ever even write that number. That is
how many years it would take to make one living cell,
smaller than any human cell!"
According to Emile Borel, a French scientist and expert in
the area of probability, an event on the cosmic level with a
probability of less than 1 out of 10, to the 50th power, will not
happen. The probability of producing one human cell by chance is
10, to the 119,000 power.
Sir Fred Hoyle, British mathematician and astronomer, was
quoted in Nature magazine, November 12, 1981, as saying "The
chance that higher life forms might have emerged in this way
(evolution) is comparable with the chance that a tornado sweeping
through a junk-yard might assemble a Boeing 747 from the materi-
als therein."
As one can readily see, here is yet one more test
that evolution theory has flunked.