Page 79 - The Importance of Following the Good Word

and transform themselves into another living species, for in-
stance, horses.
Therefore, the mechanism of natural selection has no evo-
lutionary power. Darwin was also aware of this fact and had
to state this in his book The Origin of Species:
Natural selection can do nothing until favourable individ-
ual differences or variations occur. 7

Lamarck's Impact
So, how could these "favorable variations" occur? Darwin
tried to answer this question from the standpoint of the prim-
itive understanding of science at that time. According to the
French biologist Chevalier de Lamarck (1744-1829), who
lived before Darwin, living creatures passed on the traits
they acquired during their lifetime to the next generation. He
asserted that these traits, which accumulated from one gen-
eration to another, caused new species to be formed. For in-
stance, he claimed that giraffes evolved from antelopes; as
they struggled to eat the leaves of high trees, their necks were
extended from generation to generation.
Darwin also gave similar examples. In his book The
Origin of Species, for instance, he said that some bears going
into water to find food transformed themselves into whales
over time. 8
However, the laws of inheritance discovered by Gregor
Mendel (1822-84) and verified by the science of genetics,
which flourished in the twentieth century, utterly demol-
ished the legend that acquired traits were passed on to subse-
quent generations. Thus, natural selection fell out of favor as

The Deception of Evolution 77