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dividuals’ offspring into life forms that long period of time, a new species will
were very different from their forerun- emerge.
ner. (How these beneficial changes came However, this theory of evolution by
about unclear, however.) According to way of natural selection, as by Darwin
Darwin, human beings were the most proposed it, left unanswered the most
advanced product of this hypothetical fundamental questions right from the
mechanism. outset. If living things had evolved in
Darwin called this product of his stages, as Darwin claimed, then a great
own imagination “evolution by way of many transitional forms must have exis-
natural selection.” He now imagined that ted as well. Yet the fossil record revealed
he had discovered the origin of species. no trace of these theoretical transitional
The origin of any one species was anot- life forms. Darwin puzzled over this
her, less developed species. He eventu- problem for a long time and eventually
ally announced these ideas in his book had to conclude that hopefully, such fos-
The Origin of Species, published in sils would be unearthed in the future.
1859. Despite the passage of the intervening
Darwin constructed his theory on the 150 years, however, the expected fossils
concept of natural selection, which me- have still not been found.
ant the survival of the strongest indivi- Darwin was in an equally hopeless
duals or those best able to adapt to envi- position when it came to accounting for
ronmental conditions in the struggle for such complex organs as the eye, ear and
survival in their environment. That is the wing in terms of natural selection. It was
claim emphasized in the subtitle of Dar- impossible to maintain that these organs
win’s book: The Origin of Species: By developed in stages, since the absence of
Means of Natural Selection. even a single component would render
Darwin’s groundless logic followed them totally functionless,. (See Irredu-
this reasoning: cible Complexity.) Indeed, Darwin was
There are natural and random diffe- forced to state the difficulties he experi-
rences within any living species. Some enced regarding his theory in his book.
cattle are larger than others, for example, (See Origin of Species, the)
and others are darker in color. Those Before all, the question of how the
characteristics that are most advantageo- organism that by Darwin referred to as
us will be favored through natural selec- the ancestor of all living things came in-
tion, and the beneficial characteristic in to being remained a complete mystery—
question will thus come to predominate because it is impossible for inanimate
in that animal population. Through an matter to come alive by means of natural
accumulation of these features over a processes. Eventually, advances in sci-

THE EVOLUTION IMPASSE I