Page 63 - Love in the Gospel

ural selection". The importance he placed on this mechanism was evident in
the name of his book: The Origin of Species, By Means of Natural Selection…
Natural selection holds that those living things that are stronger and

more suited to the natural conditions of their habitats will survive in the strug-
gle for life. For example, in a deer herd under the threat of attack by wild an-
imals, those that can run faster will survive. Therefore, the deer herd will be
comprised of faster and stronger individuals. However, unquestionably, this
mechanism will not cause deer to evolve and transform themselves into an-
other living species, for instance, horses.
Therefore, the mechanism of natural selection has no evolutionary
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 individual differences or
variations occur. (Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species by Means of Nat-
ural Selection, The Modern Library, New York, p. 127)

Lamarck's Fallacy

So, how could these "favorable variations" occur? Darwin tried to answer
this question from the standpoint of the primitive 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 generation to another, caused new species to be ADNAN OKTAR (HARUN YAHYA)

formed. For instance, he claimed that giraffes evolved from antelopes; as they
struggled to eat the leaves of high trees, their necks were extended from gen-
eration 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
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themselves into whales over time. (Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species: A