Page 220 - The Miracle of Migration in Animals
P. 220

THE MIRACLE OF MIGRATION IN ANIMALS

                 tion phenomenon in animals. For example, how can a bird’s flying for
                 six weeks in a southeasterly direction, then four weeks in a northeast-
                 erly direction, be programmed gradually in its DNA’s amino acid
                 chain? Or how can a gene tell a fish when to migrate and where in the
                                                ocean it should go? No rational,
                                                intelligent person could agree
                                                that unconscious molecules can
                                                direct an animal so precisely as to
                                                when it should act and what it
                                                should do. But evolutionary biol-
                                                ogists claim that selective genet-
                                                ics lets animals “bequeath” useful
                                                forms of behavior to future gener-
                                                ations. Even though he is an evo-
                                                lutionist, Gordon R. Taylor
                                                criticizes this claim in his book
                                                dealing with subjects that
                                                Darwinism cannot explain:

                                                But the plain fact is that the genetic
                                                mechanism shows not the slightest
                                                sign of being able to convey specific
                                                behaviour patterns. What it does is
                                                manufacture proteins. By producing
                                                more of certain hormones it could af-
                                                fect behaviour in an overall way –
                                                making the animal more aggressive,
                                                more passive or perhaps even more
                                                maternal. But there is not the faintest
                                                indication that it can hand on a be-
                                                havioural programme of a specific
                                                kind, such as the sequence of actions
                                                involved in nest building. If in fact






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