Page 111 - The Evolution Impasse 2

Origin of Instinct 109

builds its mar vel ous hex ag o nal over throw my whole the o ry. 110
combs that are mar vels of math e - The dif fi cul ty that he ex pe ri enced
mat ics. To put it an oth er way, the with re gard to in stincts is de scribed
genes of all the hon ey bees in the in the book The Life and Letters of
world are pro grammed with the in - Charles Darwin, a col lec tion of his
stinct to con struct per fect hex ag o nal cor re spond ence col lect ed by his son,
combs. If liv ing things per form the Francis Darwin:
ma jor i ty of their be hav iors be cause
Chapter III. of the Sketch, which con -
they are pro grammed to do so, then
cludes the first part, treats of the var i -
who pro grammed them? Since no a tions which oc cur in the in stincts and
pro gram can come in to be ing of its hab its of an i mals . . . It seems to have
own ac cord, this pro gram must have been placed thus ear ly in the Essay to
a pro gram mer. What ev o lu tion ists pre vent the has ty re jec tion of the whole
at tempt to ex plain in terms of "in - the o ry by a read er to whom the idea of
stinct" or by say ing "Animals have nat u ral se lec tion act ing on in stincts
been pro grammed to do this," is ac - might seem im pos si ble. This is the
more prob a ble, as the Chapter on
tu al ly the in spi ra tion of Allah.
Instinct in the Origin is spe cial ly men -
Charles Darwin, who first pro -
tioned (Introduction, page 5) as one of
posed the the o ry of ev o lu tion, re al -
the "most ap par ent and grav est dif fi -
ized that an i mal be hav ior and in -
cul ties on the the o ry." 111
stinct rep re sent ed ma jor threats to
When left with out an an swer, ev -
his the o ry. In The Origin of Species,
o lu tion ists some times claim that an i -
he open ly ad mit ted as much, sev er al
mals learn some be hav ior by way of
times:
ex pe ri ence, and the best of that be -
Many in stincts are so won der ful that
hav ior is fa vored by nat u ral se lec -
their de vel op ment will prob a bly ap pear
tion. This good be hav ior is lat er
to the read er a dif fi cul ty suf fi cient to
hand ed on to sub se quent gen er a -
tions by way of he red i ty.
The log i cal flaws and un sci en -
tif ic think ing in this claim are
quite clear:
1. The er ro ne ous claim that
"use ful be hav ior is fa vored by
nat u ral se lec tion."