Page 97 - The Mercy of Believers

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THE EVOLUTION MISCONCEPTION

deer herd under the threat of attack by wild animals, 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 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 individual
differences or variations occur. 8

Lamarck's Impact

So, how could these "favourable variations" occur? Darwin
tried to answer this question from the standpoint of the prim-
itive understanding of science in his age. According to the
French biologist Lamarck, who lived before Darwin, living
creatures passed on the traits they acquired during their life-
time to the next generation and these traits, accumulating from
one generation to another, caused new species to be formed.
For instance, according to Lamarck, giraffes evolved from an-
telopes; as they struggled to eat the leaves of high trees, their
necks were extended from generation to generation.
Darwin also gave similar examples, and in his book The
Origin of Species, for instance, said that some bears going into
water to find food transformed themselves into whales over
time. 9
However, the laws of inheritance discovered by Mendel
and verified by the science of genetics that flourished in the
20th century, utterly demolished the legend that acquired
traits were passed on to subsequent generations. Thus, natu-
ral selection fell out of favour as an evolutionary mechanism.