Page 107 - The Errors the American National Academy of Sciences
P. 107

A          nother phenomenon that the


                                  National Academy of Sciences repre-
                       A sents as proof of the theory of evolution is
                 homology. Homologies are common structures possessed by
                different living things. The NAS has taken the similarities in the
               skeletons of human beings and such animals as mice and bats as
              an example and proposed that "they are best explained by common
              descent." (Science and Creationism, p. 14) The NAS repeats the claims

              made and examples cited in Darwin's The Origin of Species, but en-
             tirely ignores the discoveries made in the fields of anatomy and biol-
             ogy since Darwin's day, thus demonstrating that it has remained at the
              scientific level of 150 years ago.
                  Before moving on to the NAS's unscientific claims, let us first
              have a quick look at the concept of homology.


                                    w
                                                    o
                                                     g
                                 arwin's Homology Error
                                      n
                                           H
                                             o
                                         s
                                                 o
                                               m
                                 a
                                                         E
                                                            r
                                                             o
                               D Darwin's Homology Error
                               D Da r r w i i n ' ' s     H o m o l l o g y      E r r r o r r
                                                       y
                    In the chapter of  The Origin of Species  entitled "Mutual
                Affinities of Organic Beings: Morphology, Embryology,
                 Rudimentary Organs," Darwin spoke of similar structures in
                   species and suggested that this could only be accounted for
                    by his theory of development from a common ancestor.
                          Although Darwin and the evolutionists who
                        came after him maintained that the only expla-
                          nation for common structures between
                             living things is evolution from a
                                 common ancestor, most sci-
                                      entists   before
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