Page 41 - The Errors the American National Academy of Sciences

The NAS's Error on Natural Selection

by natural selection came about by means of mutations. As we shall be
seeing, however, mutations are incapable of bringing about the benefi-
cial changes necessary for a living thing to evolve.

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T The Error in Darwin's Analogy Method
Darwin arrived at his conclusion that natural selection was the
mechanism which accounted for the origin of species, not by means of
experiment or observation, but by a method of comparison.
In Darwin's time there was considerable interest in livestock
breeding. Despite frequent claims that Darwin's ideas were inspired by
the beaks of Galapagos finches and Malthus's demographic studies,
the inspiration behind them actually came from livestock breeding.
Darwin drew an analogy between the breeding of livestock (artifi-
cial selection) and natural selection, and concluded that if livestock and
plant breeders can improve plants and animals through the use of arti-
ficial selection and breed sheep with better wool, cows with more flesh
and better running horses, then nature may well do these also. Yet this
comparison is misleading in a number of respects. First and foremost,
those who breed animals and plants possess the necessary information
to select the most suitable and to protect what they select. Darwin's
theory, on the other hand, maintains that aimless natural process can
replace a rational one.
Gould has made the following comment regarding the invalidity
of this comparison:
[Tom] Bethell argues quite correctly [in a piece called "Darwin's
Mistake" in Harper's] that [Darwin] relied upon analogy to establish it
[his definition of survival of the fittest], a dangerous and slippery
strategy. 5
There is a limit to even the most expert breeders' ability to pro-
duce variation—in other words, varying characteristics—within a
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