Page 273 - Communism in Ambush

Adnan Oktar (Harun Yahya)
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and more suited to the natural conditions of their habitats will survive
in the struggle for life. For example, in a 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 indi-
viduals. However, unquestionably, this mechanism will not cause
deer to evolve and transform themselves into another living species,
for instance, horses.
Therefore, the mechanism of natural selection has no evolutionary
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. (Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species by Means of
Natural Selection, The Modern Library, New York, p. 127)

LAMARCK’S FALLACY

So, how could these “favorable variations” occur? Darwin tried to
answer this question from the standpoint of the primitive under-
standing of science at that time. According to the French biologist
Chevalier de Lamarck (1744-1829), who lived before Darwin, living
creatures passed on the traits they acquired during their lifetime to
the next generation. He asserted that these traits, which accumulated
from one generation to another, caused new species to be formed.
For instance, he claimed that giraffes evolved from antelopes; as they
struggled to eat the leaves of high trees, their necks were extended
from generation to generation.
Darwin also gave similar examples. In his book The Origin of
Species, for instance, he said that some bears going into water to find
food transformed themselves into whales over time. (Charles
Darwin, The Origin of Species: A Facsimile of the First Edition,
Harvard University Press, 1964, p. 184.)
However, the laws of inheritance discovered by Gregor Mendel
(1822-84) and verified by the science of genetics, which flourished in