Page 749 - Atlas of Creation Volume 1

Harun Yahya

Industrial Melanism is
certainly not an evi-
dence for evolution be-
cause the process did
not produce any new
species of moths. The
selection was only
among already existing
varieties. Moreover, the
classical story of
melanism is deceptive.
The textbook pictures to
the side (portrayed as
genuine photos) are in
fact of dead specimens
glued or pinned to tree
trunks by evolutionists.

explaining the theory of evolution by natural selection in the most explicit way. The most famous of his ex-

amples on this subject is about the colour of the moth population, which appeared to darken during the
Industrial Revolution in England. It is possible to find the story of the Industrial Melanism in almost all evo-
lutionist biology books, not just in Futuyma's book. The story is based on a series of experiments conducted
by the British physicist and biologist Bernard Kettlewell in the 1950s, and can be summarised as follows:

According to the account, around the onset of the Industrial Revolution in England, the colour of the tree
barks around Manchester was quite light. Because of this, dark-coloured (melanic) moths resting on those
trees could easily be noticed by the birds that fed on them and therefore they had very little chance of sur-
vival. Fifty years later, in woodlands where industrial pollution has killed the lichens, the barks of the trees

had darkened, and now the light-colored moths became the most hunted, since they were the most easily no-
ticed. As a result, the proportion of light-coloured moths to dark-coloured moths decreased. Evolutionists
believe this to be a great piece of evidence for their theory. They take refuge and solace in window-dressing,
showing how light-coloured moths "evolved" into dark-coloured ones.

However, even if we assume these to be correct, it should be quite clear that they can in no way be used
as evidence for the theory of evolution, since no new form arose that had not existed before. Dark colored
moths had existed in the moth population before the Industrial Revolution. Only the relative proportions of
the existing moth varieties in the population changed. The moths had not acquired a new trait or organ,

which would cause "speciation". In order for one moth species to turn into another living species, a bird for
example, new additions would have had to be made to its genes. That is, an entirely separate genetic pro-
gram would have had to be loaded so as to include information about the physical traits of the bird.
This is the answer to be given to the evolutionist story of Industrial Melanism. However, there is a more

interesting side to the story: Not just its interpretation, but the story itself is flawed. As molecular biologist
Jonathan Wells explains in his book Icons of Evolution, the story of the peppered moths, which is included in
every evolutionist biology book and has therefore, become an "icon" in this sense, does not reflect the truth.
Wells discusses in his book how Bernard Kettlewell's experiment, which is known as the "experimental

proof" of the story, is actually a scientific scandal. Some basic elements of this scandal are:
• Many experiments conducted after Kettlewell's revealed that only one type of these moths rested on
tree trunks, and all other types preferred to rest beneath small, horizontal branches. Since 1980 it has become
clear that peppered moths do not normally rest on tree trunks. In 25 years of fieldwork, many scientists such

as Cyril Clarke and Rory Howlett, Michael Majerus, Tony Liebert, and Paul Brakefield concluded that "in
Kettlewell's experiment, moths were forced to act atypically, therefore, the test results could not be accepted
as scientific".

Adnan Oktar 747