Page 117 - Quick Grasp of Faith 2

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. 7

Lamarck's Impact

So, how could these "favorable variations" occur? Darwin
tried to answer this question from the standpoint of the prim-
itive understanding 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 ac-
quired 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 strug-
gled 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. 8
However, the laws of inheritance discovered by Gregor
Mendel (1822-84) and verified by the science of genetics,
which flourished in the twentieth century, utterly demol-
ished the legend that acquired traits were passed on to sub-
sequent generations. Thus, natural selection fell out of favor
as an evolutionary mechanism.

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HARUN YAHYA