Page 148 - The Error of the Evolution of Species

The Error of the Evolution
of Species

new breeds by selective crossbreeding. With this as his start-

ing point, he then pursued the following logic: "Since living
things can exhibit variety within themselves, then all of life
can have descended from a single common ancestor of the
course of long periods of time."
The fact is, however, that his hypothesis did not actual-
ly account for the origin of species at all. As the science of
genetics advanced, it realized that variation within a species

could never lead to a new species emerging. What Darwin
imagined to be evolution was in fact variation.
Variation is a genetic phenomenon that causes individ-
uals or groups within a species to exhibit different charac-
teristics. For example, all the humans on Earth possess ba-
sically the same genetic information. But thanks to the vari-
ation potential that genetic information permits, some have
dark skin, others red hair or blond, and some are tall in
stature.

Variation can be very high even within a single species:
Not only is there variation amongst humans in the genera
and species of the bacteria that invade or live within us, but
the organisms themselves often are highly diverse. 176 For ex-
ample, in dogs, one of the living species most familiar to us,

The majority of natural populations display a high degree of
variation.. There are many different varieties within the species
of domesticated dog, of which we are particularly familiar.

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