Page 152 - The Error of the Evolution of Species

The Error of the Evolution
of Species

variation cannot transform reptiles into birds by fitting them

out with wings, adding feathers to them and altering their
metabolisms. That's because such a transformation requires
an increase in genetic information, but in variation, there is
no question of such a thing occurring..
Darwin was unaware of all this when he launched his
theory. At the time, it was believed that variations had no
bounds. In 1844 he wrote: "That a limit to variation does ex-

ist in nature is assumed by most authors, though I am un-
able to discover a single fact on which this belief is ground-
ed." 177 In The Origin of Species he attempted to portray vari-
ous examples of what were actually variation as the great-
est evidence for his theory. In Darwin's view, for instance,
crossbreeding different variations of cattle in order to pro-
duce cows with a greater milk output would eventually turn
cattle into an entirely new species. The best expression of
Darwin's idea of "unbounded change" is in these words

from The Origin of Species:

Variation within a species does not constitute evidence for evolution
because such variation results from the emergence of different com-
binations of genetic information that already exist. Variations cannot
add any new genetic information—they can shuffle the cards in a va-
riety of different ways, but cannot add any new cards to the deck.
Highly useful hybrids of wheat have been achieved through various
cross-breeding techniques, but the wheat is still wheat, and not a
new species.

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