Page 80 - The Secret Behind Our Trials

THE SECRET BEHIND OUR TRIALS
Natural selection holds that those living things that are
stronger 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 individuals. However, unquestionably, this mecha-
nism will not cause deer to evolve and transform themselves into
another living species, for instance, horses.
Therefore, the mechanism of natural selection has no evolution-
ary 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. 18

Lamarck's Impact

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 accumu-
lated from one generation to another, caused new species to be
formed. For instance, he claimed that giraffes evolved from an-
telopes; 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. 19
However, the laws of inheritance discovered by Gregor Mendel
(1822-84) and verified by the science of genetics, which flourished in
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