Page 14 - The Transitional Form Dilemma
P. 14

THE TRANSITIONAL-FORM DILEMMA




                                                              th
                                               ond half of the 20 century onward,
                                         however, the privileged position that the
                                      theory of evolution had enjoyed among the
                                        scientific community became increasingly
                                         problematic. Observations and experi-
                                         ments in a wide range of scientific disci-
                                      plines, from paleontology to biology and from
                                     anatomy to genetics, began to produce findings
                             that argued against the theory. In the face of these new
                              scientific findings, evolutionists suddenly found them-
                               selves and their theory on the defensive. By the begin-
                                            st
                               ning of the 21 century, the theory of evolution had
                              become the subject of wide debates the world over. To a
                   large extent, it had lost its former prestige and in many quarters was
                      expected to collapse at any time soon. Between the lines, world-
                      renowned scientific magazines such as Nature, New Scientist,

               Science and Scientific American began publishing frequent doubts about
                 the theory of evolution.
                                                    What, then, were these find-
                                                ings which led to the sudden un-
                                                dermining of the theory of
                                                evolution? These can be grouped
                                                under three main categories:
                                                    1. Increasingly, biologists have
                                                discovered that living organisms con-
                                                sist of exceedingly complex structures.

                                                It has been shown that proteins,



                                                Scientific discoveries from the second
                                                half of the 20 century began preparing
                                                          th
                                                the collapse of the theory of evolution.





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