Page 715 - Atlas of Creation Volume 2

Harun Yahya

The fact that almost all land-
dwelling vertebrates have a five-
toed or "pentadactyl" bone
structure in their hands and feet
has for years been presented as
"strong evidence for Darwinism"
in evolutionist publications.
However, recent research has re-
vealed that these bone structures
are governed by quite different
genes. For this reason, the "ho-
mology of pentadactylism" as-
sumption has today collapsed.

genes in different creatures possessing this pentadactyl structure. Evolutionary biologist William Fix de-

scribes the collapse of the evolutionist thesis regarding pentadactylism in this way:

The older textbooks on evolution make much of the idea of homology, pointing out the obvious resemblances be-
tween the skeletons of the limbs of different animals. Thus the `pentadactyl' [five bone] limb pattern is found in
the arm of a man, the wing of a bird, and flipper of a whale, and this is held to indicate their common origin. Now
if these various structures were transmitted by the same gene couples, varied from time to time by mutations
and acted upon by environmental selection, the theory would make good sense. Unfortunately this is not the
case. Homologous organs are now known to be produced by totally different gene complexes in the different

species. The concept of homology in terms of similar genes handed on from a common ancestor has broken
down. 255

On closer examination, William Fix is saying that evolutionist claims regarding "pentadactylism homol-
ogy" appeared in old textbooks, but that the claims were abandoned after molecular evidence emerged. But,
some evolutionist sources still continue to put it forward as major evidence for evolution.

The Invalidity of Molecular Homology

Evolutionists' advancement of homology as evidence for evolution is invalid not only at the morpholog-
ical level, but also at the molecular level. Evolutionists say that the DNA codes, or the corresponding protein
structures, of different living species are similar, and that this similarity is evidence that these living species

have evolved from common ancestors, or else from each other. For example, it is regularly stated in the evo-
lutionist literature that "there is a great similarity between the DNA of a human and that of an ape," and this
similarity is presented as a proof for the evolutionist claim that there is an evolutionary relationship be-
tween man and ape.
We must make it clear from the start that it is perfectly natural that living creatures on the earth should

possess very similar DNA structures. Living things' basic life processes are the same, and since human be-
ings possess a living body, they cannot be expected to have a different DNA structure to other creatures. Like
other creatures, human beings develop by consuming carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins, oxygen circulates
through the blood in their bodies, and energy is produced every second in each of their cells by the use of
this oxygen.
For this reason, the fact that living things possess genetic similarities is no proof of the evolutionist claim

that they evolved from a common ancestor. If evolutionists want to prove their theory of evolution from a
common ancestor, then they have to show that creatures alleged to be each other's common ancestors have a

Adnan Oktar 713