Views, comments, helpful analogies on the book “The Greatest show on Earth – Evidence for Evolution by Richard Dawkins”Readers’ level….
After having finished reading the said book, besides carefully noting down points of common interest for my own knowledge & for the common readers, I thought it would be nice to put some lines including my point to point inputs, helpful analogies for understanding of common readers (especially for South Asian / African fellows) where level of education is not up to adequate to digest the grave biological explanations & scientific analogies (given in the book) as compared to Europeans / American readers.
Before reading this book, I would recommend laymen readers to go through some elementary science books on Biology, Botany, Physics & Math etc. so that essential scientific terminologies can be swallowed.
This Book is different….
I’ve always found that reading evolution is a more scientific & prudent way of understanding rather reading Creationism which is full of side tracked scientific facts, bigoted convictions, and divine injections. Although creationists always draw knowledge from Evolutionist’s source like a thief does by carefully picking up stuffs which suite their sacred Books.
Unlike Dawkins’ previous book (The God Delusion), where Dawkins depicting an agnostic, here in this Book he is more like a scientist, a teacher, a guide, showing earnestly each & every biological signs with utmost passion & efforts, though less disgracefully letting down Creationism. It is rather an unfinished job of Dawkins various earlier books on the evident of evolution. I would call it a reprimanding slap on the face of creationists…
Books cover design / Title….Targeting real audience of the show…
It is said that all that glitters are not gold… perhaps this quote is fit upon Creationists lavishly designed Books / Atlas where Muslim creationists author like Harun Yahya (Adnan Oktar) has ‘generously’ distributed free copies in the entire world…At page P154 of the book Dawkins himself pointed out several grave ‘mistakes’ in the said Atlas where author put “different classes of animals in wrong categories” because such glossy illustration can easily convince any laymen. ‘Thanks to’ Yahya’s SRF (Science Research Foundation) which are assigned to collect ‘evidences in favor of Creation’ i.e. in other words “those which are fully compatible with Quranic verses”.
This trend is not limited only to Muslims but among Christian Creationists too (may be they are more enthusiastic) to project these things like at page P436, Dawkins said “The creation Museum in Kentucky is a lavishly financed institution entirely devoted to history denial on this advanced scale”.
So, come to cover / design of the book (The Greatest show on Earth – Evidence for Evolution) which is in ‘black’ & some butterflies in light blue/white colors’. In my opinion, first of all its background color is not suitable at all (in case you have more enemies) because black color is considered as ‘evil’ & people will not hesitate to call it ‘a Book of Evil’. Surprisingly Stephen Hawking’s upcoming Book ‘The Grand Design’ where Hawking ‘shockingly’ denied the role of a creator is also of same background & color. And while viewing remotely, both looks ‘similar’ (can be viewed in picture). Is it accidental or….??
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| Stephen & Richard's identical looking Books cover |
What title depicts, it is not all about evolution of ‘Butterflies’ but caters entire topic of biological evolution so it would have been illustrated with a more attractive, detailed evolutionary scenes, minus the color of ‘Black’, while inside the Book, except couple of color pages, the entire Book occupies black & white sketches which are failed to convince majority of laymen / common readers, who love to have illustrated, colourful, glossy pictures. Because, while realizing reader’s level as we go ‘up’ technical terms increase while the graphic details decreases, but this technique is not helpful where the reader’s level is ‘lower’, besides the unfortunate that majority of people assume this theory as false.
But perhaps Dawkins is not so lucky & affords such lavishly illustrated book like Creationists seek their government’s favour. This notion is highlighted at page 436 by Dawkins, while seeking tax free facility, he embarrassed like:
“Tax free status is easily obtained by almost any religious organization. I received a letter a letter from the British Charity Commission explaining that ‘It is not clear how the advancement of science tends towards the mental and moral improvement of the public. Please provide us with evidence of this or explain how it is linked to the advancement of humanism and rationalism”.!!
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44% Theory….
In the entire book, Dawkins in unhappy with 40 percent Americans who deny theory of evolution and believe with heart & soul in Bible’s 10,000 years old Creation Theory as in page 429, he stated:
“…..44% of Americans deny evolution totally, whether it is guided by God or not, and the implication is that they believe the entire world is no more than 10,000 years old”.
Even figures from his native country (England) is not so helpful though better than US, as he said at page 437:
“The equivalent figures for Britain, and much of Europe, are slightly less extreme, but not much more encouraging.”
Even medical students in London seen distributing leaflets that dismissed Darwin’s theories as false.”, as Dawkins also mentioned this fact.
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| Evolution of Whales |
Corresponding to the topic, at page 132, another interesting thing Dawkins mentioned while visiting his physician, where he found a pamphlet which explains that:
“….bacteria are ‘clever’: they ‘learn’ to cope with antibiotics’
What Dawkins want to project that pamphlet’s words are totally advocating ‘creationism’ & it was a good opportunity to promote ‘Evolution’ as natural selection is blind, it doesn’t familiar with the words ‘clever’ or ‘mercy’ (as in the said case).
The Book also contains different comparable tables (at pages 433, 434) where those at European regions the number of evolutionists is much larger than the Creationists (Sweden & Iceland are the highest, while Turkey is the lowest with 27%). But in my opinion it is much related to education & awareness (except the case of US where 44% educated people still believes in creation / God theory).
The other significant reason, which I want to share with the readers that Europe still contains majority of ‘pure race’ as compared to Americans or British citizens which are full of immigrants like South Asians, Africans Chinese, Japanese & Russians, worst part are also played by churches which are still powerful in US & drew more power during Bush administration (who was a hard line Christian / Crusader).
For example, during six years of his governorship, George W. Bush signed a total of 152 death warrants! (This fact also mentioned by Dawkins).
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| Stephen Hawking |
More importantly, thanks to American Hollywood media which movies always show churches, priests as a pacifier and what not horror movies, or the latest movie “Avatar” (originally a science fiction) which focused the concept of a Messenger or a sacred savior.
Creationism has its deeper roots among Christian countries unlike Muslim countries where still a majority of Muslim do not negate Theory of Evolution as they think it is compatible with Quran. There is a large no. of Muslim scholars who still believe in Evolution theory, as opposed to Turkish writer Harun Yahya; even they quote verses from the Holy Quran to support Evolution. Yahya has its much influence in Turkey & interestingly his personal enmity with Dawkins has forced Yahya to get Dawkins Books / websites banned in Turkey.
At Chapter 4 (SILENCE & SLOW TIME) P103, Dawkins wrote:
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| Creation diagram |
“All the carbon in ourselves and in all other living creatures comes ultimately, via plants, from carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. And it is continually being recycled back to the atmosphere: when we breathe out, when we excrete, and when we die.”
I would like to add some points here that even plants are a later stage of ‘life’. Life had already begun with the formation of organic material in the universe. This notion has been explained in my earlier article “The Wrong Beginning” where I stated that “Carbon & Hydrogen (the universal building blocks of life) had dispersed in entire universe in the event of Big Bang, however only planets like Earth, with sustainable conditions were stamped for life!
Carbon (an abundant component) in the evolutionary chain of universe has the ability to form complex life forms. Many fundamental life supporting particles had already been formed in the furnace of universe, including basic building blocks of all atoms: protons, neutrons, and electrons. It is similar, as if we sprinkle handful of seeds on the land or ejaculate large quantity of sperms but only ‘few lucky’ seed or sperms get ‘fertilized’, it is off-course a beautiful analogy to understand that why life supporting planets are quite rear in the universe. May be they are in billions but at such a remote distance that perhaps they don’t have any chance to ever encounter each other even by the help of radio signals (Dawkins also mentioned this fact somewhere in the book).
At Chapter 5 (BEFORE OUR VERY EYES), Page 111 , he wrote:
“If you were to plot a graph of mean height of 20 year old men, from year to year during the twentieth century, you’d see in many countries a significant trend towards getting taller.”
It is indeed a best example of natural selection, no doubt well improved nutrition, control over various diseases, selective breeding are the outcome of such phenomena. Please don’t be misled by my word ‘selective breeding’, off-course human being are not bred but what do you say when majority of women do love to have married with a tall handsome man… the natural result will be taller & smarter children.
For example, Germans & various Africans are thought to be taller, as compared to Japanese or Chinese race which have much shorter heights. But thanks to a special Chinese method of surgery where a desirable height can be achieved. In this method legs are surgically broken & keep in a specialized clipping device of nut / bolts. The person has to go a time consuming process of pain & rest where nut / bolts are moved inch by inch to get the job done. But off-course this taller posture doesn’t reflect in ones gene. In other words the traits are not genetically transferred to next generations.
Larger size of earlier elephant’s tusks, (as Dawkins also pointed out in his book) also the best example of natural selection. More examples can be given like the curse of inherited diseases which pass after generations to generations, unfiltered, unless otherwise deliberately halted ‘genetically’ by human being. Mongolisms is yet another weird mental disorder where face of a sufferer depicts like a Mongolian face (like Japanese or Chinese), irrespective of one’s race & region.
For many times & most of the time, we human being knowing or unknowingly bring various species with us, which bring disruption, diversity to our surrounding & nature. Past in the history during ship expeditions, cattle, rabbits, cats, dogs & what not rats were also shipped in entire world i.e. why we see their abundance!
Home lizards (Gecko) are most common reptiles in various part of the world. While visiting a friend’s house, I wondered to find a slightly different kind of Geckos, having more transparent like bodies & larger / longer eyes (like those common among Japanese people). Seeing my curiosity, he said that decades earlier he migrated from a far flung village area to this house, perhaps this category (race) of lizard were also shipped unknowingly…
At page 130 Explaining about E.coli cells generation experiment, he said:
“After generation 20,000 in the ‘fossil record’ showed increased probability of subsequently evolving citrate capability. No clones that dated from before generations 20,000 did.”
It shows that when a certain no. of frequency achieved by DNA say after generation of 20,000, the time for entering into new scenario are emerged all of a sudden. In other words during cooking, after putting certain spices the recipe is ready for the next task but before that process it isn’t. E.g. spiritual awakening in human being was achieved later when brain had already gone through certain frequency of mutations / process. More appropriate analogy is when the installation of any computer program is completed then we’ll be able to benefit from it, otherwise such ‘executable files’ are good for nothing, unless properly installed.
At page P131, he said:
"It shows that new information entering genomes without the intervention of a ‘designer’."
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| cockroach |
P138 of the book is explaining about camouflage in different animals like Guppies but why & how various species had developed?? It was not explained.
The possible answer to this is perhaps animals which are facing danger or extinction adopt camouflage. Sometimes camouflage is so powerful & convincing that it is almost impossible to identify the specie from its surroundings. Personally what I see different human’s behaviors are also different forms of camouflage like various human clever expressions to hide the real outcomes. E.g. feeling pain but try to pretend smile, hiding ones face with palms while weeping or terrified for certain reason, or most of the time, we lie to hide some consequences. Besides some artificial camouflage are also done by human being specially females like use of makeup, Muslim women using hijaab or the most recent one like cosmetic surgeries, implants are simply nothing but ‘camouflage’.
At Chapter 6 (MISSING LINK? WHAT DO YOU MEAN MISSING? P155, Dawkins wrote:
“Evolution not only is gradual process as a matter of fact; it has to be gradual if it is to do any explanatory work. Huge leaps in a single generation – which is what a monkey giving birth to a human would be – are almost as unlikely as divine creation, …..”
I believe what Creationists do not understand or acknowledge that Evolution is a far gradual process, in fact word ‘gradual is not suitable at all to explain ‘evolution’. It is similar like knitting a carpet stitch by stitch, and no design is clear in beginning but only after completion of carpet, design is full evident). Further we are like a detector reaching the crime scene later when all things have already been done (as Dawkins also explained this notion).
Obviously no animal can give birth to instant new specie, it is not a magic of ‘creation’ where God say abracadabra….and new specie emerge all of a sudden…
Natural selection can be assumed like a lottery which takes place on a random frequency and the draw is somehow ‘surprise’ for many people.
Following words (at P158) are perhaps a thought provoking from Dawkins:
“There is no evolutionary justification for the common assumption that evolution is somehow ‘aimed’ at humans or that humans are evolution’s last word’. “
I would like to add that in some cases (except the so-called consciousness) humans are ‘far inferior’ then many mammals, even insects like cockroaches have strong antibody mechanism to fight with insecticidal. Crocodiles instead of living in filthy virus inflected water are totally infection free. Their bloods have automated antigens to destroy any virus or bacteria at a glance while human being have to take artificial pills to fight at the cost of destroying white body cells!
Consciousness (an evolved trait developed by human being) too proved to be a double edged sword. The results are evident, as we’ve already messed up with our echo system; various species have long been extinct. Thanks to our hunting habits, terrorism, colonization, wars, artificial famine etc. Moreover, we are also called a ‘Virus’ to this world. These are all gifts of ‘consciousness’. A lion cannot harm a herd of cattle, as humans do….
No doubt those eating habits which had been gradually changing in human being also acted their role to form jaws. As in the past we used to be vegetarian, ate ripe meats, where jaws have to be more robust & big to chew the meal, but after invention of fire & use of ripe food big jaws are gradually began to disappear, as they were less exercised. But still now in different human races, slightly big jaws like those of Africans can be seen, as compared to Europeans or Chinese.
At pages P220-221, he wrote:
“Order, organization, structures these all emerge as by product of rules, which are obeyed locally and many times over, not globally.”
“Unlike a blueprint, a recipe is irreversible. If you follow a cake recipe step by step, you’ll end up with a cake. But you can’t take a cake and reconstruct the recipe”.
Gravity of earth, atmospheric pressure & environment also impact the design & order & if a specie evolved over a period of time, in other words it is the outcome of those 4 hidden hands (as I mentioned) which sculpts the creature. So it is not the creator, but Earth itself! Be it a mutation on a cellular level, natural selection or some other advanced / developed traits which have evolved over a period of billions & millions of years. It all the outcome of local rules.
For example, he explained at P271 that:
“Frogs cannot survive in salty water i.e. why God didn’t create a single frog, surviving at sea coasts”
Frogs are the outcome of ‘fresh water streams’. It is not the species of sea water. Why God didn’t create frog at sea?? This phenomenon is easily explained through theory of evolution, but seeking the help of creationism to explain this theory, one has to put a lot of excuses…
At Chapter 8 (YOU DID IT YOURSELF IN NINE MONTHS), P241:
“As so often we faced with the riddle of how complex and improbable things can arise in evolution, it is a fallacy to assume that the final perfection that we see today is the way it always was. Fully fashioned, highly evolved enzyme molecules achieve trillionfold speedsups of the reactions they catalyse, and they do so by being beautifully crafted to exactly the right shape.”
P245:
“…how cell types change in their shape and character as they branch away from one another in the embryonic family tree.”
It was beautifully explained in the book that how complex as like mountain improbable can arise from simple organisms. For example in embryonic stage limbs of any specie is only visible like a ‘bud’ but later how those buds can achieve a more complex form can be viewed from our own eyes.
At Chapter 9 (THE ARK OF THE CONTINENTS), P270:
“Why would an all-powerful creator decide to plant his carefully crafted species on islands and continents in exactly the appropriate pattern to suggest, irresistibly, that they had evolved and dispersed from the site of their evolution?”
Verily the distribution of different continents with passengers like animals including plants are strongly suggesting for evolution. For example, those islands which are not too far to each other contain similar plants & species…. If Noah’s storm was true then there should be very few species with less diversity around the world but what we encounter a total abundance. Contrary to this, the extinction of dinosaurs suggests a major catastrophic event in the earth. May be Creationists will call this catastrophic event as the will of ‘God’, so that later human being can make benefit of ‘fossil fuel’…
At page Chapter 10 (THE TREE OF COUSINSHIP), P288:
“The human hand and the bat hand are obviously – no sane person could deny it – two versions of the same thing. The technical term for this kind of sameness is ‘homology”.
For such analogies, creationists normally call it a ‘theme in the mind of creator’, then in this case the ‘creator’ should not be called an ‘omnipotent, all knowing & powerful’ rather it should have been a ‘local God’ which is in need of ‘theme’.
While Evolution can easily explain this homology as the result of natural selection & mutation. They use the same ‘available raw material & design’ with some plus & minus to form other species.
Supporting Creation over Evolution is similar like a man is killed. All clues are hinting towards a suspect but still we insist that he was killed by an unseen ghost…
At Page 294, Dawkins said:
“All 28 bones of head are similar in all mammals with some variations including humans”
Be it skull with its 28 bones which is a common ‘format’ in all species, then the spinal cord, the whole digestive system with similar organs are clearly analogies hinting towards the fact of evolution.
Yet another line at Page 297:
“Bird’s feather why did creator didn’t use it in its other creations except in birds”.
It looks like feathers are only the property of common birds, whether they could fly or not, while a bat has no feather. What was in the mind of a creator?? Here a creationist will need a bundle of pages to justify the mystery but still several people will not be satisfied, whereas a child can be easily convinced of evolutionary meaning of bird’s feather.
A breath taking fact, Dawkins elaborates at Page 304:
“Biologists used to cite plant haemoglobin as a possible example of DNA borrowing by plants from the animal kingdom. …….. Hemoglobin is important to the bacteria, which need oxygen, and can be regarded as part of the deal between bacteria and plants. The bacteria give the plants usable nitrogen, while the plants give the bacteria a house, and usable oxygen delivered via hemoglobin.”
This is an indication that life came from plants or our several functions have been borrowed or identical with plants. Take the example of insect eating flower, which allure insects with their scent & color, when insects approach, flowers do their job. It is similar like human being hunts for predators & use traps to catch them. A beauty of a girl can also be called a trap for many men. The other thing is about ‘deal method’ which again shows that it is not something only developed by human being (with its consciousness) but rather a borrowed trait from plants & other sub species, however polished / refined by human being.
There are also uninvited guests like bacteria, viruses in human body & simple lice on human heads where they are nourished, given home (unknowingly) but in return they’ll harm or can even take your life….
At Page 312, he says:
"Zoologists recognized homology in pre-Darwinian times, and pre-evolutions would describe, say, bat wings and human hands as homologous.”
Such analogies are clear indication that certain traits (of various species including us) were quite available in scattered or other form in nature even before arrival of the species. It only depended that how such & such traits will be utilized or ‘loaded’ into upcoming specie.
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| Bug with human face |
I’ve already discussed this issue in my earlier article ‘the hidden corner of theory of attraction’ where I discussed that certain traits, habits, design (inspired by the Earth’s theme) are the raw material / spare parts of nature. Later it depends on the assembly lineage that which parts (with slightly different shape & order) can be fit into!
More examples (color page 7), depicts the same experience:
1) A real green leaf or an insect.
2) A dried leaf or a lizard.
3) A back of a caterpillar, or front of a real snake…
Nature is abundant with such raw materials; it is only natural selection which ‘decide’ where & how to fit certain traits.
At page P317 Dawkins explained that how more distant species (on evolutionary tree) showed weaker response while experiment of injecting proteins. For example rabbits showed quick response as they were injected with chimpanzee protein. That means in evolutionary tree they are nearer to each other. While other species showed a weaker response during conducting experiments. It is worthwhile to explain, about an experiment, which was aired at National Geographic channel, where a specimen of crocodiles’ blood was injected with several disease inflicted viruses / bacteria but crocodile (being the roughest & toughest amphibian) easily neutralized the infections, thanks to its mind blowing virus definitions which always updates itself i.e. how it easily lives in filthy waters, where no other species can survive.
At Page 319:
“DNA is just DNA. It doesn’t care whether it is human DNA, chimp DNA or apple DNA”.
These are the building blocks (raw material) of life, like with the use of blocks or cement one can build a castle or can even use it for building other structures.
At page P322:
“….. every gene delivers approximately the same tree of life. Once again, this is exactly what you would expect if you were dealing with a true family tree. It is not what you would expect if a designer had surveyed the whole animal kingdom and picked and chosen – or ‘borrowed’ – the best proteins for the job, …..”
As the technology is stepping up & we are now wondering for the cloning experiment where remnants of cells are capable to produce an entire copy of specie, i.e. once again a magic of building block of life which are capable enough to produce life. These are all well explainable by theory of Evolution, but how one would explain that a Creator first surveyed the Earth, matched compatibility, created the building block of life, and then reshuffle it to invent several species including us!
At page 327 Dawkins said:
“The platypus …… because of its strategic position in the tree of life: the ancestor that it shares with us lived 180 m years ago, which is nearly three times as long as the extinction of the dinosaurs.”
That means when we were (homo sapience) existed the dinosaurs had long been extinct from the face of the Earth!. While it is also hoped in the book that the tree of life is expected to be completed in 2050 when all life forms will be decoded!. It will surely tell us our ‘exact location’ in the family tree of life including our immediate or remote ancestors more precisely…
At Page 332, he said:
“Why an intelligent designer should have created a pseudo gene – a gene that does absolutely nothing and gives every appearance of being a superannuated version of a gene that used to do something – unless he was deliberately setting out to fool us”.
It is as similar as any vestigial organs which look functionless but now modern science has proved that these vestigial organs are not so ‘vestigial’ but has some functions. For example, tonsils are thought to be vestigial organs, sometimes infected tonsils became much harmful and are often removed. But now it has proved that these toncils are very vital in early stage of childhood &, they act like infection alarms (when they swollen & give pain) the same goes for appendix, & coccyx (a vestigial tail beneath our skin), at the end of our spinal cord. I’m dead sure if something is maintained by nature (be it the size of a grain) it also must have it preserving features (no matter too short to witness) but it must be there. While it is other question, that why did God create human being with such ‘vestigial looking organ’ which is fully functional in other animals.
At Page 334, Dawkins wrote:
“…that some mutations really do change the body, but in such a way as to have no effect on survival, one way or the other.”
Here analogy of different human blood groups is best examples to support that these varied blood groups (which are again the outcome of evolutionary drift) has no place or make role in ones survival. Though availability or non availability of different rare blood groups are of local issues / involvement of human being.
At Chapter 11 (HISTORY WRITTEN ALL OVER US), of the Book at P342:
“Whales have no hind legs, but there are tiny bones buried deep inside them, which are the remnants of the pelvic girdle and hind legs of their long-gone walking ancestors.”
Then in case of creation, why would a creator put those bits and pieces?? It is as similar as useless wing of ostrich, emus, kiwi etc. (P345). In almost any human manufactured product, scaffolds or dyes are used to mould things, which signs are always visible, even after finishing / polishing line, otherwise an all knowing creator would not bound to need that scaffolds..
At P346 Dawkins pointed out that:
“What would the intermediate stages between wings and halters have looked like, and why would natural selection have favored the intermediates?”
Creationists always boast of asking silly questions like where are the ‘intermediates ‘ or what is the use of half developed this or that?? While they don’t realize that various things have been ‘modified’ by natural selection to act as differently. Just in case of ‘halters’ which are actually ‘modified wings’ in some insects.
We’re so fragile because we’ve been evolved within this planet with all ups & downs. In various sacred Books it is said that we (Adam & Eve) were created in Heaven (i.e. outside this planet Earth) & God had sent us back to the Earth, but again why we are so ‘compatible’ with Earthly species?? (i.e. what Anthropic principles, teach us). Since God created us outside this planet in a place called Heaven….Why we are so much worse than cockroaches and are vulnerable to the hands of viruses / infections, diseases??
What we’ve done that God has inflected so many tests after tests after… The thickness of our skull wall (with our body’s proportion) suggest the exact Earthly atmospheric pressure & gravity (if compared with other earthly mammals), otherwise it would have been much thicker or thinner, if we were not evolved within this planet…
At page 340 of the Book Dawkins beautifully explained the phenomena of hair erection in different animals including us (when we become suddenly frightened). What to say when two cats are about to fight with each other?? It stars with exchange of mews, which grow stronger & finally they (cats) physically engage in fighting, it is just similar with human’s fighting which begin with hot words > abusing > physical fights, save for the new technology (of gun fighting) which have now superseded our ancestral instinct…
At P349, he writes:
“Queen ants who use their wings once only, to fly out of the natal nest, find a mate, and then settle down to dig a hole for a new nest. As they begin their new life underground the first they do is lose their wings , some cases by literally biting them off: ……”
This sacrifice is similar as a human (or other species) female bear child with pain & trouble for certain period of time, in order to enter into a new phase of life. That is how life goes…
At P350 he is pointing out that what we see is not to believe. Examples of ant resembling beetle, difference of dolphin & fish, though one is mammalian & the other is non mammalian. These are well-known examples of Evolution where two identical looking species of different phylum trace their roots in different angles.
At page P354, pointing out the ‘original manufacturing errors’ in human eye he said:
“ Design of an eye, initial errors were compensated later, through gradual process”.
Eye, the most complex organ of human body or any other species, which careful observations showed that before reaching the present form it has undergone several gradual tinkering processes to adjust with the environment, while a original creator wouldn’t need gradual adjustments but a ‘flawless abrupt original design’.
The same tinker approach is evident in various human inventions where engineers / designers opt for slight step by step modifications rather returning to original drawing board.
At Page 356, revealing about laryngeal nerve (which is located inside mammalian necks), he said:
“If you think of it as the product of design, the recurrent laryngeal nerve is a disgrace.”
Dawkins well said that extra ordinary twisted Laryngeal nerve in giraffe is nothing but like a joke. It would be quite sufficient to open the eyes of creationists. Laryngeal nerve also shows our very roots / origin is from water, as the following words (Page 357) from Book are indicating the same phenomena:
“It is very obvious in human embryos, whose ‘pharyngeal arches’ are clearly derived from ancestral gills, as one can tell by looking at their detailed anatomy. Of course they don’t function as gills, but five week human embryos can be regarded as little pink fishes, with gills.”
In other words, human being also once lives the life of a fish (for some weeks in her mother’s womb). Yet I want to add more twisted analogy that even we’re far away from the Birds / Fish Phyla, but still human being eager to swim into the ocean or fly into the air, no doubt with the help of ‘intelligence’ doing all these acrobats, but both ‘ thoughts of ability’ were directly drawn from our remote ancestors.
At page 358, describing ‘similarities’ or missing links in diverse species, he said:
“It was a triumph of late twentieth – century embryology and genetics to show that insect segmentation and vertebrate segmentation, far from being independent of each other as I was taught, are actually mediated by parallel sets of genes, the so-called hoax genes, which are recognizably similar in insects and vertebrates and many other animals, and that the genes are even laid out in the correct serial order in the chromosomes!”
Why would a Creator repeat theme of insects for human & other vertebrates?? Keeping in mind that human being arrived quite ‘later’, after insects & dinosaurs…. and theory of evolution bifurcate it clear like a day…
Pointing another evolutionary flaw at Page 365, he said:
“Vas deferens (that carries sperm from the testis to the penis) unfortunately got hooked the wrong way over the ureter. ………..Yet again, it is a beautiful example of an initial mistake compensated for in a post hoc fashion rather than being properly corrected back on the drawing board”.
The above lines doesn’t need any advocate, I’m simply interested to put light that how testis have popped out from internal body of male species (though still intact inside in female) as Dawkins also rightly pointed out that it is because of temperature. Temperature is the obvious reason behind i.e. why in cold weather testis shrinks & in hot weather they swing like a pendulum…It also shows that mammals are diverged from water to land, because sperm requires different temperature other then body temperature to produce sperm, which otherwise is not possible. It is similar as if some microscopic species only survive in different temperature. So the Eskimos’ testis will always have to be shrunk because of the cold freezing temperature, while people, who are living in tropical hot land (having all the time swinging testis) have better chance of mating & growing population, as compared to mountain dwellers. That is too obvious from the population of Asia & Europe. So, if Europeans like to multiply they have to migrate to warmer areas. Perhaps Jews had been aware of this fact i.e. why they have migrated to Middle East to multiply more rapidly, besides they also have to compensate the genocide loss of Auschwitz.
Pointing out another flaw of internal design of human face at Page 370, Dawkins said:
“The big maxillary sinuses or cavities are behind the cheeks on either side of the face. They have their drainage hole in their top, which is not much of an idea in terms of using gravity to assist drainage of fluid.”
Yet another evolutionary flaw, i.e. why we need our hands & lungs to blow our nose, otherwise nobody will like a dog like face just to have the benefit of ‘gravity. Credit goes to our bipedal & upright posture. Nature must have preferred this flaw for the sake of face ‘beauty’.
At P371, Dawkins speaks about design:
“That’s when we look at animals from the outside. When we look inside, the impression is opposite.”
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| Harun Yahya |
Design…, beautiful creation….. A pierce cry often uttered by Creationists! But what we always encounter from the internal organs of species including us, a mumbo jumbo of entangled nerves, bones. Just like a human face which looks beautiful from outside but inside….
At Chapter (ARMS RACES AND EVOLUTIONARY THEODICY), P376, about the beginning of life, he beautifully described as follows:
“It appears that originally free-living green bacteria were hijacked into plant cells, where they eventually evolved into what we now call chloroplasts. So too the downhill chemistry of metabolism – the slow burning of sugars and other fuels to release energy in cells of bacteria, once free living but now reproducing themselves in larger cells, where they are known as mitochondria.”
I’m sure that most of the creationists didn’t read such lines & most of them simply think that how, but how could ‘life’ emerge from a lifeless looking matter. Now one can understand that Life components were surviving scattered before being coming into form of a single celled animals in primordial soup of life, which later formed (through refined steps of adaptations, natural selection, governed by local rules) turned into much complex & diversified forms.
At Page 384, he is wondering as:
“…the cheetah, if we are going to talk design at all, is superbly designed for killing gazelles. But the very same designer has equally evidently strained every nerve to design a gazelle that is superbly equipped to escape from those very same cheetahs! where the side is designer on?”
From a creationist point of view both cheetah & gazelle are super fit opponents for each other, both have power packed ability to defy each other, but how would a creationist justify vulnerability of human being who is in the mercy of ever growing no. of viruses / diseases & simply making his own effort to null & void them?? I know they’ll reply as ‘intelligence’ as a tool to defy these problems, but sometimes it wouldn’t work & time consuming too… Why a creator did didn’t bestow His best of creation (humans) with susceptibilities, but creationists replies are always ended with twisted philosophies. Here they’ll bring tests & sins that have been prewritten by LORD for human being…
At Page 389, he writes:
“But the planning enthusiast will protest, when all the lions are behaving selfishly and over-hunting the prey species to the point of extinction, everybody is worse off, even the individual lions that are the most successful hunters. Ultimately, if all the prey go extinct, the entire lion population will too.”
The above lines are clearly indicating that nature is blind & neutral, it doesn’t recognize goodness or evil; if anything go extinct nature do not penalize any species. Even if entire human race (thought to be prime creation of God) go extinct from face of the Earth it will still continue to revolve around and complete its usual cycle of life. Because this world is not ‘created’ for humans but human have become the celebrated & accidentally highly evolved (according to Creationists) species of this planet.
At Page 395, he pointed out wonderful findings:
“The female wasps lay their eggs in live insect prey like caterpillars, but first paralyzed it, keeping it alive to provide fresh meat for the growing wasp larva feeding inside. The larva first eats the internal organs in a judicious order, it begins by taking out the fat bodies and digestive organs, leaving the vital heart and nervous system till last, so that caterpillar alive. What kind of beneficent designer would have dreamed that up, whether caterpillars can feel pain.”
Let me move further, how about different ideas of tortures & brutality in human history?? Are they not inspired by nature?? How developed countries cripple the economy of poor countries, firstly by carefully installing puppet rulers, followed by the footprints of larva….. (no comments).
At Chapter 13 (THERE IS GRANDEUR IN THIS VIEW OF LIFE), P402, he reveals like:
“All our emotions and spiritual pretensions, all arts and mathematics, philosophy and music, all feats of intellect and of spirit, are themselves productions of the same process that delivered the high animals.”
These traits, as pointed out are also the outcome of ‘evolution’, as we go into the past; the traces of these subtleties are less visible. Amazingly, music, culture & spirituality (if anybody ponders in human history) have altogether emerged slowly / suddenly & are linked with each other. Think about the days when human was a savage, these things were quite extinct.
Today, why people go to worship places?? Obviously their fare of sins & being alienated from the society are the biggest factors. As usually we see in worship places, likeminded people meet each other, do listen & care to each other i.e. why depression disappears. The same effects can also be achieved in other cultural get together & activities. Especially during old age, frequency to go worship places is increased. So, it is not God, but people, who care, & our emotions.
At Page 406, he said that:
“The immune system, the ‘second memory’ does the same thing for diseases and other insults to the body during the individual’s own lifetime. This database of past diseases and how to survive them is unique to each individual and is written in the repertoire of proteins that we call antibodies”.
So here, individual’s destiny is playing a primal factor, if he is borne in a disease inflected, poor Asian or African country, his life will be at stake because his disease database will be outdated, as compared to the nations of developed countries whose antibodies carries the latest signature of diseases….
At Page 407, Dawkins says:
“I shall never contract polio, because my body ‘thinks’ it has done so in the past and my immune system database is equipped with the appropriate antibodies, ‘fooled’ into making them by the injection of a harmless version of the virus”.
In corrupt countries like Pakistan, thanks to fake polio & other life saving vaccines, individual’s immune database couldn’t be fooled but whole individual’s are fooled to believe that they are now immune from diseases.
At Page 408, pointing out at the single ancestor, he said:
“The genetic code is universal, all but identical across animals, plants, fungi, bacteria, archaea and viruses”.
“All surviving life forms on this planet use the same machine code and are all descended from a single ancestor.”
But creationists have an analogy for the above fact, as a ‘theme in creator’s mind”….
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| Richard Dawkins |
At Page 412, pointing out at some important aspects:
“It has even been suggested, again implausibly in my opinion, that life without the moon would be impossible.”
Certainly moon (i.e. the nearest heavenly body to Earth) has been playing an important role since before lying out of life plan at Earth. Not even in tidal waves of seas, produced by moon, it is directly & or indirectly attached with all life forms on the Earth. Human being too gets benefit of moon cycle
At Page 421, Dawkins explains a beautiful analogy:
“It is possible that ours is the only planet in the galaxy that has life, in order for that to be true, the probability of life arising on a planet would have to be not much greater than one in a billion”.
Possibility of life in other planet have also been pointed out by the renowned scientist Stephen Hawking, but he insist that human being must avoid for making any contact with aliens… In his new Book ‘The Grand Design”, he also shocked the world with the statement that God did not create the universe and the "Big Bang" was an inevitable consequence of the laws of physics. Prior to this, Stephen was in the good book of Creationists but now one must take a look on the internet that how situation have changed.
At Page 422:
“That we are probably not alone, and there may be millions of islands of life in the universe. Nevertheless, even millions of islands could still be so far apart that they have almost no chance of ever encountering one another, even by radio. Sadly, as far as practicalities are concerned, we might as well be alone.”
Abundance of life with utmost variations in this planet can be a beautiful analogy for this. It can be understood that there is no match of human intelligence in this planet, every specie, be it plant, animal, irrespective of their single origin maintains their own existence, just like this planet is unique among 9 planets of the galaxy. Further the creation of life in this planet proved that machinery of galaxy is capable to trigger & manufacture a vast variety of life, instead of its arid nature, where huge heavenly bodies like Jupiter & Saturn (perhaps their outer atmosphere are more attractive then earth) are lifeless.
At Page 424, explaining species ratio, he writes:
“Insects on land and crustaceans in the sea seem to be champions at diversifying into thousands of species, parceling up the niches, changing costumes through evolutionary time with frolicsome abandon. Fish, too, show amazing evolutionary fecundity so do frogs, as well as the more familiar mammals and birds.”.
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| Richard Dawkins |
No doubt the world is full of insects, there is no comparison of other species (including human) with them. If intelligence of human is not the criteria then this world is not ours but for insects.. But suppose if Natural selection would have bestowed human being rapid ability to populate, the world would be annihilated because of shortage of food & space scarcity. On the other hand Natural selection is totally failed to save specie from being ‘extinct’. Various domesticated animals with increased no. in population are the result of careful breeding by humans.
In a similar way, Human being can also be bred in future, for achieving a distinctive physical feature, a disease free life longer lasting life, or simply grabbing a moral quality of a choice. But if one ponders, it is unknowingly being done by humans e.g. selective marriages within races, vaccinations, wars, unlawful food distribution are actually ‘selective breeding’.At Page 426, he said:
"Stars are also the furnaces in which the majority of the chemical elements are forged, and you can’t have life without a rich chemistry. We could go through the laws of physics, one by one, and say the same thing of all of them; it is no accident that we see…”
No doubt the Earth is plentiful and enriched with all variety of elements, minerals, as compared to any arid planet which are essential for forming life forms, including its precise distance from the Sun, ideal location at galaxy (as giant planets like Jupiter are acting like a vacuum cleaner to attract harmful meteors from being fallen to the Earth, its gravity, ozone layer etc. May be shower of steroids played their role and gave lifeless elements a meaning.
With these words, I wish readers will enjoy by full reading this fantastic Book, ever wrote on the topic of Evolution.
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