- H. B. D. Kettlewell in his ‘Darwin’s Missing Evidence’ was right to think that the fossil record cannot possibly be evidence for evolution – after all, fossils do not come with proof of link to other existing or fossilized organisms. For one to see a link, one must presuppose a link, rendering the whole argument a classic example of circular logic. But is the peppered moth experiment any better?
- No, the Biston betularia experiments are not the ‘Missing Evidence’ Kettlewell claims. All this experiment shows is that camouflage matters – a trivial finding. Color changes are ubiquitous in nature as in chameleons, crustaceans, insects, cephalopods, flamingos, seasonally changing coats, and even sun tanning humans. If the argument is that color change is “speciation” (whatever that means), then the human races are also different species? Racism is indeed in line with the very wrong Darwinian and Malthusian views: “struggle for survival”, “survival of the fittest” and the Nazism/Communism-inspiring eugenics.
- Furthermore, just as with “Darwin’s finches” and antibiotic resistance, the peppered moth reverted back to its original dominant variety once the agent that triggered the adaptation was removed. This shows variability around a typical design, not transformation into new designs.
- Color changes as well as metabolic, antibiotic, antibiotic-resistance, and many other adaptations is what organisms do day in and day out. Yet none of these normal adaptations has ever been observed to cause transmutation into other organisms – the primary claim of Darwinism. And no, classifying closely related organism into arbitrary and poorly defined “species” for the unstated purpose of fabricating evidence does not constitute serious proof on behalf of Darwin’s theory.
Links:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/darwins-missing-evidence/
https://evolutionnews.org/2016/06/peppered_moths/
Speciation failed concept: https://www.seas.harvard.edu/news/2017/09/imagining-world-without-species
Dawkins Essentialism—what I’ve called “the tyranny of the discontinuous mind” https://www.edge.org/responses/what-scientific-idea-is-ready-for-retirement