Darwin's Finches

Genesis Apologetics

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:00

Natural history museums everywhere feature Charles Darwin, who many would call the father of evolution theory.

00:06

So, what's Darwin's best shot? I mean, what is the number one proof of evolution that he's offered the world?

00:12

Well, if you look in museums and textbooks, that's quite obvious. It's Darwin's finches. Just how do these finches support the idea of evolution?

00:20

Well, when Darwin visited the Galapagos Islands in the 1830s, he observed that the sizes and shapes of the finch beaks tended to vary island by island.

00:29

He believed that this was evidence of evolution by nature selecting the birds with favorable adaptations, like their beak types, to survive and reproduce because they were better suited for gathering the different types of food sources available on the various islands.

00:42

But think about this for a minute. What Darwin actually observed was that the finch beak sizes and shapes differed based on where the finches lived.

00:50

So, were these birds just adapting to their environment and food sources within their own God -prescribed genetic programming, or were they evolving?

00:58

You see, Darwin believed that adding millions of years to such minor changes in creatures could eventually lead to the evolution of new kinds of creatures.

01:07

And this belief is just that, a belief based on faith and speculation. In fact, in 4 to 5 ,000 years of recorded history, no one has ever seen this happen, one kind turning into another kind.

01:19

All we see is exactly what's prescribed in Genesis, animals produce after their own kinds.

01:24

Sure, we see plenty of variety, like over 300 different dog breeds that are all interfertile within the dog kind, and same with over 300 breeds of horses.

01:34

We see this variety because God pre -programmed the mechanisms in our genes to turn on and off certain instructions based on our environment and diet, that's all.

01:43

It's not evolution leading from one kind to another, it's adaptation within kinds, a big difference.

01:50

In fact, the biblical case gets even stronger when it's lined up with modern observational science.

01:56

Recent studies have shown that Darwin's finches never actually did support his evolutionary ideas.

02:01

The most recent breakthrough was published in 2017 in the journal titled Evolutionary Biology.

02:07

This study tracked over 1 ,000 finches that lived in either rural or urban environments to find out how and why their beak sizes and shapes can differ based on where they lived.

02:16

The studies revealed that significant differences in beak depth and width between urban and rural population of finches were caused by epigenetic mechanisms such as DNA methylation.

02:28

Methyl tags change the way a gene is expressed without any changes to its DNA. This highly regulated mechanism enables rapid adaptation of finch beaks and other traits to fit their new environments, even within a couple of generations.

02:41

So, rather than Darwin's evolutionary ideas of natural selection explaining the changes in finches, the changes are actually evidence for an intelligent master engineer who designed creatures with built -in adaptive mechanisms that enable them to turn on and off certain features as they continuously track environmental changes to fill the earth as their creator commanded.

03:02

Creatures are not passive modeling clay molded by their environment as Darwin taught. We know now that they are active problem -solving entities that can tackle a myriad of challenges and fill a remarkable range of environments which showcases the engineering genius of their creator.

03:18

So, it's actually the continuous environmental tracking systems that are already built into the bird that's making the changes and adaptations, not the environment causing the bird to evolve in some way.

03:28

It looks like the master designer knew what he was doing when he created animals after their kinds and gave them the commission to multiply and fill the earth.

03:36

Looking for answers about what the Bible teaches about creation, the fossil record, dinosaurs? Download the

03:42

Genesis Apologetics app from the iTunes or Google Play stores for answers to these questions and more.