Genesis Impact Clip - Darwin's Finches

Darwin’s Finches as Evidence for Evolution

Is there anything in the theory of evolution that you would consider to be your number one proof?

Well, yeah. Darwin's finches.

What do they show? I mean, how do these finches support the idea of evolution?

When Darwin visited the Galapagos Islands in the 1830s, he observed the finches that lived on the different islands, and found that the sizes and shapes of their beaks tended to vary island by island.

He believed that this was evidence of evolution by nature selecting the fittest birds to survive because certain types of beaks were better suited for gathering the food resources available on the different islands.

Adaptation Versus Evolutionary Change

So, changes in beak sizes and shapes based on which island they lived on? Sounds like they're just adapting to their environment and food sources within their own God-prescribed genetic programming. How is that evolution?

Well, we believe that adding millions of years to the process can lead to changes that add up, and new kinds can emerge.

Wow, that takes an incredible amount of faith, doesn't it? I mean, we have thousands of years of recorded history, and no one has ever seen a new kind emerge. Sure, we see speculation and changes, but there are over 300 breeds of interfertile dogs.

But dogs can only breed dogs. There's also over 300 breeds of the horse kind. And you can breed the largest horses with the smallest horses, and they'll still always be horses.

Modern Studies, Epigenetics, and Finch Beak Variation

Excuse me, but I can add to this discussion.

She's totally right.

Modern science has now shown us that Darwin's single best evidence for evolution, Darwin's finches, never really actually supported Darwin's ideas for evolution. Modern studies have tracked over a thousand finches that lived in either rural or urban environments to determine how and why their beak sizes and shapes would differ based on where they lived.

The studies revealed significant differences in beak depth and width between urban and rural population of finches that were caused by epigenetic mechanisms, such as DNA methylation. Methyl tags change the way a gene is expressed without changing its DNA.

Intelligent Design and Built-In Adaptive Mechanisms

This mechanism enables rapid adaptation in finch beaks and other traits as they fit their new environments, even between a couple generations. So rather than Darwin's evolutionary ideas explaining the changes in finches, I believe the changes are 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.