Running Head: EVOLUTIONARY THEORY CRITIQUES

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Evolutionary Theory Critiques"

Jessica DeTavernier"
DC Biology A4"
3/2/15

EVOLUTIONARY THEORY CRITIQUES

Evolutionary Theory Critiques"

Introduction!
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Evolution, in its most basic form, first came to the ancient greeks as an idea. It was not

until the 18th century, however, that scientists began discussing it systematically. A naturalist
from France, Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, wrote a paper explaining that he thought
all organisms with life evolved from one single-celled organism. He believed that the variety of
life was a result of organisms responding to their environment. For example, he wrote that an
animal that developed strong muscles in its lifetime would pass on those strong muscles to its
offspring (Organic Life Evolution, 2011). Although in modern science, we realize that it is an
organisms genes that determine its traits, not its parents actions while alive, Monet still
provided a basis from which to build and learn from (Than, B., 2012). Charles Darwin is the one
credited with developing Evolutionary Theory, though his father, Erasmus Darwin wrote the
following Ode to Evolution:"
Nursed by warm sunbeams and tiny primeval caves "
Organic life began beneath the waves."
Hence, without parent by a spontaneous birth "
rise the first specs of animated earth."
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This suggests his agreement with Monet in that all organisms stem from one single-

celled organism as well as addresses the fact that life came spontaneous[ly]. Charles Darwins
theory begins with the fact that he believes all organisms to be unique from any other, even if
they only vary slightly. This concept is known as the random shuffle of heredity. It is supported
by the acknowledgment of the cruelty of nature. Realizing that there are far more organisms
than a given environment can support, only the strong will survive. The strong possibly being
organisms that have inherited differences coupled with the occasional mutations causing them
to have an advantage over another organism. Darwin writes these two key notions in his book,

EVOLUTIONARY THEORY CRITIQUES

The Origin of Life (1859). That all species evolve from earlier organisms with life and that they
can adapt and evolve to fit their environment using something called natural selection (Organic
Life Evolution, 2011)"
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Natural selection means that if one organism has a trait that helps it survive, it will be

more likely to live than an organism that lacks said trait. It also has more of a chance to produce
offspring and pass down the trait (Natural Selection, 2011)."
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Random mutations are also mentioned in Darwins book. Mutations are what makes

natural selection possible. The random mutation could be positive in which case it would assist
the organism in living and reproducing, therefore contributing to natural selection. Mutations can
be caused by a number of things, including chemical damage, radiation damage, errors in DNA
replication and they can even be induced deliberately to adapt some organism to a rapidly
changing environment (Than, B., 2012). "
Critiques!
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One must keep in mind that Darwins theory of evolution is, in fact, a theory. That it has

not been proven or disproven. Because of this it has some inexplainable faults. Such as a
number of contradictions found over the years that do not falsify the theory. "
Complex Features!
!

Darwins Evolutionary Theory fails to account for a mechanism that will produce complex

features, such as the human eye. In his book, Origin of Species, Darwin provides a disclaimer
that if any complex organ existed which could not possibly have been formed by numerous,
successive, slight modifications, [his] theory would absolutely break down. (Darwin, 1859). To
further critique the ability to produce complex features, Darwinian Evolution can not,
theoretically, produce any new feature on an organism that does not benefit it in some
immediate way. Evolutionary biologist Jerry Coyne says It is indeed true that natural selection
cannot build any feature in which intermediate steps do not confer a net benefit on the

EVOLUTIONARY THEORY CRITIQUES

organism, affirming this technicality (2007). This claim hinders Darwinian Evolution even
further. Especially considering that multiple mutations could be necessary to produce an
advantage on any given organism (evolutionnews.org, n.d.). "
"

For example, if functionally bonding two proteins requires multiple mutations, then the

mechanism of gene duplication and point mutation alone would be ineffective because few
multicellular species reach the required population sizes (Behe, M. & Snoke, D., 2004).
Critiques of the study Protein Science found that to simultaneously gain two mutations in a
human population is very unlikely to take place on a reasonable timescale (Durrett, R. &
Schmidt, D.). With the fact that this simultaneous mutation occurring is so broadly recognized as
unlikely in mind, and that it is becoming increasingly clear than multi-mutation features are likely
to exist in biology, the Theory of Evolution takes a serious blow. Douglas Axe demonstrated a
study to disprove Darwinian evolutions ability to produce multi-mutation features. He calculated
that if a feature or trait requires more than six mutations to acquire, it is unlikely to be a
conceivable possibility given the Earths timeline (Axe, D., 2010). A more recent study that Axe
participated in with Ann Gauger claimed that to convert one enzyme into another closely-related
enzyme would need at least seven simultaneous mutations (Gauger, A. & Axe, D., 2011)."
Convergent Genetic Evolution!
!

Genetic convergence is defined as the independent appearance of the same trait in

different lineages in the paper Causes and Evolutionary Significance of Genetic Convergence
(Christin, P.A., Weinreich, D.M., & Besnard, G., 2010). The reason genetic convergence is a
critique to traditional evolutionary thought is that it is more heavily reliant on an intelligent
designer to justify. While Intelligent Design might be disregarded by some, Darwinian Evolution
does not account for convergent genetic evolution (McGhee, G., 2011). "
"

This repeated evolution is considered a phenomenon and is presented in multiple

lineages. The most notable, however, is the echolocating ability of bats and cetaceans. The

EVOLUTIONARY THEORY CRITIQUES

motor protein Prestin that is located in both is considered to be a product of convergent

evolution by Liu et.al. (2010). "
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Following the Theory of Evolution, Darwin would have you believe that each of these

animals coincidentally mutated and evolved the same Prestin sequences in different climates
and with diverse taxonomy. The idea that an intelligent creator was the cause of these
similarities is more favorable when one considers the unsurmountable odds that traditional
evolution would be facing to produce such similar protein sequences (McGhee, G., 2011). "
Origin of the Genetic Code"
!

Darwins book fails to depict an accurate explanation of how life originated. The entire

reasoning behind science is to gain knowledge of the observable world around us to make
justifiable predictions. If predictions can be made, is it such a far jump to say that backtracking
should be nearly as simple? That a viable theory for the current changing life around us should
explain and support the origin of life? Evolution does not do the ladder (Easterbrook, G., 2007). "
"

Scientists cannot rely on Darwinian Evolution to discover the origin of life because it

requires replication. The origin cannot be found because, by definition, it is not replicating from
anything (Shapiro, R., 1986). Until how life on earth arose is proven, there will likely not be a
valid representation of how life is progressing today. Biologists John Manard Smith and Eors
Szathmary elaborated the difficulty of this by saying, the existing translational machinery is at
the same time so complex, so universal and so essential that it is hard to see how it could have
come into existence or how life could have existed without it (Smith, J., & Szathmary, E., 1995)."
Inaccurate Predictions Inspired by Neo-Darwinism !
!

The Theory of Evolution requires mutations and natural selection to advance, as

mentioned before. This messy and inefficient process is believed to often produce unusable
traits, or junk. Junk-DNA is supported by the varying sizes of genomes, rather than most DNA

EVOLUTIONARY THEORY CRITIQUES

being truly functional. Furthermore, mutational loads would be a hinderance if the majority of our
DNA is not junk-DNA (Jogalekar, A., 2012). "
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However, modern scientists are beginning to throw out the theory of junk-DNA. Wired

Magazine recently published an article called One Scientists Junk Is a Creationists Treasure
pointing out that junk-DNA can, in fact, be used and possibly necessary in medical predictions.
Additionally, genome researchers are learning that noncoding regions, junk-DNA, are needed
for important biological functions (wired.com, n.d.). An article from the Washington Post
continues to deny the validity of junk-DNA when Rick Weiss states, The first concerted effort
to understand all the inner workings of the DNA molecule is overturning a host of long-held
assumptions about the nature of genes and their role in human health and evolution. ... The
findings, from a project involving hundreds of scientists in 11 countries and detailed in 29 papers
being published today, confirm growing suspicions that the stretches of "junk DNA" flanking
hardworking genes are not junk at all. But the study goes further, indicating for the first time that
the vast majority of the 3 billion "letters" of the human genetic code are busily toiling at an array
of previously invisible tasks (2007). "
The Evolution of Consciousness!
!

The two argument points on the evolution of consciousness are when it arose, and

whether or not it provides any survival value. It could have arisen with the first mammals,
mammals and birds, the first humans, or the first reptiles (Arhem, et.al., 2008). Meaning that
they were born with some form of consciousness and it has evolved slowly into what it is today,
but what was the survival advantage? Feinberg and Mallatt date consciousnesss origin back to
the first organisms with nervous systems or back to the Cambrian (2013). This is another theory
that involves the phenomenon of how these organisms obtained consciousness and what
advantage it posed. In addition to the dispute on how consciousness came about, the evolution
of consciousness is also criticized. "

EVOLUTIONARY THEORY CRITIQUES

"

In the book Animal Minds, Donald Griffin states his idea that there was a gradual

evolution of consciousness (2001). However, for a gradual evolution of consciousness to be

possible, one would think that there would be some direct benefit to consciousness on the
human races survival. Because of the workings of natural selection, the only way humans could
have obtained such a fine-tuned and complex level of consciousness is over an
incomprehensible number of years of production and evolution disregarding the fact that the
small gradual changes need to be beneficial to the human races survival. "
Conclusion!
!

Bearing all of theses critiques in mind, and they are only scratching the surface, my

opinion has shifted. Before this research paper I accepted evolution as a valid theory because
that is how it was presented to us. However, after discussing evolutions faults with my group
and researching critiques on my own, I would have to say that it has become an outdated
theory. The idea that it is unfalsifiable is dependent on the fact that it is often vague enough to
side-step disproof. "
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My group and I started by discussing what we already knew of evolution, and some of

the more popular forms of critiques that it receives. With that we dove into research and
reached a consensus that all of our group members believed that the Theory of Evolution is
outdated."
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In my own research I went to the library and checked out books to obtain a more

foundational knowledge of Evolutionary Theory, I watched Discovery Channel videos, read

countless published research papers, and looked into published studies as well. After all of my
research I have come to the conclusion that the Modern Theory of Evolution is just the attempt
to adapt Darwins Theory of Evolution to the upcoming evidence contradicting it. This is not how
science traditionally works. Traditionally, once a theory is disproven, you discard it and develop
new ideas. You don't recycle the age-old ideas and cut out the parts that are no longer valid."

EVOLUTIONARY THEORY CRITIQUES

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A new theory will arise, and it will account for the natural selection and adaptations that

we see referenced under evolution and it will also account for all of the unexplained
contradictions to evolution. On that day, we will have a theory that may withstand the critiques of
the scientific community.!

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EVOLUTIONARY THEORY CRITIQUES

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References"

Can Random Mutations Create New Complex Features? A Response to TalkOrigins. (n.d.). "
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Retrieved March 1, 2015, from http://www.evolutionnews.org/2012/06/"
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can_random_muta061221.html"
Charles Darwin, Origin of Species (1859), Chapter 6, available at http://www.literature.org/"
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authors/darwin-charles/the-origin-of-species/chapter-06.html."
Donald Griffin (2001). Animal Minds: Beyond Cognition to Consciousness. University of Chicago "
"
Press."
Douglas Axe, "The Limits of Complex Adaptation: An Analysis Based on a Simple Model of "
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Structured Bacterial Populations," BIO-Complexity 2010 (4): 1-10."
Feinberg, TE; Mallatt, J (October 2013). "The evolutionary and genetic origins of consciousness "
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in the Cambrian Period over 500 million years ago.". Frontiers in psychology 4: 667."
Gregg Easterbrook, "Where did life come from?," Wired Magazine, page 108 (February, 2007)."
Jerry Coyne, "The Great Mutator," The New Republic (June 14, 2007)."
Jogalekar, A. (2012, September 13). Three reasons why junk DNA makes evolutionary sense | "
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The Curious Wavefunction, Scientific American Blog Network."
John Maynard Smith and Eors Szathmary, The Major Transitions in Evolution, page. 81 (W.H. "
"
Freeman, 1995)."
Liu, Y., Cotton, J., Shen, B., Han, X., Rossiter, S., & Zhang, S. (2010, January 26). Convergen "
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Sequence Evolution Between Echolocating Bats and Dolphins."
McGhee, G. (2011). Convergent evolution limited forms most beautiful. Cambridge, MA: MIT "
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Press."
Michael Behe and David Snoke, "Simulating Evolution by Gene Duplication of Protein Features "
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That Require Multiple Amino Acid Residues," Protein Science 13 (2004): 2651-2664."
Natural Selection. (2011, July 25). Retrieved March 1, 2015, from http://www.discovery.com/tv-" "
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shows/other-shows/videos/assignment-discovery-shorts-natural-selection/"
One Scientist's Junk Is a Creationist's Treasure. (n.d.). Retrieved March 1, 2015, from http://"
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www.wired.com/category/science/discoveries/news/2007/06/junk_dna"
Organic Life Evolution. (2011, July 25). Retrieved March 1, 2015, from http://"
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www.discovery.com/tv-shows/other-shows/videos/assignment-discovery-shorts-organic-"
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life-evolution/"
Pascal-Antoine Christin, Daniel M. Weinreich, and Guillaume Besnard, "Causes and "
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evolutionary significance of genetic convergence," Trends in Genetics, Vol.26(9):400-405 "
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(2010)."
Peter rhem, B. I. B. Lindahl, Paul R. Manger, and Ann B. Butler (2008). "On the origin of "
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consciousness some amniote scenarios". In Hans Liljenstrm, Peter rhem. "
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Consciousness Transitions: Phylogenetic, Ontogenetic, and Physiological Aspects. "
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Elsevier."
Rick Durrett and Deena Schmidt, "Waiting for Two Mutations: With Applications to Regulatory "
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Sequence Evolution and the Limits of Darwinian Evolution," Genetics 180 (2008):"
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1501-1509."
Rick Weiss, "Intricate Toiling Found In Nooks of DNA Once Believed to Stand Idle," Washington "
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Post, June 14, 2007"
Robert Shapiro, Origins: A Skeptics Guide to the Creation of Life on Earth, page 207 (Summit "
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Books, 1986)."
Than, B. (2012, December 7). What is Darwin's Theory of Evolution?"
What Are the Top Ten Problems with Darwinian Evolution? (n.d.). Retrieved March 1, 2015, from "
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http://www.evolutionnews.org/2012/07/what_are_the_to_1062011.html