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Evolutionary Claim:

As descendants of the first cell continued to replicate, occasional copy errors (mutations), led to diversity. Some variations displayed increased survival rates. By favoring those variants that best survived and reproduced, Natural Selection gave rise to all manner of diversity and biological complexity.

Reality Check:

(Unless otherwise noted, quotations below are from the book by Henry Morris, That Their Words May Be Used Against Them, available from the Institute of Creation Research. Links are to articles and papers on the World Wide Web.)

(von Bertalanffy, Ludwig [biologist, founder of General Systems Theory and Professor, State University of New York, Buffalo], "Chance or Law," in Koestler A. & Smythies J.R., ed., "Beyond Reductionism: New Perspectives in the Life Sciences," [1969], Hutchinson: London, 1972, reprint, p.65). Quoted from Stephen E. Jones Creation/Evolution Quotes. (See also Stephen E. Jones' Home Page)

"[I] for one, in spite of all the benefits drawn from genetics and the mathematical theory of selection, am still at a loss to understand why it is of selective advantage for the eels of Comacchio to travel perilously to the Sargasso sea, or why Ascaris has to migrate all around the host's body instead of comfortably settling in the intestine where it belongs; or what was the survival value of a multiple stomach for a cow when a horse, also vegetarian and of comparable size, does very well with a simple stomach; or why certain insects had to develop those admirable mimicries and protective colorations when the common cabbage butterfly is far more abundant with its conspicuous white wings. One cannot reject these and innumerable similar questions as incompetent; if the selectionist explanation works well in some cases, a selectionist explanation cannot be refused in others." [Emphasis added]

(Gould, Stephen Jay, [Professor of Zoology and Geology, Harvard University, USA], Raup D.M., Sepkoski J.J., Jr., Schopf T.J.M., & Simberloff D.S., "The shape of evolution: a comparison of real and random clades," Paleobiology, 1977, vol. 3, pp.34-35). Quoted from Stephen E. Jones Creation/Evolution Quotes.

"Paleontologists (and evolutionary biologists in general) are famous for their facility in devising plausible stories; but they often forget that plausible stories need not be true."

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