Expert: Walter Hintz - 9/29/2005

Question
I have a question about the mechanism of evolution.   I have been studying the creation/evolution debate for many years, and find the whole thing a very perplexing issue.  Although there are various religious reasons why many Christians reject the theory of evolution, I am interested in the truth of the matter.  I do believe that God is the Creator of the universe and life, but that could mean that He made an initial creation with the necessary conditions for life to develop (evolve), rather than having to create all life ex nihilo around 6-8,000 years ago per Young Earth Creationists.  So any critique I have of the theory of evolution is not based on an a priori rejection of evolution as necessarily incompatible with theology and thus wrong, but on aspects of the theory itself.   In fact, the main reason I think evolution carries so much weight is not so much due to a thorough understanding of ‘how' it occurs, but rather other corroborating evidence, such as the fossil record, radiometric dating, geological data, etc.  In fact, as the history of the subject shows, when people centuries ago thought the earth was indeed young, it was easy to believe in recent special creation.  But when studies came in from the 17th century onwards, it became clear the earth was much much older than had been believed.   With the current age hovering around 4.5 billion years, it becomes harder to believe in recent special creation.  Alternates such as Old Earth Creationism suggest themselves, with many contemporary adherents, where God created in successive fiats over vast geological time- perhaps this helps explain the mass extinctions and rapid emergence of new life forms over the ages.   

Anyway, I am prone to accept the theory of evolution just  because of what I mentioned – the time scale, the fossil record, geology, etc.  But when it comes to understanding how such change occurred over time, that is where I have a problem.  Given the current understanding of natural selection, genetic drift, sexual selection, and theories of speciation, it is hard for me to understand how totally new species evolve.  I can understand how plants and animals can change over time, but how does a creature that is, say of a reptile population 100 million years ago, change into a mammal population?  I understand that the ‘common descent' of all mammals was supposed to be a possum sized mammal around 80 +/- million years ago, and this early mammal ‘evolved' into virtually all mammals alive today, including bats and 90 foot whales and horses and humans, and lions and tigers and bears-oh my!  Things seem to ‘evolve' much faster than the mechanisms would allow.  Do you have a clear explanation of how this occurs?  

Answer
Hi mike
Of course I do not have a clear explanation of how speciation occurs nor does anybody else. It would appear that you question natural selection as the mechanism that brings about speciation. I too have some problems with natural selection, I have been very interested in animal behavior during the last few years and I find it difficult to see how some behaviors can be explained by natural selection. I have to operate under the assumption that invertebrate behavior is innate and not learned.  It is in their DNA. Let me give you an example of what I mean.  I have visited the jungles in Belize and Galapagos Islands.  In the jungle I spent some time studying ants, specifically leafcutters and army ants. A soldier leafcutter with huge mandibles guards the entrance to the nest keeping out interlopers. If a worker comes along without a piece of leaf he bites off its head. Why is he doing this?  Is it part of the struggle for available energy? No leaf means less leaf to grow fungus upon and that means less food for the colony. I spent a lot of time on the ground watching the procession and most ants do have a leaf but if they drop one they are doomed. Is the inability to hang onto a leaf in the DNA?  If so what difference does it make because worker ants are cloned and their DNA is not passed on. Ants have not changed in millions of years.  How can natural selection explain such behavior?  Here is something about leafcutters that is even stranger.If you look closely you will see a very tiny ant called a minum riding at the top of some of the leaf pieces being carried.  Why are they there? There is a fly that glues an egg to the leaf so that entrance to the nest can be gained and the maggot can develop there.  What does the minum do?  It throws off the fly egg.
Natural selection depends upon passing on DNA that is desirable and rejecting that that is not but social insects are cloned. I could go on and on but it seems to me that there are other factors involved in evolution besides a struggle for energy and competition. Certainly cooperation plays a aprt as well as competition. I do believe that everything in the Universe makes sense including change and speciation.
Although I have problems with natural selection I have no problems with evolution.  The evidence for evolution is irrefutable.  The ideas that the Earth is only 6000 years old is preposterous as is the idea that God merely points a finger and says let there be a new species. Is there conflict between creation and evolution?  It seems to me that the laws of chemistry , biology and physics  exhibit real creativity.