It is generally assumed in our world today that naturalistic evolution can explain how life arose and developed into what it is today. In other words, the origin and development of everything from lobsters, giraffes and humans – and everything in between – can supposedly be explained by evolution.
When I was asking some basic questions of the gospel (as summarized in About Me: The Wisdom I learned from a filthy-rich, hard-drinking playboy) I had read books that called evolution into question and argued for a Creator. However, it was when I was a grad student in Forest Engineering that I decided to study university textbooks and journals used to teach evolution to dig deeper into the subject. It was eye-opening. What the critics of evolution wrote was one thing, but it was the arguments and rationales used in the textbooks and journals explaining evolution that moved me far more. Since my grad student days I periodically read the current textbooks used in university. In the following four videos I take you on a tour of some of these textbooks so you retrace the journey that I took.
This first video introduces the Design Inference and asks whether such a view, at a high level, fits with the data. Seeing how leading evolutionists describe what and how life is shows us that there is at least an initial fit.
This second video looks at whether we observe the process of evolution occurring today. After all, science is based on what we observe. What do the texts says?…
This third video surveys the fossil record of natural descent and then using the alleged evolution of the bird-lung looks at some theoretical problems with functional transitions.
http://vimeo.com/36478478
This fourth video looks at misconceptions that are common in our culture about evolution and then concludes by revisiting Design.
http://vimeo.com/36484761
These video sessions reference some of the books and journals that I have studied over the years. The main ones used in the videos are:
Kenneth V Kardong, An Introduction to Biological Evolution. 2005
Snustad and Simmons. Principles of Genetics 2nd Ed 1997
Francis Collins. The Language of God. 2006
SF Gilbert. Developmental Biology 8th Ed 2006.
Scott Freeman and JC Herron. Evolutionary Analysis 4th Ed. 2007
ENK Clarkson & Blackwell. Invertebrate Palaeontology and Evolution. 1979
Peter Price. Biological Evolution, 1996
Davis & Kenyon. Of Pandas and People: The central question of biological origins. 1993
Blog Posts Related to this Session
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Hi Ragnar.
Thanks a lot for your explanations on this topic. You make the topic very easy to understand. And you pointed out the fallacies in the evolution theory. I wish I watched this years ago.
Complete drivel! This sort of medieval claptrap would be funny if it wasn’t so toxic. Sound scientific enquiry is the only route to true knowledge. Gods, fairies and other assorted fanciful entities have no place.