Clutching at whiskers 25/9/13
Sir,
With respect to Prof. Paul Braterman (Letter, 23/9/13) he is hardly treating the Book of Genesis with respect when he does not believe it to be accurate or truthful!
Chapter one of Genesis describes how God made all things out of nothing in the space of six literal days. This work involved the creation of matter and then the separate creation of the various kinds of living thing, each creative act being accomplished instantly by God's powerful word. The sea creatures were created on the fifth day and the land creatures on the sixth: that makes whales older than land mammals by about a day. The creation was perfect and in perfect harmony: there was nothing "arbitrary" or "unconnected" about it.
The article on the origin of cetaceans which Prof. Braterman cites does not get off to a good start. It acknowledges that the presence of hair or fur is characteristic of mammals but that all modern cetaceans lack this – "presumably an adaptation to reduce friction and improve locomotion" (might it not more plausibly be because they were designed that way?) – but then states that some species "retain a few hairs on their face" and that in others the fetus has "whiskers" and that these "are clear signs of their mammalian heritage."
This is surely clutching at straws (or whiskers!) and typifies the speculative approach characteristic of evolutionists when faced with the insuperable problem of the existence of fully-formed kinds fitted to their environment with no evidence of age-long periods of development leading from one kind to another. As Darwin recognised the evolutionary theory requires multitudes of indisputably transitional forms. He hoped that they would eventually be found among the fossils yet to date the few alleged transitional examples discovered generally consist of just a few bone fragments and are always open to different interpretations. The fossil record is never going to yield what evolutionists want.
My argument is that eye-witness testimony is the only sure way to know about origins. God has provided us with such testimony in the Book of Genesis. It is because evolutionists dismiss that testimony that they misinterpret natural revelation, including such things as the age of earth and the fossil record – and more importantly the true dignity, purpose and destiny of man.
If your readers wish to read articles rebutting the claims of evolutionism then they will find plenty of material on the Internet, much of it written by people qualified in science. Among the material is that located at www.trueorigin.org
Rev. David Blunt
17 Knockline
Isle of North Uist
HS6 5DT