Sir,
Rod Morrison is correct in asserting that the English language has changed since
the days of James VI, although he fails to realise that the Authorised Version was
not written in Jacobean English, but what may be viewed as a hybrid form which was
not the current language of the day. A cursory comparison of the AV with its Epistle
Dedicatory to King James makes this very clear.
However, his assertion that language
is evolving and that this proves Darwinian evolution is very wide of the mark. The
truth is that an analysis of individual languages and language groups indicates that
the change is all in a downward direction. That the “fittest”, whatever that may
mean, survive is nothing to do with Darwinian philosophy.
Over the last thousand years English has lost many grammatical forms, as have other
languages. Of course additional words may be invented by people to describe new things,
words are borrowed from other languages, and pronunciation may change, but the level
of grammatical and syntactical complexity always decreases. Classical Greek is far
more complex than the later Koine Greek, which again is more complex than modern
Greek which, compared with Koine Greek, no longer uses certain tenses and has lost
at least one case ending.
Language degenerates over time. It displays change, but
it is generally the survival of the simplest. Similarly, in living organisms, there
is some evidence of change, but the evidence is one of loss of genetic information
in the genome.
Natural selection takes advantageous traits to fit different environments but by doing this will cause the genome of that particular creature to lose the diversity of ancestral populations. In a similar way, man using artificial selection can highlight certain genes and breed many different types of dogs, sheep and cats etc. somewhat mimicking natural selection. However, dogs remain dogs and sheep remain sheep, though with a depleted gene pool.
There is no hard evidence of any organism “evolving” new structures with additional
functionality. Observational science does not support these ideas. They are only
the dreams of those committed to the philosophy of Darwinism. Belief in creation
– whether it be of languages or creatures – is based on scientific evidence when
impartially considered, whereas evolutionism requires blind faith in unverifiable
assertions.
Rev Graeme Craig
FCC Manse
Newvalley
Stornoway
Letter: Evolutionism is “unverifiable assertion”
7 June 2018