Original-Zitate

ReMine, Walter 'The Biotic Message. Evolution versus Message Theory', 1993, St. Paul, St. Paul Science

Chapter 1, Evolution versus the Biotic Message, gives a brief historical background of the issues, and the central question the book aims to overturn: Why would a designer create life to look like evolution? The chapter introduces message theory and the major themes of the book. It then solves the problem of imperfection - Stephen Gould's "panda principle."

The historian of science, Thomas Kuhn, warned that the philosophy of science is a subject largely ignored until there arises a clash between two great scientific viewpoints (known as paradigms). In such a clash, issues of subtlety suddenly loom enormous before us. To resolve these issues we must examine the philosophy of science more than scientists typically want to do. Chapter 2, Naturalism versus Science, lays the philosophical foundation for the book. It delineates the difference between science and non-science. It debunks many anticreation arguments. It shows that theories of an intelligent designer and messages can be scientific. Finally, it shows that some statements about the supernatural can be testable science.

Chapter 3, The Origin of Life, contains some chemistry and probability. A reader's previous knowledge in these areas is helpful, but not required. A major conclusion is simple, yet surprising to many. In no way does evolution predict life's biologic universals; yet message theory does. This is opposite from what evolutionists have claimed.

Chapters 4, 5, and 6, Survival of the Fittest, Inventive Natural Selection, and Darwinian Scenarios, (and an appendix) cover much material, yet they accurately reflect the great diversity of defenses that evolutionists have made for Darwins theoretical mechanism. A lengthy treatment is necessary to document this controversy, which in its modern form has already evaded both clarity and resolution for many decades. Evolutionists claim that "natural selection is a scientific explanation of life's biological design." These chapters dismantle that intricately crafted illusion.

Chapters 7, 8, and 9, Population Genetics, Haldane's Dilemma, and The Neutral Theory of Evolution, are the most difficult, and may be skipped without loss of continuity. They explain some tough genetic issues to the average person, while remaining true to the technicalities of this field. Some of the issues - such as Fisher's theorem, the cost of substitution, and the neutral theory - have been persistently elusive even to specialists. My contribution here is to clarify what has previously been murky. The chapters show that genetics has failed to support our evolutionary origins. It has failed to provide a clear picture of how evolution occurs at the genetic level. Yet evolutionary geneticists have not candidly acknowledged the difficulties.

Chapter 10, Gradual-Intergradations and Phylogeny, returns to message theory for discussion of some major predictions. Life was designed so two things would be absent: (1) gradual intergradations of life forms; and (2) phylogeny. This chapter lays out the battleground between evolution and message theory.

Chapter 11, Modern Systematic Methods, is a tutorial on methods for studying the pattern of life. Though this chapter gives some new insights, it is not especially controversial. Readers already familiar with the subject can skip this chapter without loss of continuity.

Chapter 12, Evolutionary Illusions, shows how words and imagery are used to create the illusion of ancestry. This is crucial reading for clarifying the origins debate.

Chapter 13, The Fossil Record, draws the three previous chapters together, showing that fossils are evidence for message theory, and against evolution. This chapter is largely documentary.

Chapter 14, Punctuated Equilibria, shows the modern evolutionists' theoretical response to the observational setbacks of the fossil record. The chapter exposes (for the first time) the purpose behind the punctuationists' curious emphasis an speciation.

Chapter 15, Hierarchy Theory, shows how modern theorists have shifted away from phylogeny, to life's nested hierarchy, as the major prediction of evolution. This chapter dismantles the illusions created by punctuated equilibria, hierarchy theory, pluralism, and anti-reductionism.

Chapter 16, Nested Hierarchy and Convergence, examines the pattern of life in morphology space. It shows that message theory predicts nested hierarchy and "convergence" - while evolution never did. Also, Darwin's riddle is cleanly solved. This is a key chapter, though it cannot be fully appreciated without the groundwork laid earlier.

Chapter 17, Embrylology, explains this classic body of evidence, especially von Baer's laws of development. It shows that Haeckel's (now defunct) recapitulation theory was an attempt to distort von Baer's laws into evidence for evolution, and that is why notions of recapitulation linger today. Contrary to the claims of evolutionists, embryology is major evidence against evolution, and for the biotic message.

Chapter 18, Vestigial Organs, shows that this body of evidence has dwindled to a vestige of its former self. Its remains are harmonious with message theory.

Chapter 19, Molecular Evolution, examines the evidence now available at the molecular level, showing that this most modern of evidences fully supports message theory. It shows how molecular cladograms and phenograms are compelling evidence against evolution's simplest and most powerful mechanisms.

Chapter 20, Illuisions of Fossil Sequence, exposes evolutionary illusions about the fossil sequence.

Chapter 21, Fossil Sequence and Message Theory, explains life's pattern in time.

Chapter 22, Biogeography, gives a brief update on the pattern of life in geographical space.

Chapter 23, Cosmological Issues, looks briefly at side issues that extend beyond biology.

Chapters 24 and 25, Discontinutity Systematics, and Systematics and the Origins Debate, provide the foundation for a new field of biosystematics that will become a dominant research method for evolutionists and creationists alike. These chapters will primarily interest systematists, and may be skipped by most readers.

Chapter 26, Conclusions, summarizes major points and draws the book together.

I have also been dismayed by evolutionists, who, for reasons of their own, felt unmoved to respond to the creationists' legitimate arguments until prodded by multiple cases of serious legal action. This is a sorry but perhaps realistic view of how ''Science'' often operates. I believe science can only benefit from the dialogue on origins. I disagree with those nay-sayers who declare the sky will fall if we lend an ear to the creationists. An adversarial dialogue, responsibly undertaken, can only improve our science and understanding. An adversarial dialogue can be an efficient means of clarifying scientific issues.

Evolutionists charge that creationists have been politically motivated. Yet evolutionists are in no position to make any such disparaging complaint. It is now a fact of history that evolutionists did not enter the modern origins debate until after they were politically motivated by pending legislation. For many years evolutionists steadfastly refused to mount a meaningful public response to the creationists' arguments. Political interests finally spurred evolutionists to action.

My major goals in this book are: (1) to break new ground toward a scientific resolution of the controversy; (2) to provide thorough documentation (an odious but necessary task in this controversy); (3) to avoid details that are unnecessary to illumination and resolution of the issues; and (4) to make the subject interesting and understandable to a wide audience. The first two goals often sharply conflict with the last two. I have had to make tradeoffs between these goals, and I hope l have done this agreeably.