Teacher: Right. He sailed in ocean to group of islands, called the Galapagos Islands, in his ship. Does anybody remember the name of his ship?
Student: Beagle
Teacher: Right. HMS Beagle
On the Galapagos Islands, Darwin found living proofs of an evolutionary process at work. He found, for instance, that there were considerable variations in the beaks of Finches, each having evolved to exploit the different ecological leash. But all these variation occurred within the same species. Darwin was unable to find any evidence to support his theory that one species could evolve into another. He expressed his misgivings in a letter written to Thomas Thompson in 1861.
“But I believe in natural selection not because I can prove in any single case that it has changed one species into another but because it groups and explain well, as it seems to me, a host of facts in classification embryology, morphology, rudimentary organs, geological succession and distribution.”
Despite his misgivings Darwin’s work had such a powerful impact that it has colored most of the scientific research on this subject. Since the popular image of evolution, that mankind evolved from apps, has been so widely embraced that it is now taught to us as being a fact other than a theory. More than a century of scientific research has failed to prove this theory.
For a long time the major line of research was Paleontology, the study of fossils. Here very limited and random evidences were given unlimited amount of speculation. In 1971 Professor Grasse, who held the chair of evolutionary studies at Sorbonne University in Paris for thirty years, wrote
“In the history of the primates we must be careful not to take the face value of the reconstructions of our ancestors based on few skeleton vestiges that were put forward in all seriousness by highly imaginative paleontologists.”
This explains why genealogical trees of man are quickly devised and just as quickly discarded. The most recent work on this subject appears to be fairly mediocre. Even though they concern new and interesting discoveries, the researchers engaged in these studies have neither the knowledge nor the good sense to interpret the discoveries correctly.
The fossil evidence has shown that there had been several stages in the development of mankind. But a link to join any of these hominid forms to any other animal lineage has never been found. Speculations like the famous Piltdown man demonstrate the single mindedness of paleontologists in seeking this speculative missing link.
The oldest near complete fossil of a hominid form is Lucy who is taught to be nearly three and half millions years old. The bone structure showed that Lucy walked upright on two legs like us and not like an app. Lucy and her kind the Australopithecines died out some time during the first ice age.
“He created you in stages.” Qur’an, chapter Al-Noor Verse: 14.
Fossils found in Africa, Asia and Europe showed that there was another wave of hominids which was closer to our size and Lucy and with a brain capacity similar to modern man. This wave, the Homo erectus, seems to have disappeared between five hundred thousand years and one hundred fifty thousand years ago.
“We created man according to the best organizational plan.” Qur’an, chapter At-Teen Verse: 4.
The next wave Neanderthal man was even closer to us in structure and probably also in the appearance. They died out between one hundred thousand years to forty thousand years ago.
“If God wills He destroys you and in your place appoints who He wills as successor just as he brought you forth from the decadents of other people.” Qur’an, chapter Al-Inaam Verse: 133.
Neanderthal man was overleaped and succeeded by the fourth wave, Cro-Magnon man who is the direct ancestor of the modern man. No clear link has been found between any of these different stages.
“Verily We created them and strengthen all of them and when We willed We replaced them completely by people who were of the same kind.” Qur’an, chapter Al-Insaan Verse: 28.
Once again the overview of the Qur’an and the facts discovered by research seem to match. But here the similarity stops. The Qur’an does not agree with the theories and the speculations of the paleontologists.
The latest support for the theory of evolution of species comes through molecular biology particularly from the studies of chromosomes and the genetic code. In multi cellular organisms the complete genetic code is contained within the nucleus of each and every cell of the body. An individual inherits the exact copies of genes from the parents; so passing on information from one generation to another. The only way a gene can change is through mutation during the duplication process. Genetists have shown how this process of mutation can account for major physical changes within a short time span but this is far from proving that one species can evolve into another. It is even further from providing an explanation for myriad life forms on this planet. For Multi cellular organs to change their nature and functions, many different features have to evolve together. This needs fantastically genetic co-ordination and to tribute such coordination to random or chance mutation is a severe stretch of the imagination. Francis Creg, who dominated the field of genetic research from very beginning, acknowledges the severe limitations of the molecular approach. In one way you can say that all the genetic molecular biological work of last sixty years could be considered as a long interlude. Now that program has been completed. We have come full circle back to the problems left behind unsolved. How a wounded organ regenerates to exactly the same structure it had before? How does the egg form the organism? Almost nothing is known of the way the genes communicate, cooperate and organize themselves to develop a complex organism like man. An attempt of explaining life solely in terms of random molecular mechanisms is too simplistic. It fails to deal with fundamental questions behind the process of creation.