Creationism|Evolution

This section details some arguments regarding creationism and evolution (and is continually expanding). There’s plenty of information out on the web, but it’s sometimes hard to find the best ones, so this contains a list of some good information I’ve found or written:

Contents:
The Biblical Chronology (4000 BC-2000 BC) contradicts Archeology
Fact Or Fiction: Could Noah’s Ark Really Have Happened?
Genetic Evidence Shows that a Global Flood never happened
Evidence for an Old Earth based on Radioactive Elements
Proof that Mutations can Create Information
Fossil Evidence for Common Descent of Humans and Apes
Genetic Evidence for Common Descent of Humans and Apes
Genetic Evidence for Common Descent of Cats
Fossil Evidence for Whale Evolution from Land Mammals
TalkOrigins: Rebuttals to Creationists Claims

The Biblical Chronology (4000 BC-2000 BC) contradicts Archeology
Creationism versus Archaeology – The timelines of world history contradict young earth creationism. According to Biblical sources, the global flood occurred around 2350 BC, but there were civilizations in existence long before that – and they continued to exist right through “the global flood”.

Fact or Fiction: Could Noah’s Ark Really Have Happened?
This article talks about a variety of reasons why we know a global flood didn’t happen – and certainly not the way that the Bible says it happened. Read the article.

Genetic Evidence Shows that a Global Flood never happened
Studies on the Human Y-Chromosome show that a global flood could not have happened as the Old Testament claims. According to Biblical sources, this global flood would have occurred around 2350 B.C. (Many, many Christians agree with that claim, and I’ve done the calculations myself using the Bible.) However, if a global flood occurred as described in the Bible, then all males would have received their Y-Chromosome from Noah. The Y-Chromosome only exists in males and is passed from father to son (so all of Noah’s sons would receive his Y-Chromosome). This means all differences between the Y-Chomosomes in modern human males would be mutational differences accumulated over the past 4300 years. There should be very little genetic variation in the Y-Chromosome. However, genetic studies show that, in order to account for the genetic differences in human Y-Chromosomes, you need a timespan of approximately 60,000 years. Similarly, studies on mitochondrial DNA (which travels down the female lineage) show that it has too much variation to support the idea of Eve living 6,000 years ago. Explaining the genetic variation in human mitochondrial DNA requires 140,000 years of accumulated mutations. Thus, the genetic evidence shows there was no population bottleneck which occurred 4,300 years ago, and no “Adam and Eve” which lived 6,000 years ago.

Evidence for an Old Earth based on Radioactive Elements
How Old is the Earth? What Radionuclides Say. The abundances of 92 different radioactive elements on earth is amazingly close to values you’d expect on a planet that’s 4.5 billion years old.

Fossil Evidence for Common Descent of Humans and Apes
A common creationist refrain is “The ‘Missing Link’ is still missing!”, but the fossil evidence shows an increasing cranial capacity among hominids over the past few million years:

This article talks about all the different hominid fossils, and includes a timeline with each one. Creationists try to argue that all fossils are either extinct apes or fully human. However, they can’t even decide among themselves which species fits into which category. Another tactic of creationists is to point out the handful of fossil fakes (Piltdown Man, Nebraska Man), and avoid talking about any other hominid fossils, leaving the reader to assume the fakes were the only hominid fossils claimed by evolutionists.

Genetic evidence for Common Descent of Humans and Apes
Humans and Apes have remarkably similar DNA. While this is expected from a theory of ‘common descent + descent with modification’, it goes even deeper than that. Humans, Chimpanzees, and Gorillas actually share a common genetic defect that prevents all three species from producing their own Vitamin C. The defective version of the gene still exists in all three species, but it is crippled by the exact same mutation in *all* individuals of all three species. This pattern only makes sense in light of the idea that humans, chimpanzees, and gorillas all descended from a common ancestor, and that the common ancestor had a genetic defect that was passed on to all descendant species. It’s much more difficult to explain the exact same defect in the exact same gene across billions of individuals from three different “independently created” species – as young earth creationists would have to claim.

Genetic Evidence for Common Descent of Cats
Cats – ranging from common housecats, to tigers, and cheetahs – have a genetic defect which prevents them from tasting sugar. This genetic defect can be traced to a particular mutation in one gene, which destroyed its function. This defective gene (and the identical mutation) can be found in a wide variety of different species of cats, and this can be neatly explained by common descent (they all inherited the genetic defect from a common ancestor). Like the “Vitamin C gene”, it’s difficult to for young earth creationists to explain this pattern. They might be tempted to “explain” it by claiming that all modern cats descended from a single species 4,300 years ago (when they stepped off the Ark), but the genetic diversity of cats makes that unlikely. Carl Zimmer has some charts on the genetic analysis of cats and their evolution. Based on that genetic analysis, Cheetahs, Tigers, and housecats diverged from a common ancestor approximately 10.8 million years ago. While creationists will obviously not accept this “10.8 million years” number, it’s approximately twice the value estimated for the last common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees. In other words, Cheetahs, Tigers, and housecats have twice the genetic distance as humans and chimpanzees, and that makes it untenable to suggest that they were one species as recently as 4,300 years ago — unless, of course, creationists think it’s reasonable to suggest humans and chimps were one species as recently as 2,000 years ago.

Fossil Evidence for Whale Evolution from Land Mammals
Not only do we see a progression of fossils from land mammals to whale-like swimming mammals beginning 50 million years ago, but we can see individual features of those animals changing over time. For example, the breathing hole of the whale ancestors migrating from the tip of the nose (as you would find with land mammals) to the top of the head (as we find with whales).

(Not shown on this image: Rodhocetus, 47 million years ago, has a nasal passage partway between Pakicetus (50 million years ago) and Aetiocetus (25 million years ago).)

Additionally, in confirmation of the idea that this sequence of fossils were actually whale ancestors, they all have the same unusual ear structure that is only found in whales (and these ancient non-whale fossils). And the fossils show a progression of slowly losing their hind libs.

(Basilosaurus, 34-39 million years ago, with well developed hind limbs, though reduced in size.)
Videos on Whale Evolution:
Evolution Primer #3: How Do We Know Evolution Happens?

Rebuttals to Creationists Claims
The Index to Creationist Claims contains a long list of rebuttals to hundreds of different creationist arguments.