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Over 1,000 Scientists Openly Dissent From Evolution Theory
The New American ^ | 11 March 2019 | Alex Newman

Posted on 03/11/2019 2:51:56 PM PDT by Sopater

Over 1,000 doctoral scientists from around the world have signed a “Dissent” statement expressing skepticism about Darwin’s evolution theory, sparking fresh controversy over an idea that is at the core of many people’s worldview. The significant announcement, made last month, has been all but ignored by the establishment media. But it is making waves nevertheless.

The dissenting scientists all united around one simple statement. “We are skeptical of claims for the ability of random mutation and natural selection to account for the complexity of life,” the Ph.D.s said. “Careful examination of the evidence for Darwinian theory should be encouraged. There is scientific dissent from Darwinism. It deserves to be heard.”

The growing rebellion among scientists from a broad range of scientific disciplines suggests the science may not be as settled as evolution theorists claim, according to analysts. Despite enormous risks to their careers and reputations, the number of experts willing to speak out about their skepticism of Darwin’s theory is growing quickly.

And many of the scientists speaking out about this are prominent and highly respected. More than a dozen of the signatories, for instance, are members of various national academies of science, including those in the United States, Russia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and other nations, as well as the Royal Society.

More than a few come from America's most prestigious universities such as Harvard, MIT, Princeton, and Yale. Others come from prestigious foreign universities and research institutions such as the University of Cambridge, London’s Natural History Museum, Moscow State University, Hong Kong University, University of Stellenbosch in South Africa, Institut de Paléontologie Humaine in France, Ben-Gurion University in Israel, and more.

The experts speaking out also represent a broad array of scientific disciplines and fields. These include molecular biology, biochemistry, biology, entomology, computational quantum chemistry, microbiology, psychiatry, behavioral sciences, astrophysics, marine biology, cellular biology, physics, astronomy, math, geology, anthropology, and many more. Many medical doctors are raising questions, too.    

“As a biochemist I became skeptical about Darwinism when I was confronted with the extreme intricacy of the genetic code and its many most intelligent strategies to code, decode, and protect its information,” explained Dr. Marcos Eberlin, founder of the Thomson Mass Spectrometry Laboratory and a member of the Brazilian National Academy of Sciences.

Among the prestigious scientists who have signed the statement are evolutionary biologist and textbook author Dr. Stanley Salthe; quantum chemist Henry Schaefer at the University of Georgia; U.S. National Academy of Sciences member Philip Skell; American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow Lyle Jensen; Russian Academy of Natural Sciences embryologist Lev Beloussov; and geneticist Giuseppe Sermonti, editor emeritus of Rivista di Biologia / Biology Forum and discoverer of genetic recombination in antibiotic-producing Penicillium and Streptomyces.

The project, known as “A Scientific Dissent From Darwinism,” was first launched by the Discovery Institute in 2001. It was started in response to the demonstrably false claim by the tax-funded Public Broadcasting System (PBS) that “virtually every scientist in the world believes the theory to be true.” Obviously, that is not true. So Discovery Institute bought advertisements proving it in the New York Review of Books and other venues.  

Since then, the number of public dissenters has grown tenfold. Indeed, many prominent scientists now dispute the evolution theory. A recent documentary that appeared on Netflix, Is Genesis History?, features myriad Ph.D. scientisists outlining their arguments against evolution and in favor of biblical creation.

This writer attended a conference in Turkey recently that brought together respected scientists from all over the world and from all different religions who argued that the evolution theory was a “hoax.” These included prestigious American scientists who have worked for NASA and leading U.S. universities. It also included Catholics, Protestants, Muslims, Mormons, and more.     

The Seattle-based Discovery Institute, which advocates for Intelligent Design, is still growing its list of well over 1,000 Ph.D. scientists who dissent from Neo-Darwinism and its central tenet — the notion that random mutations and natural selection can generate the massive amount of genetic information present in living organisms. Indeed, critics of the evolution theory say there has never been a documented example of a mutation adding genetic information rather than destroying it.

Neurosurgery Professor Dr. Michael Egnor at State University of New York, Stony Brook, argued that scientists “know intuitively that Darwinism can accomplish some things, but not others.” “The question is what is that boundary? Does the information content in living things exceed that boundary? Darwinists have never faced those questions,” he explained. “They’ve never asked scientifically, can random mutation and natural selection generate the information content in living things.”

And the institute believes that the 1,000 plus scientists who have signed the statement represent the tip of a massive iceberg. “While that number surely represents a scientific minority, it also no doubt vastly understates the number of Darwin-doubting PhD scientists,” wrote Discovery Institute Senior Fellow David Klinghoffer at Evolution News.

“When it comes to evolution, persecution is an all too well known fact of academic life. Endorsing Darwinian evolution is the safe careerist move, while questioning it can easily mean the end of your career,” added Klinghoffer. “So for every signer of the Dissent list, there is some multiplier’s worth of private skeptics in science, acting self-protectively. That is beyond reasonable doubt.”     

Indeed, the growing willingness of leading scientists to speak out with their doubts about Darwin’s theory of evolution is especially noteworthy because it comes in the face of increased persecution of dissenters.

In 2017, for example, California State University at Northridge (CSUN) fired a Christian scientist after he published explosive evidence indirectly contradicting the theory in a peer-reviewed journal. Basically, Mark Armitage, a microscopist, found soft tissue in a dinosaur bone that was supposed to be around “65 million years old,” strongly indicating that the dinosaur in question died much more recently. The university paid him almost $400,000 in a settlement.

More than a few scientists have argued that peer pressure and fear are preventing an honest examination of the subject. “Because no scientist can show how Darwin’s mechanism can produce the complexity of life, every scientist should be skeptical,” said biologist Douglas Axe, director of the Biologic Institute. “The fact that most won’t admit to this exposes the unhealthy effect of peer pressure on scientific discourse.”

Meanwhile, as more and more scientists speak out, Americans largely continue to reject the evolution theory as well, and interest in the question is surging. Despite the theory being taught to generations of American children in government schools as if it were a fact, recent polls show about half of Americans still believe in a literal interpretation of the Bible's Book of Genesis. In short, they believe that God created humans within fewer than 10,000 years. Only a minority — fewer than 15 percent — believe that godless evolution explains the origin of man, which is what is taught to children at government schools.    

“Where there’s a genuine controversy, as there is about Darwinian theory, anyone in search of truth has no choice but to weigh the evidence for himself,” observed the Discovery Institute’s Klinghoffer. "The observation that, beyond doubt, thousands of scientists are skeptical, and that a thousand of them publicly call for further ‘careful examination’ of the question, is one reason every thoughtful adult owes it to herself to consider the evidence without just passively swallowing the majority view.”

Beyond the scientific aspects, there are also profound implications of the theory. One reason religious humanists such as public-education founding father John Dewey latched on to it so fervently is because it allowed them to exclude the existence of a Creator. America's Founding Fathers held as a “self-evident” “truth” that man was created, and endowed by that Creator certain rights. Humanists such as Dewey and his cohorts, who designed the modern public-school system, rejected that — along with the concept of unalienable, God-given rights that governments exist to protect.  

Regardless of what one thinks about the evolution theory, it is still a theory. To force Americans who disagree with this controversial theory to fund its propagation in taxpayer-funded government schools — especially when no alternative is even allowed to be mentioned, and when the implications are so huge — is immoral and wrong. Parents and taxpayers should take a lesson from these courageous scientists and speak out.


TOPICS: Education; Science; Society
KEYWORDS: creation; evolution; michaelbehe
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1 posted on 03/11/2019 2:51:56 PM PDT by Sopater
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To: Sopater
It's kind of funny how people used to say to evolution unbelievers, "No, no, there cannot be a consensus of scientists who would ignore real evidence and promulgate fake evidence in huge numbers! It's impossible!"

Then came Global Warming.
2 posted on 03/11/2019 2:56:42 PM PDT by \/\/ayne (I regret that I have but one subscription cancellation notice to give to my local newspaper.)
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To: Sopater

Bkmrk.


3 posted on 03/11/2019 2:58:15 PM PDT by RushIsMyTeddyBear
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To: Sopater

“...Darwinists have never faced those questions,” he explained. “They’ve never asked scientifically, can random mutation and natural selection generate the information content in living things.”


The fact is that a lot of scientists seem to have a difficulty knowing when to just say “We don’t know.” They have put too much faith in materialism to provide answers, and when it cannot, they simply latch on to whatever seems like the least ludicrous possible solution, even if it can’t be scientifically established.


4 posted on 03/11/2019 2:58:22 PM PDT by Boogieman
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To: Sopater

So what? It’s a theory, lots of people agree and disagree with every theory. Nature of the beast.


5 posted on 03/11/2019 3:00:24 PM PDT by bigbob (Trust Trump. Trust the Plan.)
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To: Sopater

“Theory” of Evolution? ... It’s only a barely plausible Hypothesis. Within a species there has been some observed adaptation but never has one species been observed to transform into a new species.


6 posted on 03/11/2019 3:01:08 PM PDT by captain_dave
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To: Sopater

BookMark


7 posted on 03/11/2019 3:06:26 PM PDT by Verbosus (/* No Comment */)
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To: bigbob
So what? It’s a theory...

To many, it's much much more than that.
8 posted on 03/11/2019 3:08:24 PM PDT by Sopater (Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? - Matthew 20:15a)
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To: Verbosus

There is a popular misunderstanding about what a scientific theory represents. For scientists a theory is an hypothesis that can be falsified by experimental observation and induction and has not been so falsified. Until the scientists who have expressed their dissent with the process of natural selection have published evidence of some biological complexification that can only be sufficiently explained by supernatural forces then their dissent is merely their biased opinion. Natural selection and complexification is routinely demonstrated in molecular biology labs every day and is not really very controversial anymore. They are entitled to believe whatever they want but they can’t pretend its scientific without a falsifiable hypothesis and peer reviewed data that validates that belief.


9 posted on 03/11/2019 3:24:02 PM PDT by Dave Wright
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To: captain_dave; bigbob
No, sorry. Disproven hypotheses should no longer be called a theory by anyone.

What we're seeing behind this particular curtain that's being pulled back is how credentialed academics have been able to promulgate falsehoods throughout the system and get their wrong-headed "theories" taught for decades if not centuries in schools of all levels, long after contrary evidence gets purposely subverted by these same academicians.

There are many such fiefdoms that are amazingly and successfully resistant to the assimilation of new, factual information.

What we think we know is in large part wrong and a big reason is that so-called scientists (and others, e.g., archaeologists, art historians, etc.) are able to hold sway to marginalize very credible reports, often by well-trained observers.

A very good book on topics that elucidate such problems is, "Everything You Know is Still Wrong," by Lloyd Pye.

10 posted on 03/11/2019 3:25:27 PM PDT by rx (Truth Will Out!)
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To: Sopater

..Only 1000 people disagree with flat-earthers...

therefore, anyone who still believes it’s round is crazy!

...idiot logic


11 posted on 03/11/2019 3:31:15 PM PDT by joethedrummer
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To: Boogieman

Faith is the key word. It is a religion to some.


12 posted on 03/11/2019 3:38:02 PM PDT by dhs12345
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To: bigbob
So what? It’s a theory, lots of people agree and disagree with every theory. Nature of the beast.

Do you really think "lots" of people disagree with atomic theory? Get a grip. Darwinian Evolution is a crock. This doesn't mean that Genesis is correct but only that Darwinian Evolution is not.

ML/NJ

13 posted on 03/11/2019 3:38:45 PM PDT by ml/nj
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To: Sopater

Nice to read. Thanks.

Evolution is a hoax based on biased “science” just like Global Warming is a hoax based on biased “science”.....

But what destruction these hoaxes have wrought.....


14 posted on 03/11/2019 3:47:02 PM PDT by Freedom'sWorthIt
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To: Sopater

Stop. Global warming IS fake. Evolution is a fact. No theory. A fact. (Various permutations Of evolution may be considered theoretical)

You can still keep your faith and understand how the world works. You wouldn’t give up fire or the wheel. Just another science.


15 posted on 03/11/2019 3:47:58 PM PDT by Vaquero (Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you .)
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To: Sopater

There is just one problem with the missing link...

It’s missing.


16 posted on 03/11/2019 3:55:25 PM PDT by seawolf101 (Member LES DEPLORABLES)
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To: Dave Wright
I think what you're calling "natural selection" should come under the heading of micro-evolution or persistent phenotypical expression.

No primates, apes, simians, hominoids, or neanderthals have ever been shown to have been an ancestor to homo sapiens sapiens.

Perhaps you have a unique explanation how prokaryotes made the jump to eukaryotes.

17 posted on 03/11/2019 3:56:21 PM PDT by rx (Truth Will Out!)
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To: bigbob

Since there is no experiment that can disprove, let alone prove, it is not a theory. It was observational opinion. Even a theory requires more


18 posted on 03/11/2019 4:13:36 PM PDT by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds)
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To: Dave Wright

There is no way to test one species or organism turning into another


19 posted on 03/11/2019 4:15:18 PM PDT by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds)
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To: Sopater

That which is known as being true and fact can be placed on one single sheet of paper. That which is unknown and theory fills infinite volumes in infinite libraries


20 posted on 03/11/2019 4:30:39 PM PDT by no-to-illegals (Liberals, Rinos, moslems, illegals, lamestream media. All want America to fail and die)
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