Calling all atheists, homosexuals, socialists, feminists, “science” enthusiasts, etc…. you get the point. If you believe in evolutionism (the atheists will say “I don’t believe it, I merely accept it,” but I say “cut the crap.”), then you better have a good reason to do so. Otherwise, you shouldn’t believe it. It’s fairly cut-and-dried. Therefore, everyone who fancies themselves a student of science at UMBC, or alternately, those of you who simply don’t believe in God and use evolution as an excuse, must be able to logically answer each of the following 64 questions. For simplicity’s sake, you may send your responses to this email: werik1@umbc.edu, because if you do in fact answer the questions, your response will be quite long. Please note that none of what follows seeks to indoctrinate anyone into Creation; it is simply a group of questions taken from leading evolutionist textbooks—simply put, if you do not know the answers to these questions, then you don’t understand evolution. So, then, why would you believe it? There is little to discuss, so I may close the comments if spamming or ad hominem attacks occur. Those who are serious about arguing for evolution are free to answer the questions and send me an email. The test is not my original work, but I have done research on every single point covered below and I know the answers. I’m curious to know how many of my allegedly scientifically oriented peers do. Are you ready to take the challenge? Updated 11/2/04 EVOLUTION I.Q. TEST QUESTIONS The following questions have been derived from these addenda and will test your knowledge of evolution. If you truly understand evolution you should be able to answer most of these questions. Your Evolution I.Q. is high. If not, enhance your Evolution I.Q. by determining the answers from these addenda. Note: The numbers after the headings or questions indicate what book and addendum page number the answer may be found. For instance: 3-8 is book number 3, page 8 of the addendum. 1.Asking About Life by Tobin, 2001 6. Biology: Living Systems by Oram, etc., 2003 2. Biology by Miller and Levine, 2002 7. Biology: The Dynamics of Life by Biggs, etc., 2002 3. Biology by Mader, 2001 8. Biology: The Dynamics of Life by Biggs, etc., 2004 4. Modern Biology by Feldkamp, 2002 9. 5.Biology: Concepts and Connections, 2000 10. Evolution 1-1, 2-4, 3-1, 4-1, 5-1, 6-1, 7-5, 8-5 1. What is the difference between micro and macro evolution? 2. What is another term for micro-evolution? 3. What kind of information substantiates micro-evolution? Give an example. 4. What kind of information substantiates macro-evolution? Give an example. Mutations 1-10, 2-1, 3-8, 4-4, 5-7, 6-2, 7-2&18&22, 8-1&18&21 5. Is additional information needed in the DNA in order to make a more complex organism? 6. Will just any kind of information be useful in making another organism? If you have the plans on how to build a car and add to it the plans on how to build a house will you be able to build a better car? 7. Are there any kinds of mutations that can add useful information to the DNA? 8. The SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) project assumes that only intelligence can produce a signal from outer space. Is this reasonable? 9. Can random chance happenings produce intelligence? 10. How can duplication errors add useful information to an organism’s DNA? 11. If a “good or neutral” mutation occurs in the DNA will it take a few or many generations before it becomes recognizable in the general population? Explain. 12. If an organism has a deformity will it be passed on to the offspring? What requirements must be present in order for a mutation to be passed on? 13. Can natural selection add information to the gene pool? Explain your answer. 14. Is natural selection an editing or creative process? Explain. 15. Many biology textbooks use mutated fruit flies as evidence for macro-evolution. Since these flies would quickly die if they occurred in the wild, how is this an example of macro-evolution? 16. If mutations are the building blocks of macro-evolution why hasn’t something other than a deformed fruit fly appeared since the fruit fly has been forcibly mutated millions of times. Geologic Record 1-2, 2-8. 3-16, 4-13, 5-3, 6-6, 7-9. 8-8 17. If you find a shell on the beach can its age be determined? How? 18. If you find multi-layered rock how can the age of the rock be determined? 19. How can the time represented by successive layers of rock be determined? 20. Do assumptions have to be made in order to “date” a fossil or rock? What are they? 21. Everywhere you look there are millions of fossils present. Why don’t we see many examples of fossils being formed today? 22. If I bury my pet in the back yard will it make a fossil? Why or why not. 23. Does the entire geologic time scale appear anywhere on earth? If not, how do we know what it is? 24. Darwin observed that there are gaps in the fossil record and wrote that this posed a serious problem for his theory. Since the gaps still exist how is it possible to say that macro-evolution is a fact? Punctuated Equilibrium 1-11, 2-17, 3-4, 4-18, 5-10, 6-16, 7-22, 8-22 25. Why was the punctuated equilibrium hypothesis necessary? 26. Is it sound reasoning to build a hypothesis on the fact that there is no factual evidence? 27 Punctuated Equilibrium is used to explain what kind of evolution? Cambrian Explosion 1-11, 2-16, 3-17, 5-3, 6-15, 7-10, 8-9 28. Since Darwin knew of the Cambrian Explosion and recognized it as an argument against his theory, does the light or totally absent treatment of it in most biology textbooks mean that there still is no satisfactory explanation for it? 29. How can the tree of life that is presented in most biology textbooks be true if most of the major invertebrate groups appear together at the same time in the oldest part of the Cambrian Strata with no indication of earlier ancestors? With macro-evolution one would expect a gradual increase in the number of species present as time goes by. With the reported mass extinctions and Cambrian Explosion the number of species shoots very high during this period and then decreases abruptly at times as time goes by to where there is only 5% of the species that once inhabited the earth now present. Doesn’t this contradict the macro-evolution concept? Radiometric Dating 2-10, 3-17, 4-7, 5-10, 6-7&16, 7-8, 8-7 30. It has been demonstrated that when lavas of known age are radiometrically dated the data indicates that they are millions of years older than they actually are. How can we count on the ages given by radiometric dating when the method does not give correct ages of the known rocks? 31. If the science and techniques of radiometric dating are sound but the results give wildly erroneous results, where must the trouble lie? Peppered Moths 3-8, 5-7, 7-18, 8-17 32. It has been known that the peppered moth pictures in biology textbooks have been staged since the moths are nocturnal. Why are these still being taught as examples of evolution? 33. Assuming that the peppered moth presentations are true do they prove any kind of evolution? Aren’t the examples always peppered moths? Has a new species appeared? 34. What happened to the information content of the DNA? Anti-biotic Resistant Bacteria 7-18, 8-18 35. If the bacteria are still recognizable, does this mean that a new species of bacteria has appeared? 36. Does this mean that micro or macro-evolution has occurred? 37. Has the total information in the DNA increased, decreased or remained the same? Justify your answer. Darwin’s Finches and the Hawaiian Honeycreepers 4-14, 5-12 38. What kind of evolution is indicated by these birds? 39. Since it has been proven that the beaks of the birds do change with the food supply but will quickly change back to their original form when the food supply reverts back to the original does this indicate evolution? If so what kind is it? Homology or Anatomical Similarities 1-5, 2-6, 3-5, 4-14, 5-4, 6-7, 7-19, 8-18 40. It is now known that there is not a one to one correlation between a gene and what it produces. How, then, is it possible to consider structural similarities as evidence for macro-evolution? Archaeopteryx 2-17, 3-3, 4-19, 5-4, 7-10, 8-10 41. This fossil is generally accepted as being a bird with a few reptilian characteristics. Since there are modern birds with the same reptilian characteristics and its supposed immediate ancestors occur higher in the fossil record than it appears, why is this fossil considered transitional? Origin of Life 1-13, 2-11, 3-11, 48, 5-12, 6-10, 7-11, 8-10 42. What is an optical isomer? What part of our body is a good illustration of what an optical isomer looks like? 43. If a complimentary optical isomer (non-biologic isomer) unites with a biologic isomer why does it make any difference since the two isomers have the same chemical equation? 44. In a living organism what compounds use only one particular form of an optical isomer? 45. How many biologic amino acids are there? How many non-biologic amino acids are there? 46. Why is there no preference in how biologic and non-biologic amino acids join together? 47. Why are the two types of amino acids produced in equal numbers in nature? 48. What is the smallest known protein? How long is the amino acid chain? What is the average length of the amino acid chain in proteins? 49. The odds of insulin (51 amino acids long) forming spontaneously by accident is the same as winning the Power Ball lottery 15 times straight. Is it reasonable to assume that one of the smallest living organisms (H39 mycoplasma) with its 4,864,000 total chemical compounds could ever form? Justify your answer. Miller-Urey Experiment 2-15, 3-14, 4-10, 5-16, 6-14, 7-13, 8-12 50. Insulin consists of 16 different amino acids. How many different amino acids did this experiment produce? Could insulin have been formed if the necessary 16 amino acids had been formed Protocells 7-16, 8-15 51. Since a protocell is a chemical reaction which does not respond to either mutation or natural selection, how can it be an intermediate step toward the origin of life? 52. Since protocells are passive shell like structures how could all of the complexity of the simplest living organism have been formed under the restraints of optical isomers? Embryology 1-7, 2-2, 3-6, 4-15, 5-4, 6-9, 7-20, 8-19 53. It has been known for over a hundred years that the embryonic drawings of Haeckel were fraudulent and misleading. Why is this information still used as an indication that macro-evolution is true? 54. Do the bulges under the head of a human embryo ever cause the human embryo to go through a gill stage in its development? What do these bulges actually become? Biochemistry 1-, 3-6, 4-18, 5-6&18, 6-9, 7-21, 8-20 55. Is it reasonable to assume that the biochemistry of living organisms should be similar because they must all exist and function under the same environmental conditions? 56. Is it going to be possible to fill in the gaps in the fossil record when the amino acid sequences in Cytochrome C and hemoglobin indicate that there are gaps in the biochemistry? Explain. Vestigial Structures 1-6, 2-7, 3-5, 4-15 57. If you look at the engine in your car you will observe some parts that apparently have no value in that they can be removed and the car will still run. Are these parts vestigial since you do not know what their use is? 58. Some textbooks refer to the blindness of moles and cave fish as having vestigial eyes. What kind of evolution does the loss of eye sight indicate? In these organisms would the information content of the DNA have increased or decreased? 59. Are the small limb like structures projecting from the bottom of a whale vestigial? Do they have a use? 60. Why is the appendix in humans no longer considered vestigial? Human Ancestry 1-12, 2-18, 3-18, 4-17, 5-18, 6-17, 7-23, 8-23 61. Almost every textbook has a different drawing of the family tree of a human. Why? 62. When comparing the amino acid sequence of Cytochrome C in man and the chimp there is only a 1% difference. Is it reasonable to assume that this 1% difference has little meaning when the chimp has two more chromosomes and 10% more DNA than man? 63. It is now reported that the difference between human and chimp DNA is about 5%. Is this reasonable if the chimp has 10% more DNA than man? Is it possible to reconcile these two numbers? 64. Five percent of the human genome is 160 million base pairs. Even if 95% of this is considered junk DNA (an idea that is no longer valid) this means that there are 8 million base pairs different in the protein making section of the genes. Can this many changes be justified to have happened by random chance happenings in the one cell that takes place in reproduction? ***end of test*** Methodology: the purpose of presenting this test is to cause proponents of evolutionism to become more educated on the topic of Creation vs Evolutionism. Presumably, few will have sought to answer these questions in the past, and so this questionnaire will increase their level of doubt towards their professed belief. If by asking questions about evolution, a person can be prompted to think rationally about an issue and reach the conclusion that evolution, or some part of it, is untenable, then that is a good thing, because with evolutionism falls one of the greatest obstacles to belief in God that anyone in modern civilization can be hampered by. The goal is not to convert people to Creation, but to demonstrate the superiority of such thought over the false belief of evolutionism in order to remove objections to acknowledging God as the Creator, Judge, and Redeemer of the universe. As belief in evolutionism disappears, belief in Jesus Christ becomes the only viable alternative. There’s no shame in using a reductionist logic-argumentation format in reaching people if it leads to souls being saved. “Come, let us reason together. For though your sins are as scarlet, I will wash you white as snow.” ~ God (aka YHWH, aka Elohim, aka Jesus Christ etc)