Here is how an evolutionist reports a discovery:
?Ancient butterflies exquisitely preserved in amber hint that the winged insects evolved far earlier than previously thought. They may even have fluttered around the heads of dinosaurs, more than 65 million years ago.
'the oldest butterfly fossils found in rocks suggest they evolved about 40 or 50 million years ago. But the amber specimens, although just 15 to 25 million years old, have changed that view . . . the amber pieces come from the Dominican Republic and each contains a metalmark butterfly, which is now extinct. ?It was just incredible,? says Robert Bobbins of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC. ?It's no different than if you took a modern-day butterfly and put it under a light microscope.? (New Scientist March 2004)
Here's how a creationist might report the same thing:
?We have found some butterflies preserved in amber. They probably lived in the same general area where all the dinosaurs lived, since all living things were created within the same creation week. Some dead butterflies have also been found, preserved in sedimentary rock. This rock was probably formed . . . Here is how an evolutionist reports a discovery:
?Ancient butterflies exquisitely preserved in amber hint that the winged insects evolved far earlier than previously thought. They may even have fluttered around the heads of dinosaurs, more than 65 million years ago.
'the oldest butterfly fossils found in rocks suggest they evolved about 40 or 50 million years ago. But the amber specimens, although just 15 to 25 million years old, have changed that view . . . the amber pieces come from the Dominican Republic and each contains a metalmark butterfly, which is now extinct. ?It was just incredible,? says Robert Bobbins of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC. ?It's no different than if you took a modern-day butterfly and put it under a light microscope.? (New Scientist March 2004)
Here's how a creationist might report the same thing:
?We have found some butterflies preserved in amber. They probably lived in the same general area where all the dinosaurs lived, since all living things were created within the same creation week. Some dead butterflies have also been found, preserved in sedimentary rock. This rock was probably formed during the time of Noah, when God destroyed the whole living world with a catastrophe.?
Both reports contain assumptions, and both reports start with the same evidence but interpret it differently. However, the remarks by Robert Bobbins are worth another look. Apparently, despite millions of years of evolution, the preserved butterflies are identical to modern-day butterflies. Just how long then does evolution take? Apparently there is almost no limit to the time it takes for animals to evolve, because in thousands of similar cases, no significant changes have occurred despite (the claimed) hundreds of millions of years! Fossils always look exactly like their living counterparts.
Since both butterfly samples were obtained from fossils, we ought to ask the question ?Where are the intermediate forms?? So far all we have are butterflies. Where are all the fossilized remains of the thousands of intermediate forms of butterfly before they became what they are today? Where are the metalmark butterflies with smaller wings, fewer legs, shorter bodies . . . all the many shapes and forms they must have gone through before they became metalmark butterflies? One could ask the same question about the dinosaurs. They always appear in the fossil record without any pre-dinosaur forms.
Charles Darwin was aware of this problem. He admitted, in ?Origin of the Species? ?Why then is not every geological formation and every stratum full of such intermediate links? Geology assuredly does not reveal any such finely graduated organic chain; and this, perhaps, is the most obvious and gravest objection that can be urged against my theory.? (1968 reprint, page 292)
What evolutionists need to realize is that science is more reliable in the experimental realm than when dealing with the past. Science cannot answer questions about origins, meaning and destiny. It cannot explain how life originated, nor can it explain miracles. The discovery of butterflies preserved in rock, along with billions of other fossils, is best explained by sudden burial by water-borne particles, and the cause of this global effect is best explained in Genesis. No amount of theorizing will ever fit the evidence better.
Richard Gunther, Copyright 2006