Demolished Evolutionist Myths

 

The fictitious reconstructions designed by evolutionists depict the nose as especially large and wide.

While maintaining that the olfactory mechanism developed gradually, evolutionists also claim that during the so-called human evolutionary process, the importance of smell declined in comparison with that of other senses. This claim is another distortion resorted to by evolutionists in order to suggest that there was a gradual development among the five senses. According to this claim, a living thing evolving over the course of time possesses senses that are increasingly advanced. However, they are unable to present any scientific evidence for this claim, and instead seek to adorn it with imaginary scenarios and scientific terminology.

First of all, the materials most frequently employed in purely conjectural evolutionist scenarios on the subject of so-called human evolution, clearly, are reconstructions—models, drawings and paintings based on the skulls of now-extinct apes that lived in the past. Evolutionists endow these skulls with various facial features, seeking to give the impression that "ape-men" once lived. They may impose a human face on an ape's skull but leave a few simian details. The secret of making an ape resembling a human being is to give the desired shape to the soft tissues superimposed on the skull. That's because your facial bones have little determining effect on the soft tissues that make up the mouth, nose and eyelids. Using such a method, therefore, an ape's face can easily be made to resemble a human's. It is for that reason that evolutionist sources are all full of half-man, half-ape drawings and pictures of models produced for that purpose.

You may have noticed that in these imagined, prejudiced reconstructions, the nose is generally flat and wide. In the fictitious passage from ape to man, the nose—deliberately portrayed as large and flat—needs to assume a human appearance over the course of time. For that reason, evolutionists conclude that the nose gradually shrank, losing much of its functionality. They openly deny all the complex and superior features of this splendid organ.

In fact, this contradiction indicates the dilemma in which evolutionists find themselves. For one thing, this claim entirely contradicts evolutionists' imaginary procession "from the primitive to the advanced." Evolution towards the advanced is reversed, and in some way, a retreat from perfection to the primitive was effected. In other words, chance thought that our other senses were more important and decided that various properties belonging to the nose were unnecessary. Believing in the evolutionists' account means believing this illogical claim.

In addition, the claim that the nose's complexity decreased over time has no scientific evidence at all behind it. In recent years, it has been realized just how irrational and unscientific this claim clearly is. All 21st-century scientific studies and research have revealed that the sense-perception system is of an extraordinary complexity, and evolutionists have therefore suffered a major disappointment. Also, it is increasingly evident that new scientific advances will continue to shatter evolutionists' dreams.

Statements From an Expert

And also the things of varying colors He has created for you in the Earth. There is certainly a Sign in that for people who pay heed. (Surat an-Nahl: 13)

The sense of smell—which evolutionists seek to portray as primitive compared to the other senses and which they claim can easily be accounted for in terms of chance—is actually a mechanism about which much is still unknown, and many of its complex details are still a mystery. Research and statements by present-day scientists on this subject make this crystal-clear. One who can be cited on this subject is the scientist Stuart Firestein of Columbia University, known for his research into the sense of smell and regarded as an authority in the field. In his articles Professor Firestein expresses the highly developed and complex nature of the sense of smell.

Some of the Professor Firestein's statement reads as follows:

We use the vertebrate olfactory receptor neuron as a model for investigating general principles and mechanisms of signal transduction—receptor-ligand interactions, modulation by second messengers, ion channel gating, and the long term mechanisms of adaptation and desensitization. The olfactory neuron is uniquely suited for these studies since it is designed specifically for the detection and discrimination of a wide variety of small organic molecules, i.e. odors.

The most recent work in the lab utilizes Adenovirus vectors to drive over-expression of cloned odor receptors in olfactory neurons. Because odor receptors make up the largest family of G-protein coupled receptors (also including many neurotransmitter ands hormone receptors) they are excellent receptors to try and understand the relation between amino acid sequence and ligand binding affinities. We are able to over express particular receptors as well as receptor clones with targeted mutations and then screen these for specific ligand sensitivities. These data are then included in computer models of the protein receptor to understand precisely why one receptor is able to recognize the odor of say, roses, while another is specific for pizza.

In another vein, olfactory receptors are unique among neurons for the ability to regenerate throughout an animal's life. Several experimental manipulations have been developed to induce neuronal regeneration and proliferation in vivo allowing one to harvest neurons with a known date of birth. By applying physiological techniques for cell recording we are quantifying biophysical parameters, such as the appearance of ion channels or receptors and the development of synaptic contacts, in developing neurons.

From all his statements, only one meaning can be extracted: Very little is actually known about the sense of smell, even at the science's present advanced level. The conclusion from all the resources that have been mobilized and the research carried out is that much of what is known is still theoretical. What's known, however, is the magnificent structure of the olfactory system. Indeed, Stuart Firestein draws attention to this in the abstract section of his paper:

The mammalian nose is arguably the best chemical detector on the planet, capable of detecting and discriminating among many thousands of compounds.

The truth is therefore this: the sense of smell is exceedingly complex, an extraordinary mechanism that cannot be explained in terms of such hollow concepts as chance, mutation or natural selection. The flawlessness of the sense of smell is one of the signs of God's perfect creation, made by the Lord of infinite knowledge and might.

The Sense of Smell's Irreducible Complexity

One fact revealed by Professor Michael J. Behe of Lehigh University is that science has discovered irreducible complexity in living organisms. This term means that all systems, from largest to the smallest, possess an exceedingly wide-ranging complexity; and within these, there is such order that not even one component can be dispensed with. In order for an organ to function, not even a single one of the components that compose it can be omitted. Otherwise, the organ will fail to function.

This scientific fact totally undermines all the claims of the theory of evolution, because irreducible complexity makes impossible the gradual development expounded by evolutionists. It is impossible, for example, for the eye's 40 different components to form individually and gradually, since unless all 40 are complete, the eye cannot function. Again according to the theory of evolution, a functionless organ will be eliminated through natural selection.

Under these conditions, the same question for evolutionists arises with regard to other complex organs. The sense of smell—that superior mechanism that we've been examining so far—also possesses irreducible complexity. In order for scents to be perceived, the micro-hairs, receptors, scent receptor cells, scent cells, pain receptor cells, olfactory bulb, mucus secretion, basal cells, special protein and enzymes and a great many other factors need to be present together, all at the same time and fully formed. Yet even if all these details do come together, the system is not yet complete. It is essential that the nose should perceive the smells it receives. For that reason, the human brain, described as "the most complex structure in the known universe" must also be present. Unless all these components are present together, this complex system will have no meaning at all.

It is impossible for any evolutionary process to have occurred in a system like this, which can in no way be reduced to any simpler form. Scent-receptor cells will serve no purpose in the absence of micro-hairs. In the absence of nerves, the signals received will fail to reach the perception center. If a single link in this chain—all of which operate together in separate areas—is removed from the equation, then no odor will be perceived in the brain. Therefore, this system must have emerged at once, with all its components fully formed. In order to detect one or 10,000 scents, all the elements cited above must be present, working in harmony together with one another. This points to a manifest truth: God created this mechanism, with all its flawless features, as He did everything else in the universe.

Darwinists' insistence on the subject of gradual evolution, despite all its illogicality, stems from their unwillingness to accept this. So long as they deny that there is a Creator Who created all living things together with all their features, they can never escape from the impasse in which they find themselves.

Yet the truth revealed by God is crystal clear. God makes His existence clear through the incomparable beauties and designs He has created. The way that evolutionists oppose this fact, despite having no evidence with which to do so, doubtless results from this world being a place of testing. As revealed in Surah Saba', 21; God created this world ". . . to know those who believe in the Hereafter from those who are in doubt about it . . ." Those who refuse to believe in the Hereafter will continue to manufacture lies in order to deny God's superior creation. And those who believe in His existence will prepare from themselves a place in Paradise where they will enjoy the greatest pleasures from the beauties they see.

This, of course, is the greatest salvation. It is revealed in the Qur'an that:

But those who believe and do right actions will have Gardens with rivers flowing under them. That is the Great Victory. (Surat al-Buruj: 11)