 Darwinism has ruled science for over 150 years, but few today know the details of its less than stellar track record. Let's discover some evolutionary blunders which demonstrate how extrapolations of vivid evolutionary imaginations explain why evolutionists have made and will continue to make embarrassing scientific blunders. Coming up on today's edition of Origins, Evolutionary Blunders with Dr. Randy Galloosa. Origins, I'm Ray Hypal. It's an honor to be your host today. During this program we showcase interesting guests who present evidence from science along with other important facts validating the truth of creation and the accuracy of the Bible. Today's guest, Dr. Randy Galloosa, has undergraduate degrees in engineering and theology. He has earned an MD and also a Master of Public Health from Harvard University. Dr. Galloosa is a registered professional engineer. In 2008 he retired as Lieutenant Colonel from the U.S. Air Force. Now he's the President for the Institute for Creation Research in Dallas. Welcome to the program, Dr. Galloosa. Thank you so very much, Ray. Evolutionary Blunders. That sounds like a fantastic title for a great program. What are we going to be talking about today? Well, we're going to be talking today about this whole area where evolutionists imagine a lot of things and they get into trouble after a bit of time when they see too much that really isn't there and they're only seeing it in their imagination. And in fact, I wrote a whole book on all of this called Twenty Evolutionary Blunders. Now we don't have anywhere near enough time today to go through 20 of those, but if someone was interested in that they could go to our webpage at icr.org and they could pick up this book and cover some of the other ones that are out there. But what we really want to do today is just have a friendly conversation with some evolutionists and just see what they see and why they say it. And so we're going to have to talk about this whole phenomenon called imagination, which all of us have and what they really are, basically these mental images or sensations. But as you know, some of them can be tied to reality and some of them aren't tied to reality. Absolutely. Imagination is a good thing. God gave us our imagination, but sometimes it can get us into trouble. Yes. In fact, when it runs wild it gets us into trouble an awful lot. And I'd like to just step up to the screen and point out some of the things where evolutionists have gone astray. All right, Ray. So the very first one is the one that everybody has heard about and that is Piltdown Man. In fact, it's kind of like the archetype of all these major evolutionary blunders which are based on imagination. In fact, it all starts way back in 1913. This is the original paper that was published in Science in which they are actually describing what they see, but they're not really seeing what's really there. In fact, it says that of Piltdown Man that he was a discovery of the greatest importance, the nearest approach we have yet to reach a missing link. You know, everybody's looking for one of those. Probably few will deny that the anthropos, that is early man, Dalsona, named after the man who discovered it, is almost, if not quite, as much human as simian. That is a higher primate. But the fact is they were just seeing those features in their mind because this is what was discovered. These are the bones right there on the screen. You see a part of a skull cap and you see part of a jaw bone. And that was one that was an ape and one that was human. And the people who were looking at these things, guess what? This is what they imagined. From those features, from those fragments, they were able to get that. That's quite an imagination. Not only do you have this fully formed creature, but you have the background and the trees. They're very good at imagining things. Exactly. And when they were looking at part of the human features on these bones, they were imagining that they were seeing ape-like things. And vice versa, when they were looking at the apes, they were imagining that they were seeing human things. Well, this whole fiasco was basically and eventually uncovered. And by 1954, there was a retraction. This paper also published in Science, The Great Pilped Down Hoax. Now what was involved in that hoax? This is a famous painting of the researchers from 1915. And they're studying those bones and they're studying those fragments. And based on studying all of that, this paper says, the skull eventually brought knighthoods to three leading expositors. These learned gentlemen were honored after having spent many years in many pages discoursing on the very human features they discerned in Peltdown Man's ape-like jaw and the very ape-like features that they found in his human cranium. The Peltdown skull illustrates the ever-present danger of scientists of seeing what they expect to see. And just for our viewers again, Peltdown Man was a total fraud. It was not a part ape, part human. That's exactly right. It was a total fraud. And I'm not here really to pick on them. I'm just here pointing out how imagination gets evolutionists into these major blunders along the way. But it wasn't just Peltdown Man that was there. There was another fossil that was discovered in 2009, IDA. And I bet you don't even remember IDA. I don't. That looks a little bit like maybe a Disney movie or something. Yeah, it was. It's actually a lemur that was discovered. And it hit the scenes with a big splash. Back in 2009 and the Guardians as a fossil ID extraordinary find is the missing link in human evolution, unprecedented insight into our ancestry. We keep finding that missing link. You would think it wouldn't be missing anymore. That's right. You would think you would actually find all of the links on that. This was actually in May of 2009. And here's where the imagination comes from. This is David Attenborough. He says, The more you look at IDA, the more you can see, as it were, the primate in embryo, as David Attenborough said. But he's doing the exact same thing that the men who deceived themselves with Peltdown Man are doing. He's looking at it and he's seeing exactly what he wants to see. The discoverer of IDA said that this one will be pictured in the textbooks for the next hundred years. Wow. Wow. Yeah. That was in May of 2009. But by October of 2009, controversial IDA was no missing link at all. In fact, this paper said it wasn't even a close relative to us. And it was just another major evolutionary blunder, which was based on imagination. In fact, they say IDA is as far removed from the monkey ape human ancestry as a primate could be. Another major evolutionary blunder right in the shoe steps of Peltdown Man where you're seeing exactly what you expect to see. They have a belief system. They believe that this is true. And so then they just try to find it and make it work. Exactly. They are interpreting the data through their belief system so they know exactly what they're expecting to find. And therefore they see it in their mind, but it's not really there at all. In fact, this researcher, she's an evolutionist as well, she sums it up. We have only to recall the Peltdown adventure to see how easily susceptible researchers can be manipulated into believing that they have actually found just what they had been looking for on that. Imagination can get you trapped and it is this wholesale imagination which is causing these evolutionary blunders. So really, there's some take home lessons from Peltdown Man. One, Peltdown Man, as we can see, was not an anomaly. In fact, this blunder has been repeated several other times and we didn't have time to discuss it. And it is the prototype of these imagination-based blunders that they continue to have. It's imagination run wild. Yeah, it's not based upon what's really there. It's based upon what they really believe. And you know, in many ways, I think they actually see it. They're looking at it and since you're interpreting what the data is in your mind, you can actually, as Jane said, see just exactly what you were looking for along those lines. But it's not just with the fossils. You can look at a fully functional organ like the human appendix and you can imagine that maybe it's some kind of leftover organ from our ape-like ancestry. You know, Randy, I remember just when I was a kid being told the appendix, it has no use. We have no idea what the appendix does. It's an organ that doesn't do anything. Exactly. And I was told the exact same thing and I was told that it was really good evidence for evolution because why would God make organs and bodies that have no use? And it was good evidence against the fact that we were created. And so they were looking at something and they were seeing a functionless organ, but it was really only in their imagination all along. In fact, this gentleman right here, Jerry Coyne, and not very long ago, as you can see from the date on the quote, 2005, he points out this same imaginary blunder. He says, the human body is also a plimcest of our ancestry. Our appendix is the vestigial remnant of an intestinal pouch used to ferment the hard to digest plant diets of our ancestors. An appendix is simply a bad thing to have. It is certainly not the product of intelligent design. How many humans died of appendicitis before surgery was invented? So this is a way back when we are kids. This is 2005. He's a leading researcher at the University of Chicago. He's retired now, but he's repeating the same thing. You know, the absolute certainty of this quote just really shows the arrogance of a man who is just certain that he knows what he's talking about and we know now that that's completely wrong. It's completely wrong. But you get on a really important thing. When they say it with such certainty, it really sounds very convincing. And if you're just a student sitting in school, I mean, it's very, very persuasive for them to see things very different from what they were taught. However, all of these papers, in fact, even when I was in medical school in the early 1990s, we knew that the appendix had very useful functions. And these papers have come out. I put them up here so that the viewers can turn to these papers if they want. But they point out the same thing, that the body's appendix has long been thought of as nothing more than a worthless evolutionary artifact. Good for nothing, save a potentially lethal case of inflammation, and that's exactly what we were taught. But they go on to say this, that it's actually pretty useful for it's involved more than 30 times, and they say it. One paper after another points out that this appendix has a useful function, including this quote, although it is widely viewed as a vestigial organ with little known function, recent research suggests that the appendix may serve an important purpose. They go on to add this right here. What if humans didn't have an appendix? This wasn't published very long ago as well. They had saying that Charles Darwin suggested that the appendix was a vestigial organ from an ancestor that ate leaves, potentially helping them to digest food. Darwin speculated that the appendix no longer served a function much like the small triangular coccyx, or that is what people call the tailbone, at the base of the human spine. A remnant tailbone found in our dissonant ancestors. Now look at this. Right in this where they're pointing out that we were wrong about the appendix, they repeat another imaginary tale about your tailbone. The fact of the matter is the tailbone is a misnomer, it had no function as a tail, it never served a tail, and it serves important anatomical functions, just like the appendix is serving important functions and Darwin was completely wrong and all of his disciples were completely wrong when they talked about the appendix. Because this paper goes on to say, however, if Darwin knew what scientists know now about the appendix, he would have never have suggested it was a worthless vestige of evolution. William Parker, an associate professor of surgery at Duke University, said in the School of Medicine, the fact of the matter is, as they conclude, if the appendix vanished in a society with agriculture after people started living in settlements, I think more people would die. Wow, that's a pretty powerful statement. Pretty powerful, I mean, not just wrong, but completely wrong. You know, we now know that your appendix actually has tissue from your immune system. It can actually sample products as it's going through your digestive system. It can help adjust your immune response to those things. And in addition to that, it actually serves as a little storehouse for good bacteria that live in your gut. I gave you an antibiotic, for instance, and it wiped out the bacteria in your gut. Your appendix will help seed it with fresh bacteria that are useful for you in your gut. You can live without it, of course, but it has a very useful function. And of course, that's what this quote is referring to, as he says, in these areas with poor sanitation where you would begin to get different bacteria and so forth, disease would spread more if it wasn't really said or helping to recognize and adjust the immune system. And so how many lives have been saved because we have an appendix? We'll never know. Yeah, that's a good point. You know, we know when it gets inflamed that it has to be removed, but how many lives have been saved or how many lives have been made better by it, we don't really know. In fact, everything is changing as we think about our relationship to the bacteria in our gut. You know, we used to think about our natural relationship. The truth is now, we live in close community and close cooperation with those bacteria and your immune system actually acts as an interface between you and the bacteria enabling you to work together and the appendix is one element of that system which serves a very, very useful function along those lines. It reminds me that how many people on my phone pop up on my computer all these ads for probiotics get more good bacteria in your body. Now, you know, science is telling us to get some of this good bacteria and so exactly as you said that we need these things and we're learning that about our body. It's not good that we just sterilize everything inside of us. Exactly. In fact, the probiotics and you can get them in various food types are absolutely essential to you and as you go from place to place to different foods, your body will adjust the numbers and types of the bacteria in your gut so that you optimize your own response in nutritional response really to the food that you're getting and one element of that whole system is this appendix. Unfortunately, people are still repeating this and it's just another imagination-based blunder by these evolutionists because we know it's not the same that we find in a rabbit or a vegetation-eating creature of those things. Anyway, evolutionists thought that it had lost a function. It was an evolutionary remnant but we now know it actually serves a very useful function. They were totally wrong about it being a vestigial organ and totally wrong about it not being good evidence for creation. Well, Randy, we'll have to stop you right there. Unfortunately, we have to take a break. We hope you're enjoying Origins TV. It all started at Cornerstone Television in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. We've been producing new episodes for over 37 years now. We praise God for the success of the program and are excited to introduce you to Origins and to us. If you're interested in watching more episodes of Origins, you can find them on our YouTube page. Simply go to YouTube and search on our television network. Click the like and subscribe buttons then you'll find the best episodes of Origins in our playlist. You can also visit our website at ctvn.org One more way you can stay connected with us is to subscribe to our free monthly Hope Today newsletter which you can do from our website and if you have any questions call us here at Cornerstone Television at 888-665-4483. We'd love to connect with you. Thank you for watching. Welcome back to Origins. We're talking to Dr. Randy Galloosa who's been sharing a little bit about evolutionary blunders. Randy, we left the program looking at this word called vestigial. Scientists are talking about vestigial organs. What does that mean again? Well, that was an organ which they believed used to have a function on a creature in the past but now in organisms or other creatures that supposedly have evolved from that creature or descended from that creature it no longer has a function or more recently they've been saying it has a changed function but the whole idea was it had function in the past it doesn't have function today why would God create something without function therefore it's evidence for evolution. A creature that was more primitive is now more complex primitive organs as it were. That's an interesting thing and of course if it was true it would certainly say wow, we've evolved. These leftover organs are showing that. Right, it would be evidence for that if it were true and not something that they're just imagining. They really never had any evidence for it they just didn't know for example what the appendix did and then as you said the imagination kicked in and it was a primitive creature. There was nothing really there that pointed that out. What do we find out about the appendix here? Well we found out that it's really not the same thing as a cecum at all and it has had a function all along and it really points towards the creation of God but you know this was something that is in the past but there was actually another major blunder that they stumbled onto which is also very much imagination based and we don't really talk a lot about and we don't really talk about in the United States and that was our whole sad history of eugenics. Eugenics in fact, I'll bet you there are a lot of people who are listening to us today who have never even heard of the word eugenics even though it was something that was practiced in the United States. This is a picture right here from 1921 of the whole idea of eugenics it was very, very popular right then and I kind of give a definition of what it was it was the quest for humanity's genetic composition by selectively breeding superior groups of people and eliminating inferior groups of people or preventing them from having children. Well that sounds like some kind of super villain in a Marvel movie or something that would do something like that. Exactly, we think of it as something coming out of Nazi Germany but the reality is the whole idea of eugenics took off in Great Britain and the United States was a very prominent man in Great Britain at the time and we always think of Galton but this was a man named Carl Pearson he was a mathematician and we still use some of his equations today in statistics but he was a strong proponent of eugenics and he ties it not to evolution he ties it specifically to Darwin's concept of survival of the fittest called natural selection and I'm going to read a quote here giving to medical doctors medical doctors, someone like me way back in the early 1920s he said, let me even at the risk of talking about the familiar sketch for you the broad outlines of Darwin's theory of evolutionary progress the individual better fitted to its environment lived longer than its fellows had more offspring and these, inheriting its better fitness, raised the type of the race nevertheless nevertheless medical science has to face the fact that the upward progress of man in the past has been largely controlled by stringent that means ruthless Darwinian selection and then he adds this what will happen if by increased medical skill and by increased state support and private charity we enable the weaklings to survive and to propagate their kind in other words if doctors intervene and actually save lives I say that the general death rate is selective in many ways medical science has led to the survival of the unfit civilized man has largely destroyed crude natural selection wow so our advances in medicine now are making the human race less so we should just let the weak die so that the strong can survive and the race will evolve faster I mean that sounds like some kind of false religion he points out the study of how it is possible forms the subject of the matter of what we now termed the science of eugenics we have to replace the ruthless action of natural selection by reason conduct of civilized man and what he means by that is forced sterilizations and you'd be surprised that in the United States of America over 30 states had laws forcibly sterilizing people over 70,000 U.S. citizens were forcibly sterilized until the final law was overturned in 1973 I've never heard that before never heard any of that before in fact this was a major blunder it was a disaster this man Randolph Ness who wants to bring selectionism into medical science he at least acknowledges this in the late 19th and early 20th centuries most applications were forcibly sterilization of eugenism that focus on the welfare of species in connection with eugenics this led to moral and social disaster Ray this qualifies as a major evolutionary blunder this whole idea that somehow natural selection is going to lead to upward mobility this death driven world view which Christians could never make peace with because death is an enemy this is what people were were tying to natural selection and eugenics and it is this belief in natural selection which fueled eugenics and it was this idea that humans could mimic natural selection which led to the extermination and the sterilization of so many of these people and it wasn't evolution it was Darwin's concept of natural selection which led to it well we just have to pass a message out there it seems to me that God is creator and that people need to understand that so that they don't begin to think that we can manipulate a process by which we commit moral atrocities in the name of progress imagination can be a good thing but at times it can really lead to disaster well Randy we're going to have to stop right there unfortunately we're out of time fascinating information I hope you'll join us again sometime I will I'd love to share with you some of the very ideas scientists have repeatedly claimed to have discovered compelling evidence and conclusive proof of the simple to complex evolution of all living things but with the passing of time we are finding that more and more of those confident claims are completely false what real science actually shows is the intelligent design of all creation according to the wisdom and power of our heavenly creator it's just one more example that we know what the Bible says is true and the proof it's all around you if you enjoy origins we sure could use your help to keep these creation television programs on the air your support both prayerfully and financially makes a big impact so let's work together to reveal how awesome our creator truly is and we'll see you next time on Origins