The Uncrossable Barrier to Evolution


Dr. Zvi Shkedi

Blood clotting and the immune system provide the ultimate proof that "survival of the fittest" and "natural selection" cannot be the driving force behind evolution.

The author permits non-commercial copying and distribution of this article in schools to teachers and students. This article does not promote a religion or a religious/creationist point of view, therefore, it is legal to distribute it in USA public schools.

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See also:
Evolution - Facts, Theories, and Fiction
Abiogenesis - Can Life Be Initiated Without a Creator?

Blood clotting and the immune system provide the ultimate proof that "survival of the fittest" and "natural selection" cannot be the driving force behind evolution. According to evolution theory, the ability of blood to clot at an injury and the ability of the immune system to cure infections are mechanism which had to evolve somehow. They must be perfectly balanced mechanisms - too little, and the animal will not survive an injury or an infection; too much, and the animal will destroy itself. What exactly would be the driving force to cause such adaptive evolutionary improvements of survivability? Before an animal is injured or before an infection occurs, there is no reason to adaptively evolve. After an animal is injured or after an infection occurs, it is too late.

The other possibility, according to evolution theory, is to acquire these abilities by chance, through random mutations. However, for most animal species, there are no animals in nature which don't experience at least one injury or infection once they are born. Therefore, all animals within any given population must have these abilities from the moment they are born, otherwise they will not survive their babyhood. As soon as one animal in a population gets infected, all animals will quickly get infected. The survival rate of most animal species without these abilities would be 0%, and the species will be extinct before it had a chance to get started. Differential reproductive rates in favor of animals which acquire such an ability by chance, will never have a chance to get started because their parents, if they were to lack these abilities, would have never survived. This is also why all females must have the ability of blood clotting from their early existence. All females experience natural blood loss before giving birth to their first offspring. Without blood-clotting ability, they will never reach an opportunity to give birth, and will definitely not survive giving birth. There is no time to adaptively evolve such an ability when the need arises, and there is no reason to adaptively evolve such an ability before the need arises. Differential reproductive rates will, again, not help because ALL females in the population must already have this ability before giving birth. This is an uncrossable barrier to the evolution of these abilities.

There are many publications which present wishful speculations about the sequence or pathway in which such mechanisms "could have evolved". (Wishful speculations and "could have evolved" are fiction, not science.) The issue is not the sequence, or the pathway, or the complexity, but the lack of a driving force behind it (for adaptive evolution) and the lack of opportunity for differential reproductive rates to get started. Publications on the subject completely ignore this uncrossable barrier.

The ability to survive an injury, or giving birth, or an infection, or the lack of such an ability, is a binary state. There is nothing in between. This is true not only for individuals, but, also for entire populations, because without it, survival rates would be 0%. It is not like running speed which can be slowly developed over time and give an advantage to fast runners. The ability to survive an injury, or giving birth, or an infection, must be there from the very beginning, or else it is too late. There is no grace-period in nature to allow for its evolution over time or by chance.

This is an uncrossable barrier to evolution. It provides the ultimate proof that these essential survival abilities were not acquired through evolution.


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