21 Facts That Evolutionists Can't Answer - Answered

And yet more anti-evolutionist and anti-atheist hilarity. Some time ago (though I only came across it recently) a video was produced titled 21 Facts That Evolutionists Can't Answer, but carded as 21 Facts Stupid Scientists & Atheists Can't Answer.

This video has the logo of The Discovery Institute, and purports to be from them, but I seriously doubt it was produced by or was affiliated with them in any way, firstly by the tone of the video not matching anything that TDI produces, and there's nothing on the TDI website to indicate this was ever released by them. But if this was indeed produced by them, then this is a poor way to engage those on the other side. 

But regardless of who made the video, the questions are still out there, so I am going to answer the questions so that my responses can be read and evaluated as part of the wider religious/atheist dialogue.

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1. Why are the planets round?

Of course an evolutionist can't answer this question - it has everything to do with physics and nothing to do with biology.

But why are the planets round? Because nature has a propensity to make round things, especially in a vacuum - the sun, the moon, the other stars, comets (being roughly round), etc.

2. Go to the zoo and tell me, why doesn’t a chimpanzee give birth to a man?

Do I have to go to a zoo? Why can't I do it from home?

Because every living thing belongs to its parent clade - in short, you can't outgrow your lineage. Chimpanzees are of the genus Pan, whereas humans are of the genus Homo - they're not in the same genus.

If a chimpanzee actually did give birth to an actual verified human, this would destroy evolution as we know it.

3. Have you ever seen a mountain form?

No. But again, this has nothing to do with evolution. If you want to know how mountains form, ask a geologist.

But regardless, we don't need to see mountains form directly on camera to know how they form.

4. Why doesn’t new life show up in a jar of peanut butter?

Because peanut butter doesn't have the correct chemicals in the correct balance to create the chemical combinations for new self-replicating cells to form.

5.  If the big bang started as a singularity…who held up the singularity?

Why does it have to be a someone, and not a something? 

Plus, the singularity didn't hold together - it expanded to become the observable universe we exist in today. If it held together, the universe wouldn't have expanded and we wouldn't have existed.

6. A painting had a painter…therefore the Universe had a maker.

This is correct on the first part - paintings don't occur in nature, so therefore any painting you see had a painter. But in regards to the universe, there is only one universe we can study and we are inside of it, so attempting to study its origins requires some advanced technology and understanding. And some of the most brilliant minds around have studied the question of the beginning of our observable universe and they almost universally rule out any intelligent or sentient cause behind the formation of the universe.

The problem here is that science doesn't care what you personally find reasonable or think is common-sense. For example, if you went back in time and told someone in ancient Greece that both good and bad germs exist, Jupiter has 79 moons, or by using sound waves we can see babies before they are born, they would be just as dismissive as what anti-evolutionists are now because it would go against their common-sense. But we know both good and bad germs exist, that Jupiter indeed has 79 moons, and anyone who has had a baby knows what an ultrasound is, so when science tells us all life forms are inter-related via inherited genetic mechanisms or that the observable universe came out of a singularity, yes, it goes against common-sense - but I would much rather have the facts about reality determined by knowledge rather than personal opinion.

7. If a monkey gave birth to a man, who would he (or she) mate with?

Great question. If this actually ever happened, it would put a massive hole in our current understanding of genetics and evolution, especially as the resulting offspring (if it was fertile) would break the definition of species.

But it may be best to wait for it to happen so we can study the how, rather than get ourselves tangled in a weird hypothetical.

8.  How can you explain gravity?

Again, not a question that relates to evolution.

Gravity seems to be the result of the conditions that formed particles in the big bang. To me, the answer to this question is very similar to how electricity, the strong nuclear and the weak nuclear forces are explained.

9. If we came from monkeys, why are there still monkeys?

We didn't come from monkeys. Humans and monkeys are cousins in the biological tree of life, not ancestors.

10. If the world is “millions of years old”, why is it only 2008?

Yet again, not related to evolution.

But we base the year off of the Gregorian calendar, which was based off of the Julian calendar. But in other calendar systems, it is different years - in the Assyrian calendar it is 6770, in the Chinese calendar it is 4718, and in the Islamic calendar it is 1441.

The short answer is yes, the world is thousands of millions of years old, but we only just started counting recently to keep a track of relative time.

11. If I throw dirt up in the air, what are the odds it will fall into the formation of a living man?

Zero. Unless you threw the dirt over a mannequin, or over an actual living man for the dirt to fall in to the formation of a living man.

12. Can you see electricity?

Yes. That's what lightning is.

13. Science changes.  The book of Genesis is perfect.

Yes, science changes, and this is the beauty of it - when we find something we thought was right was actually wrong or incomplete, we correct or add to what we got wrong. Science is a process.

But to say Genesis is perfect is more a reflexive position rather than a considered evaluation of the evidence.

14. The holy Bible is the truth because the Bible says it’s the truth.

Again, this is more of a defensively reflexive response to an accusation, rather than a considered evaluation.

But believing the book is the truth because the book tells you it is the truth does not prove to us the book is the truth. Besides, given the numerous pronouncements of genocide and slavery (1 Samuel 15, Numbers 31, Exodus 21), you're confirming that the authority behind the Bible was complicit in the commission of war crimes and human rights abuses.

15. Evolution is a religion, and science leads to killing people.

Is evolution a religion? No. Evolution imparts no moral values, has no prescribed texts, has no mandated meetings, ceremonies or rituals, and has no notion of the afterlife or the supernatural. Furthermore, evolution has a replete body of scholarship backing up the claims made.

The line 'science leads you to killing people' reminds me of something very similar Ben Stein said in an interview. However, from what I've seen of him on various media, I'm not sure I'd be taking lectures on either morality or on science from Mr. Stein.

But does science lead you to kill people? No. While I haven't seen the complete body of research, I am quite confident no criminologist or forensic psychiatrist has listed 'science education' as a causative factor behind homicidal behaviour.
Plus, people were killing people well before the scientific method was established.

16.  Scientists around the world are all jointly involved in a conspiracy against god!

Aren't the Discovery Institute themselves a religious (if not explicitly Christian) organisation? If this video did come from them, this is one of the strangest claims I have ever seen them make.

But even on the face of it, no, there is no worldwide conspiracy amongst scientists to hide the evidence for God. Especially when you consider that a large number of Nobel Prize have been been Catholic, Protestant or Jewish!

17.  Bananas are perfectly designed for the human hand.

This one is ironically true. The yellow Cavendish banana that is the most common variety available today does indeed fit the primate hand - but that is because that variety was artificially bred (cultivated) to be the size and shape it is after a disease wiped out the Gros Michel variety.

But if we look at other types of bananas, we see the idea of design for the human hand breaks down. Plantains are typically longer than the Cavdendish and can't be eaten straight - they have to be cooked before consumption because they're so high in starch.

18. Millions of years for a monkey to turn into a man? Monkeys don’t live that long.

Monkeys don't live millions of years? Genius observation right there. That will surely rattle the foundations of biological science.

But this gets the theory of evolution completely wrong in a couple of ways - no animal turns in to another species in its lifetime, and evolution happens to populations, not individuals.

19. Why would a man want to have sex with a monkey?

You would have to ask a behavioural psychologist that one.

20. Archaeologists always remove the human remains first when they find a dinosaur so they can continue the LIE.

Including the Christian archaeologists? 

Or is it that, due to superposition, human bones are always in the strata above dinosaur bones, so you will find human bones before you find dinosaur bones if you're digging through relatively undisturbed strata.

21. Can you speak monkey? Didn’t think so…

And this is a mark against evolution in what way exactly?

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21 questions answered. Done.

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