darwins-finches-stockpack-adobe-stock-543249874-stockpack-adobe_stock
Darwin's finches
ID the Future Intelligent Design, Evolution, and Science Podcast
Share
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Flipboard
Print
Email

Jonathan Wells Puts Natural Selection In Its Place

Episode
1963
With
Tom Woodward
Guest(s)
Jonathan Wells
Duration
00:20:01
Download
Audio File (16 mb)
Share
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Flipboard
Print
Email

Dr. Jonathan Wells was a true giant of the intelligent design research community. As we mourn his recent passing, we also celebrate anew his considerable contributions to the arguments for intelligent design and the debate over evolution. On this episode of ID The Future out of the vault, Dr. Wells continues a conversation with Tom Woodward on The Universe Next Door. Dr. Wells explains more of the icons of evolution he details in his popular book and why much of what we hear about evolution is wrong. Listen in as they discuss Darwin’s finches, four-winged fruit flies, humans with tails, and more.

Many, like famed evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, put their faith in natural selection to account for the diversity of life on Earth. But gradual, unguided evolutionary mechanisms like natural selection don’t impress Dr. Wells very much. “Natural selection really amounts to non-random death,” says Wells. As a first example, he discusses Darwin’s finches, one of the icons hailed as proof of Darwin’s theory. When scientists studied these birds in the 1970s, a drought reduced the finch population by 85%. The birds with longer beaks survived and produced offspring with longer beaks. The birds with shorter beaks died off. “Natural selection didn’t produce larger beaks,” notes Wells. “All it did was kill off those who had smaller beaks. And that is the sum total of what natural selection can do…the idea that it is capable of producing complex organs and new species is absolutely without evidence.”

This is Part 2 of a two-part discussion. Listen to Part 1 below.

Dig Deeper

  • Did you miss Part 1 of this conversation? Listen below!