FROM A FROG TO A PRINCE?
Video, Creation Science Foundation
Running time 27 minutes. £14.99
Available through CSF, Box 1427,
Sevenhampton, Swindon SN6 7UF
This is a well-produced piece of television on tape from Australia. With the help of beautiful photography and interviews with knowledgeable scientists, it asks whether Darwinian evolution or a traditional reading of the Genesis account is a more viable explanation of origins.
Living organisms differ through changes of genetic information. The more complex the creature the greater the amount of genetic information required. The vital question for Darwinian evolution is whether or not random processes mutating DNA molecules can add extra information which will enable a creature to be better adjusted to its environment. Werner Gitt, Professor of Information Science in Brunswick, Germany, and Dr. Lee Spencer, a Jewish biophysicist, say this is not possible. The creationists make a good case that while small-scale evolution within a species obviously occurs, it involves either no new information or the loss of genetic information (e.g. flightless cormorant). Great diversity is possible by new combinations of existing genes, but the resulting creature remains within the species. Mutation and natural selection, they claim, generate no new genetic information, so there is no way that large-scale neo-Darwinian evolution of increasing complexity can occur. No matter how long you wait, a frog will not become a prince.
Professor Richard Dawkins of Oxford University, the arch-enemy of the creationists, appears on the video a number of times. In the final time he is asked: 'Professor Dawkins, can you give an example of a genetic mutation or an evolutionary process which can be seen to increase the information in the G-nome?' Dawkins appears totally floored. He stares into space for a long time and finally side-steps the question, and answers something which the interviewer never asked. The silence seems to say a great deal. This is certainly a video worth showing, especially to youngsters and students.
