Why you should not believe my theory (Chapters 6, 7, and 8)

These three chapters detail all of the reasons that you might think Darwin's theory does not make sense. Luckily, he does not elaborate on them just to confuse you, he explains why you can still believe his theory. Although he does mention more than once that "if it could be proved that any part of the structure of any one species had been formed for the exclusive good of another species" (201), or for no apparent reason, or detrimentally, or just for funsies, "it would annihilate my theory" (201). Darwin either is good at looking ahead at other people's arguments against him, or he just loves killing his own theory. Before going into specifics, I will briefly explain the difficulties. If you do not care for that part, skim down to the "Wondrous Things!" section.

The difficulties are:

Chapter 6 - Difficulties on Theory

1. We don't see any transitional varieties (now or in fossils)! Answer: Fossil record is too imperfect to depend on, and transitional varieties do not exist anymore, because they were replaced by the new varieties! That is the point of Natural Selection!

2. How can complex and "perfect" organs, such as the eye, come about if there is no final purpose to Natural Selection? Answer: Each slight modification was beneficial for the organism, not just the final result. Over a long period of time, it evolved into this specific complex organ.

3. Why do useless organs exist if each organ varies to benefit the organism? Answer: Once upon a time, the "useless" organ was important, or even vital. Natural Selection cannot "delete" an organ just because it is not as useful anymore. These things take time.

Chapter 7 - Instinct.

Instinct causes a problem for Natural Selection because of a) lack of transitional forms, b) its complexity, c) isn't instinct learned? it's not inherited!, d) what about altruism (acts that do not benefit the organism itself)?

Problems a and b we answered in the last chapter. c) Instinct is, in fact, inherited. It could not possibly be learned over and over. Nor could it be learned by one generation and then inherited by the following generations. Just like other variations, instinctual habits accumulate over time. d) altruistic acts are not always altruistic. They could benefit kin (kin selection) or the group (group selection).

Chapter 8 - Hybridism.

The inability to inter-cross species is endowed by the Creator to prevent mixing of species, so that they should all remain identifiable.

Answer: Some species can cross and some hybrids (the offspring of the crosses) are fertile, whereas some organisms of the same species cannot cross or produce fertile offspring. These exceptions to the rule make it clear that a Creator did not specifically make this rule. Sterility is "incidental on other acquired differences" (245).

Okay!

On to....

"Wondrous Things!!"

Back to Chapter 7 and the ridiculous complexities in nature. Instead of discussing how they add or detract from Darwin's theory, I just want to point out these complexities so that we can think about them and appreciate them (if we're in the mood).

Slaves in Nature

Apparently, there are ant-slaves. The sterile female ants are raised to work for their community. In some cases, the males and fertile females do not work at all. In other cases, the "masters" collect food and materials for the nest. The ants we think of as common - the big, black ants - those are all infertile, female slave ants. The masters are red and about half the size of the slave ants. Maybe it's just me, but I think that is pretty insane. The slaves even carry the masters in their mouths when they migrate. The slaves raise the children and the masters capture other slaves. You have to wonder how closely related we might be to ants after all.

Bee Hives

I've always been fascinated by bees making hives, or bees doing dances to indicate pollen, and all of those crazy instincts. But I had no idea how particular the cell-making of the hives was. The bee has to excrete the exact amount of wax that will create a cell wall the most efficiently. There is not wasting of wax - the walls are the perfect thickness. Even the perfect shape of the cell, the hexagon, allows sharing of cell walls and saves wax. They must be a green-friendly community. It is hard for me to learn about these complexities and attribute it all to instincts, and not intelligence. But that just shows the power of Nature and of Natural Selection - these were not just ingenious ideas that the bees came up with one day. The instincts developed over time because they were beneficial to the bees. You make a good point there, Darwin.

There are other things to be said about these chapters, such as the confusing differences between crosses (the parents), hybrids (offspring of two species), and mongrels (offspring of two varieties), the amazing-ness of the eye (light reflects and gets interpreted and there are lots of nerves and crazy scientific things) and the throat (the glottis closes so you don't choke while you're drinking!), and electric organs (like in eels), AND the mention of HUMANS ("I might have adduced for this same purpose the differences between the races of man, which are so strongly marked...some little light can apparently be thrown on the origin of these differences, chiefly through sexual selection" [199].), I think I'll just end with the "Wondrous Things!!" because they are so wondrous. Next time you see ants or bees or any other animal that you never stopped to appreciate before...think about it.