Today, I’d like to discuss “magical” biology. This is a concept introduced by John Keefe and is used to criticize evolution. Here are some quotes from him about it:
“As far as humanity coming from one couple just do the math in reverse. Eventually, you come to the original couple in less you into magical biology and you think your ancestors were monkeys then you’re beyond reason because obviously you can’t prove that. What we can prove is monkeys reproduce monkeys, Billy goats reproduce Billy goats and humans reproduce humans that’s what we can observe, test, and repeat.”
“And then you go into magical thinking thinking that life could cobbled itself up from dirt or ocean vents without any observable, testable repeatable evidence that that’s even possible and then along with that magical thinking you have animals morphing into other animals and all of that magic happened by the appearance of a single cell that also magically appeared.”
“If you believe in that magical biology then take a bacteria into a biology lab and watch it become something completely different requiring a new name. What? You mean after close to 200 years they haven’t been able to do that? Color me shocked and surprised. Oh, I know millions of years such a beautiful curtain to hide your magic behind. But you can always run over to paleontology are genetics and impose a “Darwin of the gaps” argument on the similarities.”
It’s quite an interesting position to take. What if I were to tell you, however, that Mr. Keefe was a proponent of “magical” biology and science himself? Let’s start with his belief that dinosaurs existed right up to 30,000 years ago.
“Maybe some dinosaurs or 68 million years old and others are less than 30,000 years old. If they find carbon-14 that would suggest less than 30,000 years.”
This would mean that dinosaurs survived the K-T event in sufficient numbers to continue existing for another 66 million years. During that entire time, none of them ever evolved into a different organism, not one dinosaur was fossilized, and, of course, they managed to exist alongside human beings.
I’d like to conclude with perhaps the most egregious example of “magical science” available. That is, of course, Noah’s Ark:
“Now you’re talking about Noah and making another obvious interpretation error. Think about it what saved Noah and his family? It wasn’t the water it was the ark. The ark traveled through the water. The water would’ve drowned Noah and his family but the ark saved them.”
“This story and Peter’s story have been misinterpreted by the Catholic Church. Step back, take your Catholic classes off, reread this passage about Noah carefully and use some common sense. Was it the ark that saved Noah? Or was it the water? What effect did the water have? It wiped out all life except that which was inside the ark. What Effect did the ark have? It saved everyone in the ark. Anyone in Christ will be saved.”
“The Great Flood: In Genesis 7:11-12, the “fountains of the great deep” burst forth, and the “windows of the heavens” were opened, releasing a massive amount of water that flooded the earth, destroying all life except for Noah and his family.”
John Keefe clearly believes that Noah and his family built a boat large enough to house hundreds of thousands of animals, along with enough food and water for the innumerably varied species. That’s on top of the fact that many of these species managed to find their way across entire continents and oceans without dying due to the lack of food they specifically needed to survive.
Let’s wrap this up. Can you think of any other examples of “magical biology” that you’ve seen Christians use?
Fossil
Article URL : https://evolution.berkeley.edu/what-are-evograms/the-evolution-of-whales/