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Another of Darwinists' fictitious claims is the theory of the selfish gene (or gene selection) theory, according to which, specific types of gene increase their likelihood of perpetuating themselves by developing individuals with a better ability to survive and reproduce. Thus, those gene types that are better able to pass on their genetic information to subsequent generations and produce plants and animals will supposedly be dominant in the world..168
Before considering why this theory is invalid, let's examine the way it was proposed. Gene selectivity is an example of the logic that philosophers describe as reductionism-the claim that everything, even including the human mind, can be reduced to matter. However, as you saw in detail earlier, the claim that life consists solely of matter is clearly deceptive. The claims made by Richard Dawkins-a dyed-in-the-wool advocate of the theory of evolution who applied this theory to human beings-are therefore false, even ridiculous. According to Dawkins, "We are survival machines-robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules [of DNA] known as genes."169 In his book The Selfish Gene, Dawkins suggests that all living things contain genes that only seek to maintain their existence by duplicating themselves; and that the only aim of life is the survival of DNA. In fact, however, this claim rests on the exceedingly irrational assumption that genes possess conscious intent. This indicates just how far astray modern materialist reductionism can lead.
The better to see how ridiculous this assumption is, recall what genes actually are: parts of DNA added on to one another and compressed by means of folding and packaging. As you read in detail in preceding chapters, the giant DNA molecule consists of elements added to one another according to a specific code. It's of course impossible for a molecule consisting of blind, and unconscious atoms to be selfish, or to have any other conscious objective such as to multiply itself by way of sexual reproduction. No atom possesses consciousness or intelligence, and certainly not selfishness. For that reason, Dawkins' thesis is unscientific, an irrational fairy tale.
The Australian scientist Lucy G. Sullivan has criticized Dawkins for "a proliferation of pseudo-theories, whose claim on our attention lies more in the realm of literature than of science."170 The Harvard University evolutionary geneticist Richard Lewontin includes Dawkins among those authors who make unconfirmed claims, or claims that conflict with the facts in the tales they advocate:
As to assertions without adequate evidence, the literature of science is filled with them, especially the literature of popular science writing. Carl Sagan's list of the "best contemporary science-popularizers" includes E.O. Wilson, Lewis Thomas, and Richard Dawkins, each of whom has put unsubstantiated assertions or counterfactual claims at the very center of the stories they have retailed in the market. 171
Even Dawkins himself revealed that all this was put forward for propaganda purposes by admitting that his actions were biased and that his thesis was not a scientific one. On the first page of his book The Extended Phenotype, he wrote:
This is a work of unabashed advocacy. I want to argue in favor of a particular way of looking at animals and plants, and a particular way of wondering why they do the things that they do. What I am advocating is not a new theory, not a hypothesis which can be verified or falsified, not a model which can be judged by its predictions. 172
Since evolutionists are unwilling to admit the existence of the soul, they regard human beings as assemblages of matter and try to ascribe consciousness to that matter in some way. Their making such invalid claims as ascribing consciousness to genes is an indication of the very awkward position in which they find themselves. Today's evolutionists, who imagine that there is intelligence and consciousness in molecules and in the inanimate atoms that comprise those molecules have taken the place of the pagans of centuries ago who thought that there was intelligent consciousness in their idols crafted of stone or wood.
As a result of their superstitious belief, they claim that phenomena such as violence, rape, sexual harassment, aggression and jealousy have been bequeathed to human beings by their alleged animal forebears, and that such behavior is a natural result of evolution. At the root of this claim there lies the evolutionist idea that a human being is a machine made of genes, and that genes' sole aim is to evolve and survive, as if they were conscious entities.
In the same way that it is impossible for a book to aim at increasing its numbers by way of reproduction, to be selfish, or to possess consciousness in any way, so it is impossible for DNA-a chain of molecules consisting of unconscious and inanimate atoms, and no molecule possesses intelligence and awareness. In addition, the Israeli scientist Gerald L. Schroeder notes that the way that a cell passes on a strand of its DNA by dividing is actually altruistic behavior, rather than selfishness:
One of the puzzles of meiosis is the altruistic nature of the cell. Why should a cell willingly give up half of its chromosomal information, and thereby essentially guarantee that its progeny will not be an identical copy of itself? I would have thought that altruism stops at self-destruction. A parent's mixing its chromosomes with those of another is, in a sense, self destruction, since the parent will not be reproduced in the child. Not a very selfish way for a potentially selfish gene to act.173
Therefore, the idea of the selfish gene has nothing to do with the true facts, and the claim is no more than a fantasy. Darwinist thinking-which describes human beings as animals and regards them as mere robots that carry genes and are responsible for passing those genes on to the next generation-is mainly responsible for the acts of violence, genocide, oppression and moral degeneration that increased enormously during the 20th century. Such a perspective endows all oppression, aggression and immorality with apparent scientific legitimacy. Even Hitler, who perpetrated the worst slaughter of the 20th century, regarded Darwinism as supporting him. It was Darwinism that justified his oppression and aggression. Hitler regarded all races other than the alleged Master Race as unworthy of living and regarded their slaughter as no more reprehensible than killing an animal.
Darwinism, maintaining that human beings are genetically aggressive, ruthless, competitive, selfish and potential murderers, is nonsense used to justify crimes of all kinds. All human beings bear the souls breathed into them by Allah, and they are all responsible to our Lord, Who created them out of nothing. In the Qur'an, Allah reveals the creation of those who imagine themselves to be unfettered, and that they will be resurrected after death:
Does man reckon he will be left to go on unchecked? Was he not a drop of ejaculated sperm, then a blood-clot which He created and shaped,making from it both sexes, male and female? Is He Who does this not able to bring the dead to life? (Surat al-Qiyama, 36-40)
References
- Phillip E. Johnson, Defeating Darwinism by Opening Minds,p. 69. ↩
- Ibid. pp.69-70. ↩
- http://www.arn.org/docs/odesign/od171/ls171.htm ↩
- Richard Lewontin, "Billions and Billions of Demons", review of "The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark" by Carl Sagan, New York Review, 9 January 1997, pp. 28-32. ↩
- Richard Dawkins, The Extended Phenotype, W. W. Norton, New York, p. 1. ↩
- Gerald L. Schroeder, The Hidden Face of God, pp. 72-73. ↩