Video Review — "Evolution's Achilles' Heels"

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen

I'm a bit late to this party. The book Evolution's Achilles' Heels was released in July 2014, and the DVD came out in October 2014 (see the trailer at the bottom). Once my finances stabilized, I went to the stable, saddled up and purchased the book-DVD combo pack. That means Creation Ministries International did not give me anything, financial or otherwise, for writing this here review; I bought the items by my lonesome. In fact, they don't even know about the review yet. Haven't read the book yet, but I'm looking forward to it and will give that a review later on.

First off, some basic information. You want credentialed scientists? You got 'em! The 15 Ph.D. scientists in the Evolution's Achilles' Heels video discuss seven areas where evolutionary theory fails, but they don't go into a lot of heavy scientific lingo. The video is 96 minutes long, and the sections are separated so you can find them easily if you don't want to watch the whole shootin' match at one time, or want to use it in a group setting. (I like the music, too. Sometimes background music gets overbearing, and this complimented the video quite well.) There is good use of animation as well as other footage, so it's not just a series of interviews. Each scientist is named in a caption at his first appearance, and this is repeated in each section, which is helpful if you're viewing it in installments. Also, each section has summary bullet points at the end of each section.

What follows are comments on the sections in the video, plus a few of my own.

Natural Selection. Interestingly, natural selection is something that creationists and Darwinists agree on. (In fact, creationist Edward Blyth proposed the concept before Darwin claimed it.) New species arise, and that is a part of the creationist model. Unfortunately, the term "species" is blurry, and can mean different things to different people. Different iguanas on the Galapagos Islands can interbreed, are they separate species? Natural selection does not cause evolution by giving new genetic information. Instead, it is a fine-tuning of systems; survival of the fittest does not explain the arrival of the fittest.

Genetics. I've had disciples of Darwin smugly assert that genetics proves evolution. Not hardly! The more we learn about genetics, the more we see that it is hostile to evolution. For that matter, evolutionary bias led to the concept of "Junk" DNA, which has been soundly refuted. Scientists have found information, communication (in multiple dimensions), and "languages". The human genome is fading through genetic entropy, and humanity is rusting out like an old car; if we were as old as evolutionists claim, humanity should be extinct.

Origin of Life. Some owlhoots try to distance themselves from the origin of life, saying that it has nothing to do with evolution. That is based on ignorance, or just plain dishonesty. Even so, they want to defend the failed Miller-Urey experiment, which produced mixed amino acids. Did life come from "primordial soup"? (It's condensed, just add water — oh, wait. Water is not good for it. Never mind.)

Chance is not feasible, and even if through time and chance you obtained some amino acids, you have the chirality problem to make things worse. Keep going, there's the ATP synthase motor that life depends on. Amazingly complex and efficient, but it can't exist without life, and life can't exist without it. Now what, Darwin? 

Since the origin of life on Earth is clearly impossible, some people invoke panspermia, where life came here from way up yonder. Right, can't happen here, so it's a problem for the space aliens. That's science?

Fossil Record. The long-age standard explanation is that fossils take a long time to form. Not so. For fossils to form at all, the proper conditions are required — and they can form rapidly. Charles Darwin predicted that the missing transitional forms (that is, clear fossil evidence of something evolving into something else) would be found. This has not happened. Looks like he was living on faith, huh? His faith was unfounded, because there should be a passel of transitional fossils, but there are only a few disputed forms. And there are millions of fossils, so there should have been plenty of fossil evidence for evolution.

Evolution's Achilles' Heels has a good explanation and animation about the Cambrian explosion, where complex life forms suddenly appear in the fossil record. This frustrates evolutionists, but fits in well with what biblical creationists expect to find from Genesis Flood models.

Another problem is what they sometimes call "stasis". That is, a "living fossil" is found, where something was considered either very old or even extinct, but the living counterpart for fossils that's alleged to be "millions of years old" is virtually unchanged. Invoking "stasis", and saying that the organism didn't change because it didn't have to is, well, downright silly.

The problem for long-agers with soft tissues in dinosaur bones is mentioned, as is the fact that DNA of Neanderthals has been found (I did tell you that genetics is hostile to evolution). Not only should such "old" things like the tissues and DNA not even exist after long ages, but studies have shown that Neanderthals were another group of humans that interbred with the ancestors of other humans; their genome was like ours.

Geologic Column. If you're showing this video to a group, I reckon that it would be a good move to show this section immediate after the previous one if you have time. 

Back in the day, geology was established by creationists, who viewed science from a biblical perspective. Then people thought that unsupportable assertions in geology (written by anti-biblical naturalists) was a better idea, so uniformitarianism took over. Uniformitarianism is "the present is the key to the past", where slow and gradual processes observed today must have happened over long periods of time. This view rejects catastrophism, the Genesis Flood at the time of Noah that shaped the Earth rapidly. Basically, you have a little water over a lot of time, or a lot of water over a little time. That's over-simplified, but you get the idea.

In the mid to late 20th century, geologists began sneaking catastrophe through the back door of the saloon, buying it a sarsaparilla, and then shooing it back out again. In other words, uniformitarian geologists have been realizing that their views are fundamentally flawed, and they grudgingly admit that catastrophes must be valid explanations at times. Naturally (heh!), they don't admit to the Noachian Flood, but it's a start. One area where quick formation of geologic features can be seen is Mt. St. Helens; layers were laid down and a canyon was carved very rapidly. Apply this small example of catastrophic geologic processes to the Genesis Flood, and you can get a glimmer of the tremendous energy involved at that time. I'd like to see CMI put their animators to work on a video about the Lake Missoula Flood, but that's just me.

Plate tectonics is discussed, and how predictions from biblical Flood geologists are supported. We have continental plate subduction, rapid magnetic field reversals, and more. Algae is found in both "old" and "recent" layers of the geologic column, and the problems of rock folding is addressed.

Radiometric Dating. The basic principles of radiometric dating are covered, and the assumptions required for the process. There are serious challenges to the method, such as helium in zircon, carbon-14 in coal from different strata and different regions, and carbon-14 in diamonds. None of these should exist according to deep time worldviews. (Although not covered in this segment, rocks of known age from Mt. St. Helens were tested by this process and yielded wildly inaccurate and varying ages. This has happened other times as well.)

Cosmology. The dominant view of the origin of the universe, the Big Bang, is covered here. The Big Bang has many difficulties such as the horizon problem, "dark matter" and "dark energy" posited as ad hoc explanations for lack of scientific evidence for the Big Bang, and the "inflation period". Indeed, the origin of the universe is a matter of faith and has nothing to do with practical science, since it cannot be tested or repeated.

The "red shift" of objects supposedly shows the distance of celestial objects, but there are "near" red shift objects in close proximity to "far" red shift objects. If CMI wanted to make the segment quite a bit longer, they could have gone into much more detail about celestial objects, including those in our own solar system, acting "young". But they made their point quite handily.

Ethical Implications. I figured this eighth segment to be the "Why it matters" part of the video. Evolution is not just a field of study for various scientists and parlor discussions. Instead, it has serious implications for life itself, because evolutionary principles comprise a worldview (a topic discussed in this Weblog many times). Evolutionists operate from their paradigms, but seldom examine their philosophies. The sanctity of life does not fit evolutionary views — abortion is easy, as is the elimination of the unfit. And who defines how someone is "unfit"? The mass murders by totalitarians in the 20th century were done by people following an evolutionary worldview.

Evolution does not explain death and suffering beyond what is an expected daily occurrence, and offers no hope or comfort for people. However, the Bible contains explanations for the conditions of human experience that evolution cannot cover. Despite the evidence refuting evolution, its adherents cling to it so they can reject the Creator, the Fall of Man, and Redemption through Jesus Christ.

As you can figure, I highly recommend Evolution's Achilles' Heels. You can purchase it online at their store as a DVD, Blu Ray, or direct download. There is a free PDF study guide that you can download as well. This guide will be useful for individuals and groups who want more detailed material than this video can cover. Also, the book is available as a paperback and in e-book formats.

As I study on it, I realize that I do have a big regret: that I did not have it when I was giving a biblical creation science class in church. Now I'm giving serious thought to kicking up my heels and getting a 5-pack of the videos to give away for Christmas presents. (It's kind of funny, I realized while I was writing this that I'm wearing my "Question Evolution" T-shirt.)