Epigentics, Creation Science, and — Lamarck?
Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck may be coming back from the sepulcher of evolutionary philosophies. The secular science establishment decided to ride for the Darwin gang and Lamarck was essentially told, "Go away, boy, you bother me", but some of his contributions are acknowledged.
Although Lamarck is touted as the purveyor of inherited characteristics from his 1809 publication on evolution, he is somewhat misrepresented. The typical dismissal often includes the idea that giraffes developed longer necks to reach leaves in trees. While he was more wrong than Papa Darwin on evolution, he may have had a notion that was ahead of its time.
Scientists are realizing that the nuclear genome is not the be-all and end-all of inheritance. Studies in epigenetics are showing that this area plays a large part in the inheritance of characteristics, and some behaviors are actually learned for a few generations. Some scientists are looking back on Lamarck and thinking maybe they shouldn't have relegated him to mucking the stalls of the Darwinian elite.
Some Harvard research is discussing Lamarck and some concepts that fit with the creation science model of continuous environmental tracking and engineered adaptability (several posts on this have appeared here). Mayhaps evolutionists will catch on that, instead of Darwin's insistence on external influences and "pressures", the evidence shows that our Creator designed organisms to change and adapt.
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| Lamarck portrait by Charles Thévenin 1802 |
Scientists are realizing that the nuclear genome is not the be-all and end-all of inheritance. Studies in epigenetics are showing that this area plays a large part in the inheritance of characteristics, and some behaviors are actually learned for a few generations. Some scientists are looking back on Lamarck and thinking maybe they shouldn't have relegated him to mucking the stalls of the Darwinian elite.
Some Harvard research is discussing Lamarck and some concepts that fit with the creation science model of continuous environmental tracking and engineered adaptability (several posts on this have appeared here). Mayhaps evolutionists will catch on that, instead of Darwin's insistence on external influences and "pressures", the evidence shows that our Creator designed organisms to change and adapt.
Two recent reports undermine natural selection, but support design. The reports reinforce the reality that creatures are active, problem-solving beings that sense environmental changes and produce targeted adaptive responses. Another new insight is that an organism’s offspring could produce the same targeted response. However, the adaptive traits aren’t due to changes in DNA per se. Rather, the expression of the genes are modified during development.To read the rest of this important information, click on "Harvard Research Supports Innate Adaptive Mechanisms".