Blind Cave Fish

Noah’s Flood: A Noah’s Flood: A Local Event?Local Event?

The Purpose

• Science education and the media present evolution as fact

• The idea is so widespread that even many Christian believe that the first 11 chapters of Genesis are “myth,” and then they are very careful to define “myth” in a way that leaves the rest of the Bible intact.

A Definition

Myth: n. 1.) a traditional or legendary story, usually concerning some being or hero or event, with our without a determinable basis of fact or natural explanation

2.) any invented story or concept

3.) an unproved or false collective belief that is used to justify a social institution

The Purpose

• Is there a viable, scientifically sound alternative?

• That is: are the Bible’s claims really unproved or false, or can scientific techniques really offer a determinable basis for biblical claims?

•What do you call a fish with no eyes?

Evolution: The definition

Biological evolution, simply put, is descent with modification. This definition encompasses small-scale evolution (changes in gene frequency in a population from one generation to the next) and large-scale evolution (the descent of different species from a common ancestor over many generations). Evolution helps us to understand the history of life.

http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/0_0_0/evo_02

Evolution: The explanationBiological evolution is not simply a matter of change over time. Lots of things change over time: trees lose their leaves, mountain ranges rise and erode, but they aren't examples of biological evolution because they don't involve descent through genetic inheritance.•The central idea of biological evolution is that all life on Earth shares a common ancestor, just as you and your cousins share a common grandmother.•Through the process of descent with modification, the common ancestor of life on Earth gave rise to the fantastic diversity that we see documented in the fossil record and around us today. Evolution means that we're all distant cousins: humans and oak trees, hummingbirds and whales.

Not Evolution

no genetic inheritance

small-scale evolution

• changes in gene frequency in a population from one generation to the next

large-scale evolution

• the descent of different species from a common ancestor over many generations

Natural selection

• Natural selection is one of the basic mechanisms of evolution, along with mutation, migration, and genetic drift.

• Darwin's grand idea of evolution by natural selection is relatively simple but often misunderstood. To find out how it works, imagine a population of beetles:

1. There is variation in traits.

For example, some beetles are green and some are brown

•http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/evo_25

2. There is differential reproduction.

Since the environment can't support unlimited population growth, not all individuals get to reproduce to their full potential. In this example, green beetles tend to get eaten by birds

and survive to reproduce

less often than brown

beetles do

3. There is heredity.

The surviving brown beetles have brown baby beetles because this trait has a genetic basis

4. End result:

The more advantageous trait, brown coloration, which allows the beetle to have more offspring, becomes more common in the population. If this

process continues,

eventually, all individuals

in the population will be

brown

A Mindless Mechanism

The population or individual does not "want" or "try" to evolve, and natural selection cannot try to supply what an organism "needs." Natural selection just selects among whatever variations exist in the population. The result is evolution.

•http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/0_0_0/evo_32

Astyanax mexicanusOne form is a surface-dwelling fish, silvery in colour with a black band that extends along each side to the tail (4) (5). The tail and lower fins of some individuals may be tinted yellow or red (4). The other form has evolved to inhabit caves, which has resulted in a loss of colouration and, most significantly, the loss of functioning eyes (3)(6). Both forms of the Mexican tetra have a forked tail, a small dorsal fin (4), and an anal fin that, on breeding males, possesses tiny hooks (5). It has comparatively large and strong teeth (4) (5).

http://www.arkive.org/mexican-tetra/astyanax-mexicanus/

Note: I added the boldface

• Fish species that live in completely dark caves have vestigial, non-functional eyes. When their sighted ancestors ended up living in caves, there was no longer any natural selection that maintained the function of the fishes' eyes. So, fish with better sight no longer out-competed fish with worse sight. Today, these fish still have eyes — but they are not functional and are not an adaptation; they are just the by-products of the fishes' evolutionary history.

• http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/0_0_0/evo_31

The Big Question

Are blind cave-fish blind because they live in caves?

OR

Do blind cave-fish live in caves because they are blind?

An Alternative

• A mutation creates a population of fish with underdeveloped (“vestigial”) eyes.

• That mutation is part of the gene pool so occasionally blind fish are hatched.

• In the open waters, they cannot compete with sighted fish and are eaten or starve (this is called “local extinction”)

• The fish that find themselves born in dark places are at no disadvantage, and proliferate.

Noah’s Flood: Local or Global?

• Deepest point in the ocean: Mariana Trench -11,033 m or -36,198 ft

• Highest point above sea level: Mt. Everest (Himalayas) 8848 m or 29,028 ft

• Average elevation: 2750 ft

• Average depth of the oceans: 12,500 ft

12,500 ft below sea level

- 2750 ft above sea level

9750 ft still below sea level!

•There is easily enough water on the planet to flood the whole thing.

•Especially if the mountains were not as tall or the oceans as deep

Blind Cave Fish

Noah’s Flood: A Noah’s Flood: A Local Event?Local Event?