Nick Matzke unwittingly gives more evidence for the claims of ID proponent John Sanford. Sanford argues that species and genomes are slowly dying, and this cannot be arrested by natural selection, even in principle.
Nick got his co-authored paper published in the prestigious scientific journal Nature. Here is Nick’s commentary at Pandas Thumb
Depending on the scenario, we reach a 75% “mass extinction” (for certain well-studied groups) within a few hundred to a few thousand years, if, as people say, “current rates continue.” This is a geological eyeblink.
But this implies our best field observations do not suggest natural selection is originating more species! In fact they are dying faster than they are being replaced.
One might argue humans are the cause of current extinction rates. Even granting that is true, it only goes to show nature is under no obligation to conform to the Darwinist view that nature inevitably generates more novelty than it destroys! In fact, Nick claims that we must resort to intelligently designed measures to stop the extinction rates, nature can’t seem to do it on its own, it needs the help of intelligent design!
Congrats to Nick for publishing a paper that suggests NS doesn’t work to create more species, but rather is helpless to replace the extinct ones with new ones. The only place where NS creates large numbers of new species is in the circularly reasoned interpretations of the fossil record. Direct field observation does not support the Darwinain view that undirected nature can generate highly functional biological novelty, in fact it seems undirected nature is very good at destroying it!
NOTES:
1. Biodiversity Health
Since the 1950s, species extinction rates have skyrocketed up to 1,000 times more than in past epochs and are only expected to rise in the next 50 years.
2. Sanfords Pro ID Thesis Supported by PNAS Paper, Read it and Weep, Literally