Evolutionary Theory: Uphill Battle?

Does evolutionary theory have an "uphill battle" before it can be considered a valid science? That's the impression you might get if you only read the material of creationists. Of course, if that's all you read then you would be profoundly ignorant of both science generally and evolution specifically - because creationists themselves rarely seem to have much of a clue.

Case in point is Ken Walker, writing about Ide Trotter in the Baptist Press:

Although evolution still holds center stage in biology, Trotter pointed out that evolutionary theory is no longer Darwin's theory. Darwin's ideas were updated at the end of World War II, he said, and replaced by a neo-Darwinian synthesis. ... Given these developments, Trotter said textbooks need to present a more balanced view of evolution's strengths and weaknesses, as required by Texas law.

Ah, the ignorance of these two is so palpable you can practically feel it pulsating throughout the article. Yes, some aspects of evolutionary theory has changed since Darwin's time - there is no question about that. Only those truly destitute of scientific understanding, however, will see the presence of disagreement over details as evidence of some fundamental weakness in the foundation of evolutionary theory. But it gets worse!

The time frame conceived for evolutionary processes used to be considered as infinite but has since been reduced to a few million years. That has required evolutionists to acknowledge the need for fast-moving mechanisms of change.

A few million years? The oldest vertebrate fossil is about 560 million years old. There are fossil algae that are nearly two billion years old. Evidence indicates that the earth, which is about four billion years old, wasn't around too long before biological evolution began to take hold: cyanobacteria fossils found in 3.45 billion-year-old dolomite in the Pilbara range in North West Australia. That, obviously, wasn't the starting point! Evolution has had nearly four billion years, not "a few million years." Just how stupid do Trotter and Walker think their audience is?

Read More:

• Evolution vs. Creationism
• Science vs. Religion
• Recent Books on Evolution
• What is Science?