Testing Evolution – What My Results Mean

Posted on by Erik Popp
The elephant in the room

This is part of a series: Testing Evolution

I wrote a simulator to test evolution, so I could see who was right: my parents, or most scientists. My parents turned out to be right. Not only is evolution totally incapable of going from molecules to Man, but the very process that most scientists think causes evolution mostly causes devolution. Given enough time and chance, we will devolve to extinction. Even the research of evolutionists shows very clearly that this is true.

How can this be? Are my parents smarter than the many great scientists who believe in evolution? Am I smarter, or do I have some hidden knowledge that they don’t? No. My parents aren’t stupid, but they’re not geniuses either. And the things they know are far from secret – they’re published in the beginning of the best-selling book of all time.

While most scientists believe what their professors taught them about evolution, my parents believe the Bible. The Bible says that God created the universe and life in 6 days, and then it was finished. The Bible also says that all creation is “in bondage to corruption“. It makes no exception for life.

The Bible says that those who willfully refuse to acknowledge and honor the Living God – their maker – will, while “claiming to be wise”, become fools. It even says that at least in some cases, God supernaturally enhances this human tendency, by sending on such people a “strong delusion” as punishment.

And this is exactly what happens in real life.

Continue reading Testing Evolution – What My Results Mean

Testing Evolution – Opposing Evidence

Posted on by Erik Popp
Bar of Gold in the Balance

This is part of a series: testing evolution

I figured out how to test evolution, wrote an evolution simulator, ran it, and found that evolutionary biologists see the same results in actual living things. Now I’ll list some evidence I’ve found that, on the surface, contradicts my findings. I argue that the evidence for my simulator’s accuracy is far stronger than the evidence against. I found that in the long term, evolution isn’t the main thing that happens – devolution is, and devolution eventually leads to extinction.

Continue reading Testing Evolution – Opposing Evidence

Testing Evolution – Supporting Evidence

Posted on by Erik Popp
According to the law of infinite probability, my laundry should eventually fold itself

This post is part of a series: Testing Evolution

EDIT: Here’s a my evolution simulator

I figured out how to test evolution, wrote an evolution simulator, ran it, and listed some testable claims I can make if it’s accurate. Now I’ll list some evidence from biology that shows I’m right – in the long term, evolution is not the main thing that happens: devolution is. This is not a full list. This evidence is easy enough to find that I was able to put this together fairly quickly by looking through a top 10 list of genetic disorders. Some of them are caused by mutations that don’t consistently eliminate themselves by natural selection. These mutations build up in the gene pool over time, causing devolution. If enough of them build up, they’ll eventually drive all life on earth extinct.

Continue reading Testing Evolution – Supporting Evidence

Testing Evolution – How to Tell if I’m Right

Posted on by Erik Popp
Theory and Reality

This is part of a series: testing evolution

I figured out how to test evolution, wrote an evolution simulator, and ran it. If my simulator is accurate, here are some things that should happen in living things.  I’d love to see how many of these have already been found.

EDIT: Here’s a link to my evolution simulator (project page)

If my simulator is correct, then here are three phenomena that should appear in living things:

  1. Evolution
  2. Irreducible Complexity
  3. Devolution Leading to Extinction

Continue reading Testing Evolution – How to Tell if I’m Right

Testing Evolution – The Results

Posted on by Erik Popp

This is part of a series: Testing Evolution

I figured out how to test evolution and I wrote an evolution simulator.  Here are the exact results I get when I run it, and some examples of the same phenomena from biology:

Continue reading Testing Evolution – The Results

Testing Evolution – How I Did It

Posted on by Erik Popp
Muller's Foundry Screenshot - A Mutant That's Better Than the Original

This is part of a series: Testing Evolution

I’m writing this post mainly for anyone who wants to make their own version of my evolution simulator, to prove to themselves that I really got it right. I’ll still try to make it accessible to non-geeks.

I figured out how to test evolution, now it was time to actually do it. In this post, I’ll describe in detail the way that I wrote my evolution simulator.

Outline

Continue reading Testing Evolution – How I Did It

Testing Evolution – How to Do It

Posted on by Erik Popp
Sketch by Leonardo da Vinci

This is part of a series: Testing Evolution

This post is mainly written for anyone who wants to duplicate my results. I’ll try to make it accessible to non-geeks, but there are a lot of technical details.

Summary:

  • I used an evolution simulator to test evolution because that was the easiest way to do it with my skill set
  • My big insight: mutation and natural selection are, for lack of a better term, platform-independent
  • I clarify what exactly mutation and natural selection are, and why I can do the same process to self-copying programs
  • I give examples of other evolutionary algorithms, to give an idea of what most of their authors’ goals are and how they write them
  • I list the main differences between my algorithm and most evolutionary algorithms
    1. They do artificial selection, while mine does natural selection
    2. They usually make their creatures a collection of settings or useful attributes, while I made mine actual programs written in a general-purpose programming language
    3. They mutate as few things as practical, while mine mutates the entire creature’s source code
    4. They reward small, but insignificant improvements, while mine only rewards changes that significantly improve a creature’s ability to spread its genes
    5. They put the creature copier in the simulator, while I put it in each creature

I wanted to test Atheism by testing evolution, but I needed to decide how.

Continue reading Testing Evolution – How to Do It

Testing Evolution – Why I Did It

Posted on by Erik Popp
Stages of Mitosis

This is part of a series: Testing Evolution

As a child, I loved to read about science and technology.  I couldn’t get enough.  I remember going turkey hunting with my dad, and I brought a book along – part of a 13-volume series on aviation history.  He says that I was so focused on the book that when he eventually shot a turkey, I was quite startled by the noise.

My parents are both devout Christians who do a good job of living out their faith.  They’re far from perfect, but the more I learn about other peoples’ marriages and families, the more grateful I am for a stable family, with loving parents who know how to raise kids well.  Their success in marriage and parenting is a living testament to the fact that the OEM really knows how to make families work.

My parents are also Young-Earth Creationists.  Of course, they raised me to believe that, too.  Inevitably, I had to choose between what they taught me, and what most scientists believe.  When I started looking for answers, I was probably 15 or 16 years old.  My parents weren’t able to help much – neither of them knew much about science.  It’s just not their thing.  Their main reasons for being Young-Earth Creationists were and are:

  1. The Bible says so
  2. To them, the Atheists’ explanation for the appearance of life sounds ridiculous

Normally, when I read of people who were raised Creationists, and started doubting, the story goes something like this:

  • They were taught by their parents, friends, family, etc. to believe that God created the universe and life, by his own absolute power, possibly only several thousand years ago
  • They were taught in school that life appeared by natural processes and evolved into its present form over billions of years
  • Over time, they believed their parents less and less, and believed their science teachers more and more
  • They eventually rejected their parents’ beliefs and adopted their teachers’ beliefs

For me, it went more like this:

  • I was taught by my parents, friends, family, etc. to believe that God created the universe and life, by his own absolute power, several thousand years ago
  • I read in many science books that life appeared by natural processes, and evolved into its present form over billions of years
    (I was homeschooled for most of my childhood, but I went to the local high school for the last couple of years, and got a dual diploma)
  • I read up on the Creation/Evolution controversy.  I went out of my way to find well-written, well-reasoned defenses of each of the two main sides
  • I tested the thing I was considering believing – Agnosticism bordering on Atheism.
    I did this by testing evolution
  • I found that the Evolutionists were wrong
  • At about the same time, I started testing the thing I currently believed – Christianity, including Divine Creation
    How?  I tested whether God really hears and answers prayer, in a way that can be clearly distinguished from chance, and a dead god not answering
  • I found that the Bible is right

In this post series, I’m focusing on my test of Atheism.  I may eventually write a series on my test of Christianity.

This is part of a series: Testing Evolution

Photo credit:
Daniel Williamson – OpenStax CNX (online biology textbook)

Why I Believe – The Fall of Evolution

Posted on by Erik Popp
Aging Face

This is part of two series:

  1. Testing Evolution
  2. Why I Believe
Summary:
  1. Evolution is the best explanation that atheists have ever had for life, and it’s probably the best they’ll ever have
  2. I figured out a way to test evolution
  3. Its mechanism mainly causes devolution and eventually extinction
  4. Evolutionary biologists have known about this phenomenon for awhile
  5. Their reason why this isn’t the death of evolution doesn’t hold water
  6. Thus, it’s unreasonable to believe that there is no creator god, and it is reasonable to believe that there is a creator god
  7. The only question left is who this god is, and that’s pretty easy to answer

Here’s my evolution simulator.  It’s a web app, but my Github project page doesn’t serve it as a normal web page.  To run it, download it as a .zip file, extract it, and open “Muller’s Foundry.html”.  It’ll open in your web browser, like a web page, but the URL will be on your local machine, in the form file:///path/to/folder/Muller’s Foundry.html

Screenshot of Muller's Foundry

Continue reading Why I Believe – The Fall of Evolution