Bridge to Nowhere? An Evolutionist Seeks Answers

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	Bridge to Nowhere? An Evolutionist Seeks Answers	[Rainmakers_Title.htm]

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Can You Tell Me Anything About Evolution?*
A Bridge to Nowhere?

By: Dr. Colin Patterson with comments by Wayne Frair**

Editor’s Note: Dr. Colin Patterson, lifelong evolutionist, shocked colleagues by expressing serious doubts about the theory in a 1981 lecture presented at New York City’s American Museum of Natural History. Internationally-known creationist, Dr. Wayne Frair, a credentialed scientist researching turtles, attended the lecture and preserved a tape of the lecture. Excerpts from Dr. Patterson’s presentation are followed by Dr. Frair’s commentary on the occasion. For a detailed picture of the event, a copy of the tape and its transcript can be acquired through Access Research Network.

Quotations excerpted from the Colin Patterson lecture are presented in italics with some marked in bold for emphasis.

“…I’m speaking on two subjects, evolutionism and creationism, and I believe it’s true to say that I know nothing whatever about either…One of the reasons I started taking this anti-evolutionary view, well, let’s call it non-evolutionary, was last year I had a sudden realization.

“For over twenty years I had thought that I was working on evolution in some way. One morning I woke up, and something had happened in the night, and it struck me that I had been working on this stuff for twenty years, and there was not one thing I knew about it.

“That was quite a shock that one could be misled for so long…

“…I’ve tried putting a simple question to various people and groups of people: ‘Can you tell me anything you know about evolution, any one thing, any one thing you think is true?’

“I tried that question on the geology staff in the Field Museum of Natural History, and the only answer I got was silence. I tried it on the members of the Evolutionary Morphology Seminar in the University of Chicago, a very prestigious body of evolutionists, and all I got there was silence for a long time, and then eventually one person said: ‘Yes, I do know one thing. It ought not to be taught in high school.’

“…It does seem that the level of knowledge about evolution is remarkably shallow. We know it ought not to be taught in high school, and perhaps that’s all we know about it…about eighteen months ago…I woke up and I realized that all my life I had been duped into taking evolutionism as revealed truth in some way.”

Patterson took the words of Neal C. Gillespie alleging that the “pre-Darwinian creationist paradigm” was “‘…not a research-governing theory, since its power to explain is only verbal, but an anti-theory, a void that has the function of knowledge, but conveys none’” and suggested “…It must seem to you that I’m either misguided or malicious to suggest that such words can be applied to evolutionary theory.

“…Most of us think that we are working in evolutionary research. But is its explanatory power any more than verbal?…I feel that the effect of hypotheses of common ancestry in systematics has not been merely void, not just a lack of knowledge-I think it has been positively anti-knowledge.

“…What about evolution? It certainly has the function of knowledge but has it conveyed any?…It is true, evolution does not convey any knowledge, or if so, I haven’t yet heard it.

“Well, here we all are with all our shelves full of books on evolution. We’ve all read tons of them, and most of us have written one or two. And how could it be that we’ve done all that, we’ve read these books and learned nothing from them? And how could I have worked on evolution for twenty years, and learned nothing from it?

“…There is some sort of a revolution going on in evolutionary theory at the moment…It concerns the possible mechanisms that are responsible for the transformation…natural selection is under fire, and we hear a rash of new and alternative theories…”

Again quoting Gillespie accusing that those “‘…holding creationist ideas could plead ignorance of the means and affirm only the fact,’” Patterson countered, “That seems to summarize the feeling I get in talking to evolutionists today. They plead ignorance of the means of transformation, but affirm only the fact: ‘Yes it has…we know it has taken place.’”

“…Now I think that many people in this room would acknowledge that during the last few years, if you had thought about it at all, you’ve experienced a shift from evolution as knowledge to evolution as faith. I know that’s true of me, and I think it’s true of a good many of you in here…

“…Evolution not only conveys no knowledge, but seems somehow to convey anti-knowledge, apparent knowledge which is actually harmful to systematics…”

VERBAL VIOLENCE AT THE AMERICAN MUSEUM
Dr. Wayne Frair’s eyewitness commentary on the event.

On 5 November 1981 a well-respected British paleontologist, Dr. Colin Patterson, made a presentation, the reverberations of which still are being felt within the scientific community and all those concerned about origins. Patterson's title for the talk was "Evolutionism and Creationism," and that evening, a room at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York City was jammed with standing-room-only’s lining the sides and back. Patterson was the author of a standard book on evolution, but in his talk he revealed that he had been considering non-evolutionary and anti-evolutionary ideas.

Evolutionists generally understand that "similarity indicates descent from common ancestry", but often organisms will show similar features without good evidence of common (or evolutionary) ancestry. This phenomenon may be termed convergence; and Patterson proclaimed that "convergence is everywhere." The tenor of his whole talk tended to be anti-evolutionary, and the audience, which consisted primarily of museum-staff scientists and visiting scientists, reacted quite strongly.

I was sitting in the front row next to an AMNH curator of mammals, Karl Koopman, who, obviously very agitated kept slamming his pencil down in front of him. Niles Eldredge in the Department of Invertebrates at AMNH was standing by the left wall (as one looks toward the speaker). Beside Eldredge stood a high school biology teacher, Roy Slingo, from the prestigious Scarsdale NY district. Slingo later informed me that at one stage of the talk Eldredge (well known for his anti-creationist perspective) grabbed his forehead and slid down the wall proclaiming, "My God, how can he be doing this to us."

My main research has involved turtles, and I have donated hundreds of them to the Herpetology Department at AMNH. I knew personally all the scientists in that department and had spent about twelve years studying specimens in their large collection, and also using their library. In fact, when there were evening meetings like the Patterson gathering, I was in the habit of arriving at the AMNH in the morning, spending the day chatting with colleagues and studying research materials. So on the Thursday when Patterson was to speak I arrived at the lecture hall very early, obtained a front seat directly in front of the podium and set up with my tape recorder (which I kept clearly visible on my lap), receiving no objections from Chairman Donn Rosen or speaker Patterson.

Later I loaned the Patterson tape to the now late Luther Sunderland who made and distributed transcripts. Unfortunately this transcript contained errors and omissions, and I started to correct it. But I postponed this task because of the time it was going to require. The transcript began to be quoted widely especially by creationists, and I believe there were other distributed-transcripts containing certain inaccuracies. I mention all this because some evolutionists who have been exercised by Patterson's comments have blamed creationists for sneaking into the memorable AMNH meeting, smuggling a tape out, etc. It is important that the record be straightened out.

In October, 2000, the Access Research Network published an accurate, carefully prepared and footnoted transcript of the entire talk, with comments, questions and answers, and some biographical information about the participants.* The editors have identified the source of every utterance except possibly one (with an elderly-sounding voice) who was opposed to evolution, favored catastrophism and polyphyly, and he referred to authors Austin H. Clark, Leo S. Berg, and Daniele Rosa. In the recently-published transcript editors titled this speaker as "voice", and they are anxious to learn of evidence which will lead to identification of this individual.

Recently I was discussing the unforgettable AMNH evening with the above-mentioned Roy Slingo, who also recorded the meeting, and his tape supports, except in a few minor instances, the new ARN transcript. In ongoing discussions involving creation/evolution it is imperative that only accurate information be disseminated.

The events of that memorable evening 20 years ago still have messages for us today that we should strive for accuracy and be prepared to reconsider objectively what we believe.

*Nelson, Paul A. and William W. Kvasnikoff, Editors. 2000. “Can you tell me anything about evolution?”: transcript of Colin Patterson's November 1981 presentation at the American Museum of Natural History, New York City. Access Research Network (ARN), PO Box 38069, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80937-8069. Phone (719) 633-1772. www.arn.org.

**Dr. Wayne Frair, 1131 Fellowship Road, Basking Ridge, NJ 07920, internationally-known spokesman for Creation Science, graduated from Houghton College with an A.B. in zoology in 1950; a B.S. in zoology from Wheaton College the following year; a master’s degree in embryology from the University of Massachusetts in 1955; and his Ph.D. in biochemical taxonomy from Rutgers-The State University in 1962. Member of The King’s College faculty since 1955, Dr. Frair has authored more than forty research papers and co-authored the book, A Case for Creation. President of the Creation Research Society 1986-1993, Dr. Frair is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; American Scientific Affiliation; Creation Research Society; and Victoria Institute in England. Currently he serves as Professor Emeritus of Biology, The King’s College, in New York City.

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