, currently posted at AiG, recycled from Creation Ex Nihilo 21(2):41, March-May 1999. The article subtitle reads "Fast changes in mosquitoes astonish evolutionists, delight creationists". After a brief introduction describing invasions of London's subways by mosquitoes in the 100 years of the Tube's existence, Wieland informs us that -Carl Bites Himself Briskly
F.C. Kuechmann
The good doctor at Answers in Genesis, Carl Wieland, is one of the creationist camp's more reliable sources of utter unsupported nonsense. Every fortnight or so I visit the AiG website to see what purportedly new falsehoods the no-longer-practicing-medicine MD is offering his gullible followers. Since creationists seldom come up with anything genuinely new, they commonly recycle and regurgitate the same discredited bildge.
An example is Dr Carl's article titled Brisk Biters
British scientists have now found that it is almost impossible to mate those in the Tube with the ones still living above ground, thus suggesting that they have become a new species1 (or almost so). This has 'astonished' evolutionary scientists, who thought that such changes must take many times longer than this.2
The sources for his information - . BBC Wildlife magazine
(London), September, 1998. Also The London Times, August 26, 1998, p. 1. That is,
the popular media rather than highly-regarded scientific journals.
Regardless of Wieland's oft repeated excuse that he's not writing for the
Technical Journal (TJ) [or whatever they're calling
it this month], the supposed "peer reviewed technical journal", and thus
scientific accuracy is deemed unnecessary, his subtitle claim that "Fast changes in
mosquitoes astonish evolutionists" is simply hogwash. Fruitfly speciation has been
observed in the laboratory in only 5 years. An informed evolutionist, familiar with the
scientific literature, would not be surprised, astonished or otherwise kerflubbered by
mosquitoe speciation in 100 years. It is exactly what an evolutionist would expect from an
insect with a short lifespan and consequent rapid breeding rate. See Observed Instances of
Speciation by Joseph Boxhorn at Talk.Origins.
After years of denying the possibility of [relatively] rapid speciation such as that
proposed in Gould's punctuated equillibrium theory, creationists like Wieland are now
warping it to conform to their biblical fairy tale. Creationists often cite John
Woodmorappe's book, Noah's Ark: A Feasibility Study, (Institute
for Creation Research, 1996) as "proving" the literal truth of their Noachian
deluge fairytale. Woodmorappe supplies only a heap of "would have" and
"could have" speculations. This "would have" methodology seems to be
infectous and has been adopted by creationists like Wieland in their mad attempt to
reconcile reality and biblical dogma. Thus we find in footnote 5, this passage -
The rapid climate changes associated with the post-Flood biblical Ice Age would have also created many new and unique environments...
A "biblical Ice Age would have" followed a
worldwide flood. If that were the case, one would think an all-knowing, divinely-inspired
tome like the Holy Crock would've mentioned it, at least in passing. Instead the Crock
reads like the campfire stories of Middle Eastern desert nomads.
The best one can say about this kind of twaddle is that it is consistent with creationist
"flood geology" that has been debunked repeatedly. These are creationist
arguments that persuade only the lazy, the ignorant and the uninformed.
Surely Carl Wieland, the "much in demand speaker" can do better than that.