Creation Moments

Mark W. Cadwallader: Just how naturally was the peppered moth selected? Next on today's Creation Moments. And now, here's our Creation Moments host, Ian Taylor.

Ian T. Taylor: Just about every public school biology textbook includes the example of the peppered moth. The moth is used as a prime example of natural selection. Supposedly, as the trees in the English countryside began to be covered with coal pollution in the mid-1800s, the light-colored tree trunks became darker.

The peppered moth exists in two varieties, black and white, and was said to rest on the tree trunks. As the trunks turned black, the white variety was more easily seen and picked off by the birds, leaving the black variety to multiply. Students were told that this was natural selection in action.

But since the 1980s, numerous studies of moth populations and how they live have called the use of the peppered moth as an example of evolution into serious question. Several additional population studies in polluted and unpolluted forests show little correlation between whether there are lighter or darker moths. After pollution control laws went into effect in England, the population of dark moths decreased in the north but increased in the south.

Worst is the fact that these moths do not rest on the tree trunks but remain hidden under the branches higher in the tree. The moths in the famous photograph of a pair of moths resting on a tree trunk shown in every biology textbook were actually glued to the tree trunk to provide the picture. Well, let's not give away the treasures of the truth, God's inerrant Word, for the false treasure of the earthly theories which deny our Creator.

Mark W. Cadwallader: For stunning imagery, reference articles, or to listen to today's Creation Moments again, download the Creation Moments app on your phone or visit creationmoments.com. For additional resources, call us toll-free at 1-800-42-BIBLE.