The Collapse of Darwinism: How Medical Science Proves Evolution by Natural Selection Is a Failed Theory

By Greg Bredemeier, MD

Most people intuitively understand that Darwins theory of evolutionnatural selection acting upon random mutationsis a wholly inadequate theory for the creation of a human being. And most people feel unprepared to debate those scientists, professors, and scholars who use their academic authority to defend Darwinism, often bullying and belittling those of us who dare doubt Darwin.

Now, Bredemeier identifies and succinctly encapsulates why Darwinism fails. Using anatomy and physiology as only a physician can, Bredemeier exposes the errors and false logic that Darwinian acolytes continue to employ as they protect their mortally wounded theory. Any reader with a high school or college education will become armed with straightforward examples of exactly why Darwinism fails.

From anatomy and physiology of the human bodyincluding neuroscience, genetics, embryology, and other fascinating fields of the increasingly numerous biological sciencesBredemeier provides indisputable and damning evidence for which academicians, scientists, and even Nobel laureates, who zealously defend Darwinism, have no adequate answer.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Mar 17, 2016
• ISBN: 9781512733723

Greg Bredemeier, MD

Greg Bredemeier is currently a board-certified emergency physician practicing on the Mississippi Gulf Coast with over thirty years of clinical experience. He received a bachelor of science degree from Mississippi State University in 1977, his medical degree from the University of Mississippi Medical Center in 1981, an executive juris doctor with concentration in health law from Concord Law School in 2008, and a doctor of religious studies from Trinity College and Theological Seminary in 2010 with the completion of his major writing project Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principal and God’s Providential Action. Bredemeier served in the USAF and Mississippi Air National Guard from 1973 to 2010 and retired as a colonel, chief of aerospace medicine, having served three tours in Iraq from 2003 to 2005. Bredemeier has authored two other books, The Philosophical Attack on Christianity (Amazon, 2011) and Judicial Activism and the Assault on Christianity (Amazon, 2012).

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Copyright © 2016 Gregory F Bredemeier.

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WestBow Press rev. date: 03/16/2016

Contents

Preface

Author's Background

Observations from the ER

Part 1: Darwinism: Definition, Weaknesses, and Analysis---Limitations of Darwin's Theory

Chapter 1: The Elementary State of Biology in 1859

Chapter 2: Three Limitations Darwin Knew but Did Not Address

A. Gross Morphology Excludes Physiology, Leading to False Conclusions

1. The Myth of Darwin's Finches

2. The Myth of the Peppered Moth

B. Where Do Mutations Occur?

C. Lack of a Mechanism

Chapter 3: Conceptual Limitations Darwin Failed to Recognize

A. Mutations Lead to Disease, Disability, and Death, Not an Improved Species

1. Faithful DNA Replication

2. Dependable DNA Repair Mechanisms

3. Inevitable Conclusions

B. Mitochondrial Eve Demonstrates Time Is Insufficient for Evolution

C. Embryology is far more Complex than Darwin Perceived

D. Humans Are Overengineered

E. The Engineered Capacity of Adaptation

1. Neuroplasticity

2. Bone Metabolism and Muscle Growth

3. Thought Experiment

Chapter 4: Limitations Darwin Could Not Know

A. Significance of Information and DNA

1. How Do We Describe Biological Information Today?

2. What Is the Function of Biological Information?

3. The Problems Biological Information Poses for Darwinism

a. Neuroscience

b. Poly-functional DNA

c. Maternal-Fetal Medicine

d. Changes in Circulation at Birth

1) Three Shunts

2) Failure of Shunts to Close

3) How Shunts Normally Close

4) Other Physiologic Changes: Hemoglobin and Placenta

e. Summary

B. Reemergence of Entropy

C. Biochemical Information and Nanotechnology

D. Chaos, Complexity, Emergence, and Self-Organization

1. Chaos

2. Complexity

3. Emergence and Self-Organization

Part 2: Observations from Medicine that Contradict Darwinism---The Complex Human Body

Introduction

Chapter 5: Preprogrammed Complexity

A. How Do We Deal with Biologic Complexity?

B. Preprogrammed Complexity of a Critical Organ System

C. Embryology of the GU System

D. Known Mutations of Male and Female Genotypes

E. Discrete Abnormalities of the GU Tract

F. Conclusion

Chapter 6: The Human Eye: Darwin's Greatest Fear

A. Introduction

B. Neuroscience of Vision

C. Opponency

D. Visual Modularity

E. Vision as a Manifestation of Signal Processing

1. Vision Is Inherently Inferential

2. Visual Sensory Mechanism

3. Mapping

4. Information Selection

5. Circuitry

F. Time and Vision

G. Extraocular Eye Movements

H. Lacrimal Duct and Other Auxiliary Structures of the Eye

1. Eyebrows

2. Eyelids

3. Lacrimal Duct and Tears

Chapter 7: The Brain: The Ultimately Complex Organ

A. Introduction

B. Neuroscience

C. Sensory Perception

1. Programming Pattern Recognition

2. Touch

3. Hearing

4. Kinesthetic Perception

5. Corollary Discharge

D. Decision Making

1. Amygdala

2. Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC)

3. Orbitofrontal Cortex

4. Lateral Intraparietal Cortex (LIP)

5. Commitment to a Choice

E. Sleep and Memory

1. Restoration and Recovery

a. Sleep anatomy and Physiology

b. Current State of Knowledge

2. Memory Consolidation or Forgetting

a. Declarative Memory

b. Nondeclarative Memory

c. Sleep's Role in Memory

3. Conclusion

F. Plasticity

G. Synesthesia

Chapter 8: Immunology and Wound Healing or Mother's Kisses

A. Immunology

1. Overview

2. Innate Immunity

3. Acquired Immune System

B. Wound Healing

1. Hemostasis

2. Inflammation

3. Proliferation

4. Remodeling

Chapter 9: Genetics

A. Genetic Disorders Involving the Eye

B. Tabular Summary of Seventy-Five Disorders Involving the Eye

C. Conclusion

Part 3: Darwinism: An Evidence-Based Failure Analysis of Evolutionary Literature

Introduction

Chapter 10: Anthropomorphism

A. Richard Dawkins

B. Ivan Schwab

C. George Striedter

Chapter 11: Ambiguous Terms

A. Richard Dawkins

B. Ivan Schwab

C. Wallace Arthur

D. Charles Darwin

Chapter 12: Multiple Interdependent Unproven Contingencies (MIUC)

A. Richard Dawkins

B. Ivan Schwab

C. George Striedter

Chapter 13: Denial of Information's Complexity

A. Richard Dawkins

B. David Sadava

Chapter 14: Flawed Logic

A. Richard Dawkins

B. Ivan Schwab

C. Wallace Arthur

D. George Striedter

Chapter 15: Critical Thinking

A. Richard Dawkins

B. David Sadava

C. George Striedter

D. Wallace Arthur

Chapter 16: Other Flawed Darwinian Hypotheses and the Metaphysical Nature of Darwinism

A. Reliance on Scientific Consensus and Galileo

B. Failed Darwinian Concept---Junk DNA

C. Darwinism Functions as a Philosophy: Nazism and Social Darwinism

1. Dr. Josef Mengele, MD, PhD

2. Martin Bormann

3. Heinrich Himmler

4. Dr. Joseph Goebbels

5. Hermann Göring

6. Reinhard Heydrich

7. Dr. Alfred Rosenberg

8. Julius Streicher

D. The Metaphysical Nature of Darwinism

1. Richard Dawkins

2. George Striedter

E. Data Mining

F. Lack of Undifferentiated Species

G. Summary

Part 4: Conclusion

Introduction

Chapter 17: Failed Darwinian Concepts

A. Time Is Insufficient for Natural Selection to Have Occurred as Darwinists Propose.

B. Darwinists Misuse Embryology, which Is a Manifestation of Preprogrammed DNA.

C. Entropy Reemerges.

D. Darwinists Misuse the Concepts Chaos and Complexity to Eliminate Randomness from Darwin's Theory.

E. Darwinists Misuse the Concepts Emergence and Self-Organization to Provide Darwin's Theory with a Materialistic Mechanism.

F. Darwin Was Concerned with Gross Morphology and Unconcerned with Anatomy and Physiology (the Eye and Vision Are Examples).

G. Darwin and Neo-Darwinists Fail to Recognize that Specific and Highly Engineered Functions Refute Darwin's Theory.

H. Multiple Interdependent Molecules and Systems of Immunology and Wound Healing Are Unexplainable by Darwin's Theory.

I. Mutations Have Not Been Observed to Improve a Species.

J. Darwinists Mistakenly Assume Language Is the Cause of Information.

K. Scientific Consensus Is Nothing More than an Argument from Authority.

L. Various Failed and Misused Concepts Are No Substitute for Details.

M. Darwin's Theory Operates as a Metaphysic, Not as a Science.

N. Social Darwinism Is a Manifestation of Darwinian Metaphysics.

O. Darwinists Continue to Use Erroneous Concepts and Logical Fallacies.

P. Darwinian Theory Runs Counter to Common Sense.

Q. Darwin's Theory Is a Manifestation of the 1800s.

R. Darwinism Imbues Chance with the Power of Creation.

Chapter 18: New Concepts

A. The Unknown Potential of DNA---Adaptations Occur as Expected Consequences of Engineering, Not Random Mutations.

B. The Unknown Potential of DNA---Anatomy and Physiology Is Overengineered.

C. The Unknown Potential of DNA---Information Is an Integral Component of DNA.

D. The Insufficiency of Darwin's Theory Is Demonstrated by a Critical Organ System Manifesting Preprogrammed Complexity.

E. Darwinists Rely on Anthropomorphisms.

F. Darwinists Rely on Ambiguity.

G. Darwinists Rely on Multiple Interdependent Unproven Contingencies (MIUC).

H. Medicine Illustrates a Direct Relationship between Advancing Knowledge and Increasing Complexity.

I. Can You Create Something More Complex than Yourself?

J. Neo-Darwinists Use Data Mining to Compare Similarities at Convenient Levels in order to Manipulate Data while Avoiding Cause and Effect.

K. Synchronous Versus Nonsynchronous Evolution, Which Is It?

L. The Continued Search for a Missing Link Represents a Fatal Flaw in Darwinian Theory.

Epilogue

Bibliography

To Haley Rebecca Bredemeier,

my first-year medical school miracle who

unequivocally proved that Darwinism is a failed theory.

Preface

Charles Darwin speaks to us from the early 1800s, and his message, which was collected on the HMS Beagle, formulated in the English countryside, and delivered thoughtfully in 1859, has morphed into an assault in the twenty-first century. The targets of this assault, rebellious religious and secular troublemakers, are those who dare to disbelieve Darwin's message. Disbelief is a threat, a flagrant insult to Darwinists, true believers who cannot tolerate even a hint of dissension. The conveyors of this assault are secular humanists.

Secular humanists must quell any suggestion of that which is not materialistic. They insert themselves within the roles of academia, politics, the judiciary, and the media. Secular humanists zealously subscribe to materialism, a worldview that does not allow for a supernatural creator either within their ranks or within the common citizenry. Secular humanists use Darwinism to censor any belief in creation other than materialistic Darwinism. The problem is that Darwinism---evolution by natural selection---is a failed theory. Darwin created his theory at a time when the cell was thought of as little more than a blob. In the twenty-first century, medical science has proven that evolution by natural selection has failed miserably as a scientific theory.

Darwinism has become wedded to the doctrine of the separation of church and state, which is a second tool employed by secular humanists. This extra-constitutional, judge-made doctrine is used to squelch any theory of creation that disagrees with Darwinism. In Kitzmiller v. Dover (2005)¹, the judge laid out the formula for the censorship of any theory that conflicts with Darwinism and further institutionalized religious censorship.

In his decision, District Court Judge Jones stated,

The proper application of both the endorsement and Lemon tests to the facts of this case makes it abundantly clear that the Board's ID [Intelligent Design] Policy violates the Establishment Clause. In making this determination, we have addressed the seminal question of whether ID is science. We have concluded that it is not, and moreover that ID cannot uncouple itself from its creationist, and thus religious, antecedents.²

Here we see the Darwinian state's formula---associate whatever theory challenges Darwinism with religion, claim violation of the Establishment Clause, and then censor that theory. Amazingly, all it takes to create a religious association is apparently the suggestion of a religious antecedent.

Darwinists censor, denounce, and threaten the careers of students, teachers, and scientists who challenge Darwinism.³ Why must Darwinism be protected so vehemently? I don't see the ACLU rushing to defend Newton, Einstein, Heisenberg, or any other scientist. In fact, I know of no other righteous defense of a scientific theory since the Roman Inquisition of Galileo, when the Catholic church defended the commonly accepted geocentric (Earth-centered) theory.

This furious defense of Darwinism tells us that something is seriously amiss. As a practicing physician since 1982, I have observed that Darwin's theory is woefully incapable of explaining human anatomy and physiology. In The Collapse of Darwinism, I will not support intelligent design or propose any other theory for creation. My goal is to prove beyond any reasonable doubt that Darwinism fails to accomplish what it claims it can, namely explain the creation of human anatomy and physiology.

The average Darwinian nonbeliever today feels trapped and at the mercy of very intelligent and renowned experts who defend and force upon the rest of us Darwin's flailing and fallacious theory. The Collapse of Darwinism will demonstrate how and why those experts fail. The task may seem daunting, but it is not overly difficult, because Darwin's theory is incredibly simple, reaching a level of unrealistic simplicity, whereas human anatomy and physiology is incomprehensibly complex. Therefore, all we need do is document the supposed experts' failure to do what cannot be done---that is, relate in mechanistic terms how Darwin's theory explains human anatomy and physiology. We will observe how the experts create and contort ambiguous explanations as they struggle to proclaim how Darwinism could possibly work. I will provide the reader with easy-to-understand examples of anatomy and physiology for which Darwinists have no answer.

Darwinism may have the bully pulpit of Nobel laureates, professors, and activist judges for now. But those of us who dare to doubt Darwinism have the facts on our side and an ever-increasing amount of medical evidence that demonstrates Darwinism is collapsing under its own simplicity and inadequacy. The Collapse of Darwinism illustrates the major flaw in Darwin's theory. Darwin was completely unaware that biology is a science of information. Darwin was oblivious to the reality that DNA is created to carry and utilize information. DNA is the manifestation of information, and human anatomy and physiology is the product of that information.

Author's Background

I have been an emergency physician for more than thirty years, and I began contemplating Darwin's theory of evolution when I started college in 1971. I have watched Darwinism grow from a mere scientific theory studied in high school to a worldview that has gained immense political power. Darwinism is now a worldview that has reached into our courts, our legislatures, and the souls of academia. Darwinism has become wedded to the doctrine of the separation of church and state. This bond has become so powerful in our public education system that an educator who dares question Darwinism can expect ostracism, professional ridicule, and financial punishment meted out by our judiciary. This is unlike any scientific theory Western civilization has ever experienced, including Galileo's encounter with the Roman Catholic inquisitors. No other scientific theory has reached into our appellate courts.

Why has Darwin's theory of evolution achieved such a political status? The answer is unfortunately straightforward. Darwinism, having been removed from the realm of science, thrust into the arena of philosophy, and mutated into metaphysics, fulfills the desire of secular humanists who search for a worldview without a supernatural creator. The scientific community is heavily invested in Darwinism. Secular Darwinists have absolutely no other theory they can fall back onto if Darwinism is found lacking. In essence, Darwinian evolution is the only scientifically acceptable theory that does not invoke a supernatural creator as it attempts to explain the creation of humans. Darwinism is considered to be truth not because it is a good scientific theory but because it is the only theory that is at least in part consistent with the scientific method. If Neo-Darwinists lose Darwinism, they literally lose everything.

I was once a believer in Darwinian theory, but years of college, medical school, and medical practice have taught me otherwise. Darwinian evolution cannot fulfill the requirements of the scientific method. This is because Darwinian evolution has no mechanism and no predictive capability. Nobel prize-winning scientists will tell us otherwise, but when they do, they are speaking through their Darwinian and thus metaphysical worldview, not from science.

In The Collapse of Darwinism, I will critically analyze the writings of prominent Neo-Darwinists and discover what they have to say about the mechanism called natural selection. I will not settle for ambiguous terminology or anthropomorphic metaphors as descriptors for a mechanism. I will illuminate the self-admitted weaknesses of Darwin's theory and demonstrate how Darwin's theory of evolution is an inappropriate extrapolation from Darwin's observations of gross morphology. I will also delve into the amazing world of physiology and molecular biology. But most importantly, I will discuss the most significant characteristic of biology that completely escaped Darwin---the creation, storage, transfer, and function of information.

Neo-Darwinists have a terrible paradox to overcome. DNA carries an incomprehensible amount of information and complexity that must be copied and passed on to progeny with near perfect fidelity, but natural selection depends on mutations and genetic mistakes. I will demonstrate that time is not limitless and not nearly long enough to account for the vast number of mutations that must occur within Darwin's parameters. I will also show that mutations lead to disease, disability, and death, not to an improved human being, as Darwinists hope.

The Collapse of Darwinism will demonstrate that Darwinian evolution does not possess the characteristics necessary for a credible scientific theory. Perhaps this explains why Neo-Darwinists vehemently defend their theory with a fervor normally reserved for religious zealots. Upon finishing this book, I hope you will be convinced, as I am, that Darwinism may succeed as a metaphysical theory but fails miserably as a science.

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The Collapse of Darwinism is organized into four parts. Part 1, Darwinism: Definition, Weaknesses, and Analysis, begins with an overarching concept. Is it more logical to believe that adaptations occur from natural selection guiding random mutations via some unknown mechanism than it is to believe that changes (or adaptations) within species arise from engineered capabilities of DNA that we do not yet understand? In this section I will examine the definition of Darwin's theory from 1859 and what it has become in the hands of the Neo-Darwinists. I will illuminate what Darwin saw as a fatal flaw with his own theory and the weaknesses that are readily discoverable within the scientific literature of Neo-Darwinists.

In part 2, Observations from Medicine that Contradict Darwinism, we see that observations from medicine demonstrate that mutations lead to disease, disability, and death, not an improved human. In this section I will examine the amazing engineering of human physiologic systems, DNA and genetics, and the relationship between DNA, genetics, and physiology, and then I will focus on the fact that Darwin's guiding force---called natural selection---is incapable of producing the heavily information-laden human being.

In part 3, Darwinism: An Evidence-Based Failure, I ask, "Have Neo-Darwinian authors proven that natural selection can provide the immense amount of information required to produce human anatomy and physiology? I will critically analyze the literature Neo-Darwinists claim supports their theory and discover the exact opposite. I will also examine how Neo-Darwinists make logical errors, incorrect assumptions, and mischaracterizations and how they then derive incorrect inferences from nature.

Part 4, Conclusion, is the final section and is a summary of what has been learned since the beginning of the book. I will demonstrate that although Darwinism and Neo-Darwinism may succeed as a metaphysical theory or worldview for some, it fails as a scientific theory for everyone.

Observations from the ER

How does Darwinian theory affect life in real time? One perfect example is childbirth, which has been occurring successfully for millennia. So what are the chances that something could go wrong with a seemingly uncomplicated delivery, even at the hands of a novice medical student within the confines of a university teaching center?

My first delivery, which should have been textbook, answers this question. The labor and deliver suite at the University of Mississippi Medical Center is old, even in the late 70s, with light greenish shiny tiled walls, heavy solid wood doors, and sterile lamps that shower the patients and staff with artificial light that has no pretense of seeming natural. The operating rooms, labor rooms, and hallways echo with every footstep and dropped instrument, and yes, the smell never leaves. Constant, unrelenting, twenty-four-hour childbirth imparts a smell that belongs only in the labor and delivery area. And on this day, my senior resident is happy. The soon-to-be mother is doing well, and so I begin to relax, feeling like I'm just along for the ride.

Normally, as the baby progresses along the birth canal, the head becomes easy to palpate (feel). During delivery we frequently attach a probe to the baby's scalp to monitor the baby's heart rate for signs of distress. This is a simple procedure. Like all medical procedures, it's simple once you have mastered it. As the head emerges from the cervix, the skull and fontanel (the soft spot) become palpable. After identifying the fontanel (and avoiding it), we screw the probe into the scalp and attach the wires to the monitor, sometimes feeling more like an electrician than a soon-to-be doctor. From this point on, we have continuous electronic monitoring of the baby's heart rate and can determine if the baby is feeling any distress. I'm at ease. The mother's at ease. And life is good.

This delivery is going quite smoothly. Drapes are applied to the mother's legs as she awkwardly assumes the lithotomy position, a position that looks very unhealthy and one that men are not forced to endure when they see their physicians. The probe is attached, and the monitor is doing its job. There are no signs of trouble. Unfortunately, just as the baby is beginning to crown (i.e., emerge from the birth canal), trouble begins. The baby becomes immediately distressed as it takes its first breath. The baby delivers successfully, and the cord is clamped and cut as usual. The baby is placed in the warmer, and only then is it clear what has happened.

This mother had no prenatal care, or perhaps she did and chose to remain in denial; however, the baby's condition had not been known until the time of delivery. She arrived at the university in advanced labor, and there was no time for a workup. It was time to deliver. The baby had incomplete anencephaly. Anencephaly is a congenital anomaly where the neocortex (the top part of the brain) does not form, and neither does the skull around this area. These babies live for only short periods of time after delivery. As is typical for anencephalic anomalies, this baby does not live long, thankfully.

Unfortunately, this event is only the first in a lifetime of experiences that illustrate how fragile and complex the human condition is and how it seems as if there are an infinite number of things that can go wrong, sometimes in ways that are unimaginable. This is but one example of how mutations in humans produce disease, disability, and death, not improved humans. Mutations happen, and things go wrong with catastrophic consequences.

In The Collapse of Darwinism, I will examine the writings of Darwinists who claim that mutations produce more complex and amazing living creations. I want to know how they support this claim and what their evidence and mechanisms are. I am not impressed that a judge has proclaimed that Darwinism is unassailable by law. Darwinism is now on trial.

Part 1

Darwinism: Definition, Weaknesses, and Analysis---Limitations of Darwin's Theory

If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed, which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down. But I can find no such case.⁴

---Charles Darwin

How a nerve comes to be sensitive to light, hardly concerns us more than how life itself first originated; but I may remark that several facts make me suspect that any sensitive nerve may be rendered sensitive to light, and likewise to those coarser vibrations of the air which produce sound.⁵

---Charles Darwin

Chapter 1

The Elementary State of Biology in 1859

In 1859, when Darwin published On the Origin of Species, physics and chemistry were well on their way to their present-day, mature status. Biology, on the other hand, was like the three-year-old little brother toddling behind and pleading to play with his twenty-one-year-old brothers now confidently engaged in the mature activities of physics and chemistry. Similarly, anatomy had been well studied since the time of Galen (AD 129--161), but biology and physiology had lagged considerably far behind. To demonstrate how poorly developed biology was in 1859 compared to other sciences, here are a few historical facts.

Interestingly, in 1859 (the same year Darwin published Origin), Gustov Kirchhoff proved a theorem about blackbody radiation in which the energy emitted (E) depends on the temperature (T) and the frequency (v) such that E = J(Tv). Kirchoff challenged physicists to find the function (J).⁶ It was not until December 14, 1900, that Max Planck gave a theoretical derivation of the formula, and in doing so, developed the quanta. Quantum physics was well on its way to becoming a complex theory that describes subatomic physics a mere forty-one years after Darwin's Origin with the help of Kirchhoff's work done in 1859.

There had been other developments in physics and chemistry long before 1859. At the end of the 1600s, Newton and Leibniz had developed calculus. Newton was working on optics, celestial mechanics, and developing laws of gravitation at the end of the 1600s.

In 1676, Olaf Rømer demonstrated that light has a finite speed, and he measured that speed to be 2.14 x 10⁸ meters/second, very close to today's measurement of 2.9979 x 10⁸ meters/second.

In 1662, Robert Boyle, the founding father of chemistry, was formulating his gas law, which related pressure, temperature, and the volume of gas. More gas laws were to come in the field of chemistry. John Dalton discovered his law of partial pressure in 1801, and in 1803, William Henry also developed his gas law relating pressure, temperature, and the volume of gas.

In 1803, Thomas Young performed the now famous double-slit experiment, which played a major role in developing the wave theory of light---an integral experiment for quantum mechanics. In 1865, a mere six years after Darwin's Origin, John Clerk Maxwell proposed that light was an electromagnetic wave. He published a set of partial differential equations that, along with Lorentz's equations, form the foundation of modern-day communications technology.

Only forty-six years after Darwin published Origin, Einstein published his articles on the photoelectric effect, which contributed to our understanding of relativity, space, time, matter, and quantum theory.

Meanwhile, biology was mired in a rudimentary state of development. In fact, the cell was considered to be nothing more than a simple blob when Darwin sailed on the Beagle. The cell theory, as elementary as it is, was not developed until 1858. In that year Rudolf Virchow developed his theory that cells come from preexisting cells. This concept was an important component of the cell theory, which states (1) anything that is living is composed of cells, (2) cells are the basic building units of life, and (3) all cells come from preexisting cells.

If Darwin had been interested, research concerning the cell was available to him. In 1831, Robert Brown looked through a microscope at cells of Asclepiads and orchids, named the structure he saw a nucleus, and then suggested it had some importance in fertilization. In 1839, Theodore Schwann proposed that all living things are entirely made of cells. In 1855, Robert Remak developed a method to isolate the cell membrane and proved it divides a cell.

In 1858, Virchow endorsed cell division and its role in pathology, but by that time Darwin had already developed his theory of evolution and was about to publish it, basing his entire theory