Evolution What the Fossils Say and Why it Matters

388 Evolution? The Fossils Say YES!

evolve resistance to whatever we throw at them. If creationists ran the labs that produce
these protective chemicals, do you think we would have a chance when the next deadly
pest hits us?
A more concrete example happened in 1984, when a surgeon at Loma Linda Univer-
sity in California attempted to replace the defective heart of “Baby Fae” with the heart of a
baboon. Not surprisingly, the poor baby died a few days later due to immune rejection. An
Australian radio crew interviewed the surgeon, Dr. Leonard Bailey, and asked him why he
didn’t use a more closely related primate, such as a chimpanzee, and avoid the possibility

0

Iceland

Denmark

Sweden

France

Japan

United Kingdom

Norway

Belgium

Spain

Germany

Italy

Netherlands

Hungary

Luxembourg

Ireland

Slovenia

Finland

Czech Republic

Estonia

Portugal

Malta

Switzerland

Slovak Republic

Poland

Austria

Croatia

Romania

Greece

Bulgaria

Lithuania

Latvia

Cyprus

United States

Turkey

Response

True Not sure False

20 40 60 80 100

FIGURE 16.3. Percentage of population in each country that accepts evolution as true (dark bar to left) and
regards it as false (solid bar to right); the undecided are indicated by the light bar in the middle. Note that
nearly every developed country in Europe and Asia has at least 75 percent or higher acceptance of evolution.
These are also the countries ranked highest in science literacy by numerous studies. The United States is
down at the bottom with Cyprus and Turkey, countries with heavy influence of religion like Greek Orthodoxy
or Islam, yet the United States has a much higher GNP and spends much more per child than almost every
country on this list except Norway. (Modified from Prothero 2013a).