FISH TALES

Fishermen for centuries have been making up tales about their fishing expertise. Often these tales include great exaggeration. Common examples are: “The big one got away,” and “I had to throw countless fish back because I caught so many.”

Evolutionists since the time of Darwin have concocted fish tales that exceed anything a fisherman could ever imagine. Their tales incorporate the idea of human evolution. A common model is the cell-to-fish-to-man tale, seen illustrated in the images below.

Cell-to-Fish-to-Amphibian Evolution

Fish-to-Man Evolution

There is not a scintilla of true scientific evidence to corroborate any of the macroevolutionary ideas seen in the two images above. Nevertheless the ideas are foundational beliefs for those who have decided, or have been indoctrinated, to reject the Word of the Creator.

For decades after Darwin, evolutionists looked at fossilized fish from the rock record and imagined that they could see the bottom fins of certain fish in the process of evolving into legs. One of these fish was a dinosaur-era fish with the name of coelacanth (SEE-la-kanth). See samples of this fossil fish in the next three images below.

Coelacanth fossil fish cast from Solnhofen Limestone in Germany

Large coelacanth fossil fish cast from Brazil

Actual fossil coelacanth fish

Evolutionists prior to 1938 also believed these coelacanth fish had lungs and a relatively large brain, necessary attributes for a fish on the way to becoming an amphibian. That information along with the tale of the development of legs in fish seemed to be sufficient evidence to convince millions of high school and college students that they no doubt had evolved from fish.

Then, in 1938, an amazing thing happened. A live fish that looked just like the fossil coelacanth was caught in the Indian Ocean off Madagascar. Later hundreds more were caught in the area as well as off the coast of Indonesia. Up to this time evolutionists were certain that the coelacanth had gone extinct 70,000,000 years ago! The distance between the Indian Ocean catches and the Indonesia catches was about 6,000 miles, so now evolutionists were having to ponder how two groups of coelacanths, separated by 6,000 miles, could survive for 70,000,000 years but have no fossils.

Museum model of actual living coelacanth fish

Living coelacanth from Indonesia

All of this makes coelacanths today among the most famous of the literally thousands of living fossils that have been identified. (A living fossil is a living plant or animal that looks identical or very similar to a fossil version of it.) For more information on the world of living fossils consider reading these two books, Fossils: Description & Interpretation by J.D. Mitchell and Living Fossils by Carl Werner. As these books make clear, living fossils provide strong evidences that support the biblical historical narrative of Genesis. Living fossils are not easily explained within the evolutionary narrative.

The living coelacanth fish have been dissected and studied at length. These fish have no lungs, have bottom fins that work only for swimming, and have a relatively small brain. If the fish is to be considered by evolutionists as a candidate for evolving into an amphibian it would have to have a brain that is much larger than what has been found in the fish of today. The brain of a 90-pound coelacanth weighs less than 0.11 ounces.

The coelacanth fish caught in the oceans of today have been given the scientific name (Genus species) Latimeria chalumnae. This name comes from the person who discovered the fish from the Indian Ocean in 1938 (Marjorie Latimer). However, you should understand that, like most living fossils, the fossils found in the rock record have a different name. This is because no matter the evidence, evolutionists believe macroevolution happened and happens. The most popular fossil fish scientific name remains as when it was found in the rock, and is, Coelacanthus percillatus.

What is the true fish tale here? What is the truth regarding how fish came to be? Here is what the Bible tells us: And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky.” So God created the great creatures of the sea, and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” And there was evening, and there was morning – the fifth day (Genesis 1:20-23 NIV).

So, we see that the living things in the air and in the water were created by God on the fifth day of creation. This includes fish like the coelacanth, of course. In Genesis chapters 6-8 we learn about God’s judgment not long after the creation. His judgment of a cataclysmic global Flood was made necessary by the evil of mankind. This Flood is what formed the vast majority of fossils we find in the rock record today—fossils like the coelacanth fish. We also learn from the Bible that there were no fish on the ark along with Noah, his family, and the land animals, so some fish must have survived the Flood.

And finally, here is the really good news! The One who created the coelacanth came to the earth to be the savior of the world. His name is the Lord Jesus Christ (John 3:16, Acts 4:12). “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved – you and your household” (Acts 16:31).

Those of us who are followers of this Jesus have been told we are to be fishers of men. That is why we are compelled to make known the truth in articles like this one.

Dale Stuckwish and J.D. Mitchell

Please feel free to share...Share on Facebook
Facebook
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Share on LinkedIn
Linkedin