The bird that made Darwin sick
Why are peacocks, and some other birds, so beautiful? Evolutionists put it down to "sexual selection." They claim that males with the most spectacular colours were more attractive to females, so they produced more offspring, and their displays gradually became even more colourful. There are many problems with this theory. A peacock's tail is very cumbersome, making it difficult for the bird to fly or escape from predators. Would such a tail really help it to survive? And why did peacocks, and similar birds, need to evolve such colourful displays, when many plainer birds managed to survive quite well without them? After all, animals that were more choosy would be less likely to find a mate. Sexual selection could never have produced the peacock's tail. Charles Darwin realised this was a problem for his evolution theory, and in a letter wrote,
"The sight of a peacock's tail, whenever I gaze at it, makes me sick!"
He would probably feel even sicker today, with our knowledge of genetics. There is a very intricate "eye" pattern on a peacock's tail. As the tail feathers grow, the pattern remains perfect, and doesn't become distorted. There must be an amazing amount of genetic information involved, and all of this was in the egg from which the peacock hatched. Mutations (genetic mistakes) never produce new information, so peacocks could never have evolved from birds that did not have this pattern. We believe the peacock's display is the work of God the Creator, who has an eye for beauty, and it should cause us to wonder at His creative wisdom.

Reproduced by kind permission from Creation Resources Trust ©