Lies evolutionists tell: 99.9% of all the species that have ever lived are extinct

People who militantly defend evolution (AKA evolutionists) like to look down their noses on the “lay” public and smugly drone on about how science is the key to knowledge, how evolution is the most rigorously tested theory in science, and how they only go where the evidence leads. If that were true, why do they feel the need to tell lies to support their theory? I'm not talking about a mere difference of opinion – like how I believe the earth is around 6,000 years old and they think it's 4 billion years old. I'm talking about continuously repeating things that are objectively false. The sad thing is, many members of the public have heard these lies repeated so often, they assume they are true.

I've written series in the past where I list 5 or 10 of some of the most egregious examples but I'm not going to write a series now. Instead, I'm going to visit this topic from time to time and make each, entire post about a single lie. If you want to read all the posts published under this topic, click “lies evolutionists tell” in the label cloud in the left column.

Have said that, on to the next lie!

99.9% of all the species that have ever lived are extinct

According to Wikipedia, “More than 99% of all species that ever lived on Earth, amounting to over five billion species, are estimated to have died out.” You'll have to excuse Wiki's bad grammar. What they're trying to say is, more than 99% of an estimated five billion species that have lived on Earth have died out. But even while I can correct their bad grammar, the lie remains the same. //sigh//

I've heard people citing this statistic so often and for so long that I once believed there certainly must be some evidence for it. However, there's an old joke that says, 87% of all statistics are just made up. When estimating the number of extinct species, the 99.9% figure definitely falls into the “made up” category. Let's look at some actual numbers.

According to National Geographic, “Scientists have estimated that there are around 8.7 million species of plants and animals in existence. However, only around 1.2 million species have been identified and described so far, most of which are insects.” Of course, there are certainly some species that exist and haven't been discovered. How many? I've heard estimates ranging into hundreds of millions that might exist. Lately, however, estimates have been trending noticeably downward – probably less than 10 million species total.

When we look at the fossil record, there are substantially fewer species that have been identified. When you search Google, you'll invariably run into the “estimated 5 billion” number all the time but actual named species are only a few hundred thousand. Here's an estimate from PNAS.org, “Most fossil species are invertebrates and, like most living species, are defined strictly on the basis of external morphology. About 192,000 invertebrate fossil species were known in 1970, and at least 3,000 more are named every year. Therefore, at least 280,000 have been named by now.” Of course, there are also vertebrate species so let's be especially generous and say there are 500,000 species known only from their fossil remains. Is that fair? Then let's move on.

The objective facts, then, are these: 10 million living species and 500 thousand extinct species. There is NO fossil evidence for the other 4.9+ billion species evolutionists claim existed. NONE. The absurdly high number is born out of their belief in billions of years of earth's history which virtually demands billions of species to fill in all the gaps.

In his book, The Origin of Species, p. 234, Darwin said this, “But, as by this theory [of evolution] innumerable transitional forms must have existed, why do we not find them imbedded in countless numbers in the crust of the earth?” Why, indeed?! Perhaps it is because fossilization is such a rare event. Perhaps they lived but the fossil record is so incomplete there just aren't any remains of them left to find. Or perhaps the fossil record is remarkably complete and the species never existed!

I was watching a YouTube debate a few years back and the evolutionist trotted out the alleged “whale sequence” as evidence for evolution. Given that fossilization is supposed to be such a rare event, I remember thinking how unlikely it should be for such a complete series to exist. Suddenly, another realization hit me that pokes another huge hole in the story of evolution.

https://unsplash.com/@picsbyjameslee

According to FossilWiki, “More than 40 specimens of Tyrannosaurus have been identified, some of which are nearly complete skeletons.” I find it incredibly odd that 99.96% of all the species that have supposedly lived left no fossils yet this particular species has left dozens. I mean, what are the odds? It doesn't stop there, though. On HumanOrigins.si.edu, we read, “Australopithecus afarensis is one of the longest-lived and best-known early human species—paleoanthropologists have uncovered remains from more than 300 individuals!” If you agree that it should be unlikely to find t-rex fossils by the dozens, you'll agree it's downright queer that we find A. afarensis by the hundreds! Keep in mind too that these are larger, terrestrial creatures – the least likely to fossilize; we find trilobite fossils by the millions! If evolutionists are right, why are some species so over-represented in the fossil record when billions of other species aren't found at all?

As I've said, the billions of species claimed by evolutionists are merely a consequence of their belief in an old earth yet their claims don't square with the facts. What we observe in the fossils is the exact opposite of what evolutionists allege. They say there have been billions of species, the vast majority of which left no fossilized individuals. What we observe are relatively few species abundantly represented by dozens, hundreds, or even millions of fossils. The observable, testable evidence is better explained by creation: the earth is thousands of years old, most of the species that have ever lived are still alive, and the fossil record is remarkably complete yet shows a glaring lack of transitional forms.

There is no longer any room for billions of years in the fossil record. The storytelling is over. Their billions of species is a lie. What we observe (aka, “the evidence”) is much more consistent with a recent creation and a catastrophic flood.