A pigeon brought Noah the news that heralded the end of the great flood.

A pigeon brought Noah the news that heralded the end of the great flood.

Figure 1: The dove was sent forth from the Ark to find evidence that the waters of the universal flood were receding. The olive branch which the dove carried in its beak was good news for all of us!

A pigeon was the form taken by the Holy Ghost at the baptism of Jesus Christ, King of Kings, by St. John The Baptist.

Figure 2: The Holy Ghost, the third person of the Blessed Trinity, has traditionally been represented as a dove descending from heaven.

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Pigeons were involved in the building of great empires, the amassing of vast fortunes, great sieges of important cities, the great communication routes of the east, the great wars of history, the opening of important Olympic games, the feeding of entire countries or the duping and undermining of entire peoples and civilizations together with the undermining of science. It is this last point (the undermining of science) that I intend to briefly comment upon in this short article.
I am not a geneticist or biologist, nor ornithologist, or for that matter scientist of any sort. I am but a life long breeder of pigeons. My day to day occupation is that of an independent book publisher and my formal training is in the field of history.

Figure 3: "The Pigeon Guide," a recently published book by Silvio Mattacchione & Co., covers all aspects of pigeon breeding and care as well as a great number of photos of the many varieties of pigeons (racing, performance and utility) that have been developed by pigeon fanciers around the world.








In a very real sense I am probably (that is my pigeon breeding self) the type of person that Darwin sought out, listened to, discussed with and learned from in order to better focus his own evolving ideas.
I can still remember, when I was quite young, possibly in the fourth grade, circa  1960, when I heard the term "evolution" for the first time followed by the name of its co-founder "Darwin." I had arrived in Canada in 1956, everything was so strange, a new country, new peoples, new ways, new foods, new language, change was everywhere, it was in fact the order of the day.  For that matter the only constant in the lives of most people today is "constant change." When I told my father what I had just learned he scoffed and quickly set me straight on Mr. Darwin and his ideas. The concept of "molecule to man" was really quite a remarkable stretch of the imagination. The product no doubt, of a very fertile mind. Still what did my immigrant dad know compared to all my new teachers, the new TV, the newspapers and books...oh so many books? I was really intrigued with Darwin and his theory. After all to that 4^th grader Darwin was a pigeon fancier, albeit a novice.
 Figure 4: Photo Of Darwin in later life together with an image of his "The Origin of Species." This image was taken from a site entitled www.btinternet.com/~glynhughes/ squashed/darwin.htm and is used with permission. Most people are unaware that Darwin offered as its subtitle "The Preservation Of Favoured Races In The Struggle For Life."


I was fascinated by pigeons and Darwin was equally fascinated by and studied pigeons. Darwin could have studied anything, but he had determined to study a special group of birds and that special group of birds was in fact the pigeon. Here is what he had to say: 
"Believing that it is always best to study some special group, I have joined two of the London Pigeon Clubs. The diversity of the breeds is something astonishing. The short-faced tumbler has a beak like a finch; the runt is a bird of great size; the turbit has a line of reversed feathers down the breast. The Jacobin has a hood on the back. The fantail has thirty or forty tail-feathers, instead of the usual twelve or fourteen. Such are the variations that an ornithologist would certainly rank them as well-defined species. Yet I am fully convinced that the common opinion of naturalists is correct, namely, that all have descended from the wild rock-pigeon (Columba livia)." [1] As I was growing up, I daily enjoyed observing my pigeons, (in my back yard in Toronto, in the early 60's) and Darwin had observed pigeons at his home in the UK, as well as at the homes of so many famous British fanciers of the 19^th century.

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Figure 5: Highly developed show specimen  "Blue Vision" known as a British Show Racer, bred and perfected by many including by author, stockman, Douglas McLeary of the UK. Show Racers, though beautiful to look at, were never developed to endure or achieve the performance levels required of Racing Pigeons.

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His supposed understanding of the pigeon amongst other forms ultimately led to the formulation of a theory so powerful that we are still suffering from its effects a century and a half later. He was to convince himself that selection, eventually to be referred to as "Natural Selection" was the primordial engine by which all life was to forever move from lesser forms to higher forms, from less complicated to always more refined, more adapted and more complicated forms. The pinnacle of this process culminating in man himself! Here, in his own words, is the essence of his belief and hypothesis:

"Such variability may be attributed to the conditions of life, to use and disuse. But I am convinced that Selection is by far the predominant Power." [2]

Today, the mantra of evolution is heard everywhere, repeated everywhere, (in the home, at the schools, in the churches and in the parliaments of the world). Yet clearly it is understood by virtually no one and misunderstood by virtually everyone!

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Figure 6: Specialist pigeon fanciers in New York have spent the last half of the 20th century perfecting the finer qualities of the USA variety known as the "Flight." Photo courtesy of Ronda Mariani.

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It certainly seems to me that Darwin's work itself has been subject to this supposed evolution, for it (Darwin's work) began as a hypothesis, then quickly evolved into a theory, and with the passage of only a brief amount of additional time emerged fully mutated into an entity more akin to a religion than to science. A pseudo religion, in many cases a type of state religion, a religion of the supposed enlightened. Oddly enough in the 21^st Century science itself has taken a back seat to this new, politically correct religion! Evolution - religion for those who have freed themselves permanently of all need of religion. How very odd yet here is what was written of "Darwin's dangerous idea"... "This is what Daniel Dennett called 'Darwin's dangerous idea' - that natural selection can be seen as governing, not only the world's flora and fauna, but even its history, its economics and its ideas. Even religious ideas, it seems, are subject to the same laws of advancement as all other things, "multiply, vary, let the strongest live and the weakest die." [3]

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Figure 7: "Medallion Cock" a Champion British Show Racer bred by Douglas McLeary of the UK. It takes great ability to maintain this level of quality consistently. These birds reflect the artistic and creative abilities of the pigeon fanciers who perfected them as a unique variety. An artist is limited to creating two dimensional art on canvas whereas a truly dedicated pigeon fancier is interested in creating living art! It was once thought that there were some 3-400 varieties of pigeons however with the opening up of Eastern Europe and China that number could possibly double!

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I have read many articles by pigeon enthusiasts that often make reference to Darwin and evolution. Many talk of how the pigeon has evolved and how it is still evolving. It would seem to me, if this were in fact a truth, that such knowledge, in the hands of really dedicated pigeon breeders would be an awesome (awesome power in the sense of what a pigeon breeder could achieve in transforming his charges) power. Yet for the 41 years that I have bred the racing (as well as other pigeons) I find my experience as a breeder of animals, and my observations at constant odds with all that Darwin wrote and imagined. When you choose to breed animals, any animals and certainly when you have done so for as many years as I have, you begin to come to certain conclusions, regardless of what has or has not been postulated or hypothesized. In time I would come to write the following from my observations (which appeared in racing pigeon publications worldwide) and my hands on experience, with breeding pigeons (but certainly totally applicable to any animal or plant form):

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Figure 8: The racing pigeon, as we now know it, is the result of two centuries of total dedication to selective breeding on the part of racing pigeon fanciers. The modern racing pigeon breeds true but it is a hybrid that combined the best qualities of many different pigeon varieties. The careful combination of the finest qualities of all of these different varieties resulted in a highly developed homing instinct, aerodynamic body, tremendous heart (nearly twice the size of a regular pigeon's heart) and indestructible constitution, making the racing pigeon the ultimate flying machine. Pictured above is "Phar Lap" a great-great grandson of St. Thomas, bred by Silvio Mattacchione, in 1997. Phar Lap was the Kwartha Northshore Combine Champion as well as The Oshawa Racing Pigeon Club Old Bird Champion for 1998. He flew 4,500 kilometers in 10 weeks.

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"If you wish to breed good pigeons, or good animals of any kind, you must come to truly understand this simple truth. What truth? Well, the simple truth is that Nature abhors order. Nature is the great equalizer; Nature does not willingly admit of extremes. Left to herself, Nature reverts to the common form. Nature never progresses from less order to greater order, but always from order to disorder if left to her designs.
Most current livestock survive in the form in which they exist because they are beneficial to man in that form. They exist in that form because expert herdsmen (or geneticists, scientists, and others) have applied known genetic principles to common stock so as to modify them to their own ends, i.e., more milk, more meat, more eggs, faster horse, and so on. If man took himself out of the equation, the result would be a reversion or extinction of the form." [4]
Without really knowing it, nor having studied it , my experience with breeding the racing pigeon, had lead me to enunciated, in my own words, a well know universal law of science. That is the second law of thermodynamics often called the law of entropy!

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Figure 9: This exceptional variety know as a "Satinette" has required tremendous work in developing the incredibly complicated features of the head and beak. Someone, a fancier, had a vision, clarified it in his own mind, prepared drawings of what his mind's eye saw and then spent his entire life working out hundreds and possibly thousands of breedings in an attempt to achieve the standard that he envisioned. Most often these works of art are established over many generations of pigeon fanciers. Photo courtesy of Ronda Mariani.

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"Regarding the second law of thermodynamics (universally accepted scientific law which states that all things left to themselves will tend to run down) or the law of entropy, it is observed, "It would hardly be possible to conceive of two more completely opposite principles than this principle of entropy increase and the principle of evolution. Each is precisely the converse of the other. As (Aldous) Huxley defined it, evolution involves a continual increase of order, of organization, of size, of complexity. It seems axiomatic that both cannot possibly be true. But there is no question whatever that the second law of thermodynamics is true." [5] It is further worthy of note that these two universal laws (the 1^st and 2^nd laws of thermodynamics) are based upon literally thousands of scientific experiments, with no known exceptions.

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Figure 10: "Limited Edition" has bred over 23 sons and daughters to win 1st place. A unique racing pigeon specimen. He traces in a direct male line from the line of the "Oude Mercke." He is very pre-potent and it seems that he has  a very rare ability to pass his qualities on to his offspring. His ability to pass his genetic code seemingly un-adulterated is not the norm. Owned by Silvio Mattacchione and Jim McLean.

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"These laws state that any natural process would involve conservation (1st law) and disintegration (2nd law). Evolution demands "integration and development" and is therefore impossible." [6]
What has happened to and in the minds of people, of all levels, of all disciplines, is that they can no longer understand that "truth can never be in contradiction to truth." I remember well the words of David Goldstein LL.D. in a series of letters he wrote in 1943 where he said as follows:
"Although faith is above reason, there can never be disagreement between faith and reason, because the same God who has revealed the mysteries and communicated faith, has also given to the human mind the natural light of reason, and we know that God cannot contradict Himself, nor can truth ever be in contradiction with truth. Not only can faith and reason never be in discord, but they lend each other mutual help; right reason demonstrates the foundation of faith, and enlightened by the light of faith, it develops the science of divine things; faith , on the other hand, frees and protects reason from error and enriches it with knowledge of many kinds. The Church, therefore, far from being opposed to the study of the arts and sciences, favors these studies and propagates them in a thousand ways." [7] In the face of these two universal laws why is it that evolution is taught to our children as fact? Certainly it makes no scientific sense. If not science then what? Well the answer certainly seems to be summed up nicely in the following quotation from D.M.S.Watson:
"Evolution itself is accepted by zoologists, not because it has been observed to occur or can be proved by logical coherent evidence, but because the only alternative -- special creation -- is clearly incredible." [8]

Figure 11: Creation Of Man by Michelangelo Buonarroti, 1511-1512 fresco located in the Sistine Chapel, Vatican City, Rome, Italy. Image from
www.mystudios.com/.../michelangelo-creation-man.jpg

Darwin had every reason to doubt his own work. He was constantly in a state of paranoia regards the veracity of all of his conjectures. He was haunted by the fear that he had in fact devoted his entire life to the creation of a fantasy! Darwin was to write as follows: "I have asked myself whether I may not have devoted my life to a fantasy."[9]

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Figure 12: This show homer is prized for its great beauty. Work is required on a continuous basis to maintain the special features of the round head and beak. hen has  I know a squab breeder in Canada who incorporates all kinds of unique elements both " crests and  unique color varieties" to maintain his interest and stave off  boredom.  If you have, patience , time and a vision of a new  pigeon variety and you are dedicated to its development you can achieve your goal. Photo courtesy of Ronda Mariani.

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What does all of this really mean? Well in simplest terms it certainly seems to indicate that many scientists (geneticists, biologists, botanists, zoologists, anthropologists, paleontologists, etc.) have chosen, for many reasons (most of which have nothing to do with science) to close their collective eyes to the immutable laws of science. In essence they choose to survive in this politically correct, modern world. In most cases they do what needs to be done. Educators, who have little or no expertise of their own, in any of these areas but who, in many cases, are subject to all of the same survival and promotional considerations as the scientists in question, just do their jobs. Children world wide walk away dazed and confused. Little wonder then what we currently see around us.

W.R.Thompson, who is certainly pro-evolution, in his introduction to Origin of Species by Darwin, (page 90) had the following observation to make:
"This situation, where men rally to the defense of a doctrine they are unable to define scientifically, much less demonstrate with scientific rigor, attempting to maintain its credit with the public by the suppression of criticism and the elimination of difficulties, is abnormal and undesirable in science."[10]  

What have I learned as a stockman? I know for a fact that no biologist can give any evidence that shows that any species has evolved from another. I know through observation that new varieties of plants can and are developed, as are new varieties of animals but this process cannot in any way be referred to as evolution. Yet clearly Darwin (was?) seemed to be confused (willingly so?) by this very simple distinction. He glossed over it, confused it, made light of it and sought to even have it prove what any novice stock breeder knew intuitively and that is that variety and species were fundamentally of a different order. Here is what Darwin had to say in his Chapter VIII on  Hybridism in his "Origin of Species":

"Finally, then, the facts briefly given in this chapter do not seem to me opposed to, but even rather to support the view, that there is no fundamental distinction between species and varieties." [11]

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Figure 13: Head shot of the "long faced tumbler" as you compare each of the head shots in this article you can begin to imagine the incredible work , patience and dedication that it requires on the part of large numbers of fanciers, over many generations, to both perfect and then maintain these incredible varieties over so many countless generations. Some varieties are centuries old, some have been with us since the time of biblical man! Photo courtesy of Ronda Mariani.