Darwin was wrong, a group of scientists argued at a conference in southern California.

Scientists presented evidence over the weekend refuting Charles Darwin's theory of evolution on many levels – including fossil record, natural selection and the origin of man – and his works in geology and other science areas.

"Natural selection happens but it does not do what Darwin needed it to do," said geneticist Dr John Sanford. "Darwin built a worldview that has come to be the governing paradigm of the intellectual community; that worldview is now collapsing in the face of new advances in science."

Sanford was among a number of scientists who spoke at the "Darwin Was Wrong" conference at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, November 13-14. The two-day event, organised by Logos Research Associates, was held to mark the 150th anniversary of Darwin's Origin of Species, which people around the world have been celebrating this year.

"It is amazing to me that in this ‘year of Darwin’, the whole world is bowing down to this man even while modern science is proving him wrong on all fronts," said Sanford.

On one front, Darwin was wrong about the origin of man, Dr Robert Carter argued Saturday.

Carter refuted Darwin's three main arguments, as laid out in Descent of Man, of homology (similar features shared among similar species), embryonic recapitulation (embryo goes through evolutionary stages), and vestigial organs (organs that have no apparent nor predictable function).

He further asserted that Darwin was a "brilliant writer" but not such a great scientist.

"Darwin's greatest gift is not as a scientist; it's as a wordsmith," Carter maintained.

The Atlanta scientist, who serves at Creation Ministries International, also shot down the discoveries of "Lucy", "Ida" and "Ardi" as possible missing links between apes and humans.

Some evolutionists say Lucy was actually a man, citing the shape of the pelvis, Carter pointed out.

"So if they misclassified her as a female do we know if she walked upright or not?" Carter posed, noting that evolutionists conclude from the pelvic bones that Lucy walked upright.

With questions being raised, Carter believes evolutionists are pushing Lucy off to the side and "preparing her to go away".

"They never remove one of these ancestors until they have a replacement," he noted.

Last spring the bones of "Ida" were revealed. She was a lemur-like creature that was labelled as another missing link between apes and non-apes.

But when the fanfare and media hype died down, scientists realised the skeleton was just a lemur.

More recently, the media has been all over "Ardi", which has been touted by some as the earliest known human ancestor of modern-day man and by far the most complete among those of the earliest specimens found. But Ardi was actually discovered nearly two decades ago.

"Why the media blitz now?" asked Carter, who didn't grow up a young earth creationist. "I think because they're trying to find a replacement ... to put more missing links in the chain."

So what's left? "Not much," he maintained.

In addition to shooting down evolutionary arguments, Carter offered a "replacement" on the origin of man, using the Bible. He presented genetic data from the biblical accounts of Adam and Eve and Noah's family to show how the Bible is really the history of mankind.

Other arguments presented over the weekend included "Darwin was wrong about science" and "Darwin was wrong about God".

The conference was designed to present scientific evidence highlighting Darwin's mistakes and also to equip Christians with such knowledge.