Reality on Fossils
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“2. Weaknesses of the Darwinian Theory.** Just to mention a few of the weaknesses of the Darwinian theory of evolution treated by Denton in his 1986 book Evolution: A Theory In Crisis], consider the following: a) the total absence of transitional forms in the fossil record (prescinding from a handful of exhibits that are all suspect of fraud or misinterpretation)….”
Why do you copy stuff from lying creationist sites? You have already been told that Denton later changed his mind because of the large number of transitional fossils.
This theory (as to what are today’s processes) has, however, been tested by Guy Berthault, a French experimenter in sedimentology.
Berthault did some interesting experiments that showed how some strata formed quickly in some circumstances. His mistake was to take those results and apply them to all strata in all cases. In that extension he was profoundly wrong. This is another case of a creationist website lying to you.
A few more scientific realists:
On being asked why he had not included any examples of transitional forms in his book Evolution, Dr Colin Patterson [a leading paleontologist at the British Museum of Natural History], replied: “If I knew of any, fossil or living, I would certainly have included them.”(1979). [Quoted in *Darwin’s Enigma
, 1984, p 89, Luther D Sunderland, Master Books].
I too can quote Dr Patterson:“In several animal and plant groups, enough fossils are known to bridge the wide gaps between existing types. In mammals, for example, the gap between horses, asses and zebras (genus
Equus) and their closest living relatives, the rhinoceroses and tapirs, is filled by an extensive series of fossils extending back sixty-million years to a small animal,
Hyracotherium, which can only be distinguished from the rhinoceros-tapir group by one or two horse-like details of the skull. There are many other examples of fossil ‘missing links’, such as
Archaeopteryx, the Jurassic bird which links birds with dinosaurs (Fig. 45), and
Ichthyostega, the late Devonian amphibian which links land vertebrates and the extinct choanate (having internal nostrils) fishes. . .”
Dr Colin Patterson, “Evolution” p131-133
Again you are being lied to by your creationist sources. Are you prepared to follow the very same authority you are quoting and also support evolution?
D. S. Woodruff : “fossil species remain unchanged throughout most of their history and the record fails to contain a single example of a significant transition.”
Again you are being lied to. Don’t you get tired of listening to people who tell you lies? Here is the quote in context:“Darwin and most subsequent authors including G. G. Simpson have held that most evolutionary transitions occur within established lineages by phyletic gradualism guided by natural selection. But fossil species remain unchanged thoughout most of their history and the record fails to contain a single example of a significant transition. Similarly, it is difficult to account for the greatly accelerated pace of evolution during periods of adaptive radiation. An alternative model of evolution, that of punctuated equilibria, introduced by Niles Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould in the early 1970s, more fully accounts for these same observations.”
This is yet one more quote from the discussion about gradual evolution and punctuated equilibrium evolution. You are being lied to, Dr Woodruff supports evolution. Dr Woodruff says that the new model of evolution “fully accounts for these same observations”. This is your own authority, the one you are quoting to us and are expecting us to follow. Are you prepared to follow the very same authority you are quoting and also support evolution?
Simple incompetence here. Dr Eldr
edge’s name has been misspelled by your source. Incompetent as well as liars. It also shows that this website does not bother to check back that its quotes are correct. Lazy, incompetent liars. You really know how to pick impressive sources.
“paleontologists have been insisting that their record is consistent with slow, steady, gradual evolution where I think that privately they’ve known for over a hundred years that such is not the case.”
This is yet another quote from the discussion about gradual evolution and punctuated equilibrium evolution. You are being lied to, Dr Eldredge supports evolution. Are you prepared to follow the very same authority you are quoting and also support evolution?
It is pointless quoting scientists who support evolution in your attempt to support creationism. Your quotes are about as convincing as an atheist quoting the Bible: “There is no God”.
As an aside I would say that you seem to have little faith in creationist authorities. You have only quoted one, Dr Bertault, and even there you emphasised his scientific credentials rather then his creationist credentials. You are implicitly acknowledging the superiority of science here yet you are refusing to accept the results of science. No wonder creationism is such a strange beast.
rossum
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