Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Prologue
- One Science and Religion
- Two Evolution as a Science
- Three Characters and Common Descent
- Four The Fossil Record
- Five The Roots of Mammals
- Six A Brief History of Elephants
- Seven Whales are no Fluke
- Eight Creationism
- Nine DNA And The Tree pf Life
- Ten DNA and Information “Creation”
- Eleven Biology and Probability
- Twelve Evolution, Education, and Conclusions
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Eight - Creationism
: The Fossils Still Say No!
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 March 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Prologue
- One Science and Religion
- Two Evolution as a Science
- Three Characters and Common Descent
- Four The Fossil Record
- Five The Roots of Mammals
- Six A Brief History of Elephants
- Seven Whales are no Fluke
- Eight Creationism
- Nine DNA And The Tree pf Life
- Ten DNA and Information “Creation”
- Eleven Biology and Probability
- Twelve Evolution, Education, and Conclusions
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
To wrap up the previous chapters on how fossils match the predictions of natural selection, I’d like to look more in detail at the skepticism about paleontology expressed by many in the anti-evolution crowd. A recent example is the 2007 textbook Explore Evolution, co-authored in part by fellows of the Seattle-based Discovery Institute, a political think-tank that is home to a well-known anti-Darwin lobby. This book has a chapter called “fossil succession” which discusses if and how the fossil record provides evidence for evolution by natural selection. As in most of its other chapters, the book presents information by discussing the pros and cons, and it starts with a rendition of what Darwin believed, followed by a riposte from “the critics.” It states that one of the cons facing those who subscribe to Darwinian evolutionary biology is the “stasis” we described earlier in the section on punctuated equilibrium:
The sudden appearance of major new forms of life, and the stability of those forms over time, have led some scientists to doubt that the fossil record supports the case for common descent. … Critics point out that discontinuity (abrupt appearance, followed by stasis) is the prevailing pattern of the fossil record [citation from R.L. Carroll 1997]. The transitional forms are the rare exceptions [quote from T.S. Kemp 1982]. … Critics maintain that transitional sequences are rare, at best. For this reason, critics argue that Darwin’s theory has failed an important test. … In the overwhelming majority of cases, Common Descent does not match the evidence of the fossil record. … Critics say that a scientific theory that only rarely matches the evidence fails the test of experience. … Given the millions of different fossil forms in the fossil record, critics argue that we would expect to find, if only by pure chance, at least a few fossil forms that could be arranged in plausible evolutionary sequences.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Evolution and BeliefConfessions of a Religious Paleontologist, pp. 140 - 153Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2012