Evolution (Introduction)

by xeno6696 , Sonoran Desert, Thursday, July 23, 2009, 03:46 (5398 days ago) @ David Turell


> Not only whales. The process is slow for all species, except the Cambrian Explosion. I don't know why the confusion. Evolution occurred. No doubt. It is the method evolution uses to advance to new species that I question. Small, even tiny steps or jumps. The evidence currently present does not allow us to make a decision.
> - But we can make decisions about several cases. - - > 
> 
> > > My answer to both paragraphs above is the same. There are fossil gaps, so we cannot answer the question of whether there are the tiny steps always or are there occasions for giant steps. I don't know. I can't answer that question from the evidence we have presented to us. We do not know if Darwin'as proposal in true or not. You want to believe in it with no evidence, just theory. I want evidence. Yesterday I presented a paper that defined three species of horned toad on good evidence: genetic, morphologic, and environmental. Fine paper. Good proof. That is all I am asking, and I admit that with the proper evidence Darwin will be proven correct. But not so far.
> 
> I don't know why the above paragraph is confusing. - What it is, is that in common parlance of people (like myself) who have previously spent fighting a long time (in my case, usenet and the old delphi forums starting back in '98) creationists who create a 1:1 correspondence that Darwin = Evolution. So when you say "Darwin will be proven correct. But not so far." this sounds like to the colloquial language of your typical creationist and it is VERY hard not to read that as an attack against evolution. When reading books such as "Denying Evolution" I'm used to seeing evolutionary biologists separate the terms "Evolution" and "Natural selection" to deliberately avoid this kind of confusion when the biologists debate the exact nature of what caused evolution. I apologize if this is too pedantic but I bet this is why George reads you the way he does. And I do--until I catch myself.

--
\"Why is it, Master, that ascetics fight with ascetics?\"

\"It is, brahmin, because of attachment to views, adherence to views, fixation on views, addiction to views, obsession with views, holding firmly to views that ascetics fight with ascetics.\"