Abrupt Appearance in the Fossil Record (June 21)

The following commentary on the fossil record appeared in World Magazine:

Darwin, while not having the benefit of cellular technology that is available to scientists today, did recognize that the fossil record posed a problem. He wrote, “Why then is not every geological formation and every stratum full of such intermediate links? Geology assuredly does not reveal any such finely graduated organic chain, and this, perhaps, is the most obvious and gravest objection which can be raised against my theory.” Unfortunately for Darwinists, the fossil record still does not support evolution, but it does fit [a biblical viewpoint].

Jonathan Wells, a biologist who holds Ph.D. degrees from both Yale University and the University of California, Berkeley, has written a book, Icons of Evolution, which demonstrates that much of what is taught about evolution is wrong or even fraudulent. Wells notes, “Although the abrupt appearance of animal fossils in the Cambrian [period] was known to Darwin, the full extent of the phenomenon wasn’t appreciated until the 1980s.” He further notes, “The fossil evidence is so strong, and the event so dramatic, that it has become known as the ‘Cambrian explosion,’ or ‘biology’s big bang.’” Thus, the fossil record does not support the theory that living things developed gradually over long periods of time, but instead appeared rather abruptly in their present form. Henry Gee, chief science writer for Nature, is quoted by Wells as saying, “To take a line of fossils and claim that they represent a lineage is not a scientific hypothesis that can be tested, but an assertion that carries the same validity as a bedtime story—amusing, perhaps even instructive, but not scientific.”

Colossians 2:8

KJV: Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

NIV: See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy,which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this worldrather than on Christ.

Reference

Crowner, Robert. “The Decent of Evolution”. World Magazine, Posted Feb. 6, 2016.

Darwin, Charles. 1958. The Origin of the Species. Penguin: New York, NY, p. 280.

Wells, Jonathan. 2000. Icons of Evolution. Regnery Publishing: Washington, D.C. p.38

Ibid., p.37

Ibid., p. 221

Learn More

The fossil record: prediction of evolution?

Icons of Evolution website

Recommended

Book: Darwin’s Doubt, Stephen C. Meyer