Advanced Apathy

As many of you know, I am a believer in the theory of Intelligent Design. Now, going to a public school, this tends to lead to conversations with atheists. Don’t get me wrong, I love to talk to people, as long as they’re willing to keep an open mind (believe it or not, I am too).

So when I talk with a believer in Evolution (thats macro evolution people) the first thing I make clear is that I love nothing more than hearing their perspective, but I want something from them first. I tell them that I want a clear transitional fossil of macro evolution (one species turning into another). That might sound like a lot, but according to Evolution we have been evolving for BILLIONS of years on this earth. Now, assuming this is true, shouldn’t there be many clear examples of this happening? I mean, come on, we should be tripping over this crap in our backyards!

Charles Darwin (you know, the father of the theory itself) said:

Why 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 is the most obvious and serious objection which can be urged against the theory.*

Interesting. There are many scientists that claim to have such fossils. Also interestingly, one of the most well recognized proponents of the theory is late Stephen J. Gould, an ardent evolutionist, and he admits that they just don’t exist:

The absence of fossil evidence for intermediary states between major transitions in organic design, indeed our inability, even in our imagination, to construct functional intermediated in many cases, has been a persistent and nagging problem for gradualistic accounts of evolution.**

Note that he didn’t just say there weren’t any fossils, but that they haven’t been able to even imagine what they might be. Here also is a quote from the late Dr. Colin Patterson, senior paleontologist of the British Museum of Natural History, and author of the book, Evolution. A reader sent him a letter questioning him why he had not presented any transitional forms and in reply he wrote:

I fully agree with your comments about the lack of direct illustration of evolutionary transitions in my book.  If I knew of any, fossil or living, I would certainly have included them ….  I will lay it on the line – there is not one fossil which one could make a watertight argument.***

So why do so many scientists persist that there are fossils where none exist? The answer lies in them not wanting to be wrong. Unlike most theories in the scientific community, Intelligent Design is never considered because people feel it bears too close to God and religion. Science has gotten to the point where they believe they can learn everything, and that God has no place in the equation. Considering that the first pillar of science is to not have predisposition to a belief before experimentation, this seems highly hypocritical.

In another post, I will soon explain the many fossils pro ported to be transitional, but in fact aren’t. For now, I urge all of you to do your own research and find the truth. Keep in mind the difference between micro and macro evolution: micro is small things like birds getting different beaks due to different environments, and humans getting darker skin color. Macro evolution is the transition of one distinct animal species to another.

-Trenton Stahl

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

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*C. Darwin, Origin of Species, 6th ed. 1872 (London: John Murray, 1902), p 413

**S.J. Gould, in Evolution Now: A Century after Darwin, ed. John Maynard Smith, (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1982)

***C. Paterson, letter to Luther D. Sutherland, 10 April 1979, as published in Darwin’s Enigma (Green Forest AR: Master Books, 4th ed. 1988), p. 89