Fossils, Fossils, Fossils!

Here we go again with more of Tom Phillips' nonsense:

**"The fossil record disproves evolution. If the first life form changed into another, higher form by gradual gene changes, and so on down the line, accounting for all life then, quoting Darwin, 'the number of intermediate and transitional links, between all living and extinct species, must have been inconceivably great.' The whole world would be awash in the remains of 'infinitely numerous connecting links.' It isn't. Darwin conceded that fact, calling it 'the most obvious and serious objection' against his theory. He attests the 'sudden appearance' of species, complete and distinct, in the fossil record - just as if God created all life individually."**

Darwin was correct that it was a serious objection -- back in his day. Since then, so many fossils cataloging the history of evolution have been unearthed that they are hard to catalog. The world is indeed "awash in the remains of infinitely numerous connecting links," and we've known this for quite some time. The only defense for the creationist to this is to deny that these are at all transitional fossils, and for the sheep of the flock, this rationale suffices. But that creates a fatal problem for the creationist view: If the miriads of fossils are, none of them, transitional, then why is it that 98% of the species on the planet have gone extinct? Could all that massive variety have been wiped out in Noah's flood? It seems utterly preposterous, and that's only because it is. When that 98% shows a pattern of progressive evolutionary history (and it does), one has to wonder why anybody would use Mr. Phillips' argument regarding fossils.

So why did life appear so suddenly? Why did the "Cambrian explosion" take place? We now know that the life forms which seemed to appear suddenly were not absent prior to the Cambrian period, but they were too small to be initially noticed -- they were microfossils. Then, the Earth became gripped in a massive ice-age which prevented life from creeping far onto land. In fact, it was probably the glaciers of this period which planed off the "Great Unconformity" in the Grand Canyon. (See "Grand Canyon's Great Unconformity," posted on November 9, 2005.) Meanwhile, life continued to evolve in the periphery, growing significantly larger, and only slightly more complex. As the ice age ended, this life came inland, and many more fossils became possible. The "explosion" of fossils had taken place. Oh, and the fossils all lacked key modern forms -- chiefly among them, mammals, which includes Man. Just how does that mesh with Genesis?

Eric