Instantaneous Events
Instantaneous Events
In his book, The Meaning of Evolution, George Gaylord Simpson, with reference to the apperance of new phyla, classes, or other major groups, states that: “The process by which such radical events occur in evolution is the subject of one of the most serious remaining disputes among qualified professional students of evolution. The question is whether such major events take place instantaneously, by some process essentially unlike those involved in lesser or more gradual evolutionary change, or whether all of evolution, including these major changes,is explained by the same priniciples and processes throughout, their results being greater or less aaccording to the time involved, the relative intensity of selection, and other material variables in any given situation. Possibility for such dispute exists because transitions between major grades of organization are seldom well recorded by fossils. There is in this respect a tendency towards systematic deficiency in the record of the history of early life. It is thus possible to claim that such transitions are not recorded because they did not exist, that the changes were not by transition but by sudden leaps in evolution.”
If phyla, classes, orders, and other major groups were connected by transitional forms rather than appearing suddenly in the fossil record with basic characteristics complete, it would not be necessary, of course, to refer to their appearance in the fossil record as “radical events.”
Furthermore, it cannot be emphasized too stongly that even evolutionist are arguing among themselves whether these major categories asppeared instantaneously or not! It is precisely the argument of creationists that these life forms DID ARISE INSTANTANEOUSLY and that the transitional forms are not recorded because they never existed.
In a more recent work, Simpson (G. Gaylord) stated that “it is a feature of the known fossil record that most taxa appear abruptly.” In the same paragraph he states further that “Gaps among the known species are sporadic and often small. Gaps among known orders, classes, and phyla are systematic and almost always large.” -The evolution of Life, sol Tax, ed., University of Chicago Press, Chicago, p.149
It’s hardly necessary to document further the nature of the fossil record
It seems obvious that if the above statements of Simpson were stripped of all presuppositions and presumed evolutionary mechanisms to leave the bare record, they would describe exactly what is required by the creation model. This record is woefully deficient, however, in light of the predictions of the evolution model.