[muawiyah]

Just what I said ~ the old guys died off; the new guys bought it. Half a century. I gave it 40 years (covering mostly the real working careers of the geologists and allied researchers who found the new view useful).

Geologic Gradualism was dominant for a very long time. Louis Agassiz laid waste to that point of view ~ by demonstrating vast areas of glaciation.

At the same time he opposed the Darwinian view of "gradual change over time in some unknown way".

We can only imagine why he objected to gradualist philosophies.

In the the end the discovery of DNA put the sword to the unknown parts, and to the need for "gradual change". All you needed was a mutation, and it was Katy bar the door, eh?!

So, was Louis right or wrong when it came to Darwinian viewpoints?

Personaly I think the gradualist nonsense still infecting evolutionary theory is hanging on simply because we have modern antibiotics and the old fart$ are not dieing out fast enough. But, eventually, they will, and just in time for Mankind to take charge of his own genome.

[js1138]

Geologic Gradualism was dominant for a very long time.

Still is. Your posts make no sense.

Gradualism is a misnomer anyway. The central premise of science is that past events can be explained by processes and phenomena that can be observed in the present. Some processes are slow and some are catastrophic, but they can be understood in current terms. Nothing you have said adds anything to the discussion.