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To: Timmy
There is absolutely no evidence for punctuated equilibrium because, of course, it was developed to explain away lack of evidence.

Everything you wrote is wrong (and some of it extremely bigoted as well) but I'll concentrate on this for now.

The scientists who proposed "punctuated equilibrium" actually found evidence of it in the fossil record before they presented their idea.

Niles Eldridge found a locality which preserved a finely detailed transition between two species of trilobite that elsewhere in the fossil record appeared "abruptly" with no transition. Stephen J Gould discovered similar evidence for Caribbean snails.

This is what PE proposed: that species (or at least those with the population sizes and geographical distributions sufficient to leave a trace in the fossil record) tend to remain more or less stable for long periods of time, and that speciation events probably occur among smaller populations and in one particular place. Later when the new species spreads geographically it seems to appear "suddenly" in the fossil record.

The competing view -- phyletic gradualism -- holds that species usually change at a more or less constant rate.

If you're wondering why you have'nt heard much about debate over PE vs PG for years, its because multiple good examples of each have been found in the fossil record (it has nothing to do with your ridiculous claim that "absolutely no evidence" exists) and the general agreement is that both types of transition occur.

127 posted on 12/03/2005 6:54:36 PM PST by Stultis (I don't worry about the war turning into "Vietnam" in Iraq; I worry about it doing so in Congress.)
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To: Right Wing Professor

Your thread's been moved to the smokey backroom. The weekend mods are on duty.


130 posted on 12/03/2005 6:56:21 PM PST by PatrickHenry (Virtual Ignore for trolls, lunatics, dotards, common scolds, & incurable ignoramuses.)
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To: Stultis


The persecution of ID scientists by some universities and the mainstream media doesn't look good. The public will eventually turn against anything that looks like totalitarian thought control. The academic world is still trying to recover from loss of credibility because of liberal PC speech controls.

If ID research leads to nothing then evolution theory will have been strengthened. On the other hand, if they come up with some valid discoveries, we all benefit.


154 posted on 12/03/2005 7:12:40 PM PST by Liberty Wins (Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of all who threaten it.)
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