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To: Ichneumon
Okay, I'll bite -- what in the *heck* do supervolanoes have to do with biological evolution in any way, and how are they a "problem' for evolution?

Try wiping a majority of the "advances" in complexity clean every 50,000 years. Quite a hurdle to leap when a theory relies so heavily on the element of time. Then throw in the passing life ending magnitude comet like Shumaker Levy, which we saw during our lifetimes hit a planet in our solar system.

It is not looking good when we stretch this thing out to the time for your fledgling deaf, dumb and blind theory to do it's work. Pinball wizard indeed; bouncing life out of existence conservatively every couple 100,000 years (don't give me the, "all comets hit Jupiter" line, either).

434 posted on 03/09/2005 4:01:16 PM PST by bondserv (Sincerity with God is the most powerful instigator for change! † [Check out my profile page])
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To: bondserv
Try wiping a majority of the "advances" in complexity clean every 50,000 years.

Are you on drugs? What is the evidence for anything like that?

436 posted on 03/09/2005 4:18:14 PM PST by js1138
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To: bondserv; js1138
[Okay, I'll bite -- what in the *heck* do supervolanoes have to do with biological evolution in any way, and how are they a "problem' for evolution?]

Try wiping a majority of the "advances" in complexity clean every 50,000 years.

Clearly you know as little about geology as you do about biology.

Life has never been wiped "clean" in the history of the Earth, much less "every 50,000 years". You know as little about science and the history of our planet as, well, the average creationist.

There *have* been a few mass extinctions in the history of the Earth (although again, nowhere near as frequently "every 50,000 years), a few of which have indeed affected the "majority" of species on the planet (most notably the Ordovician extinction 440mya, Permian extinction 245mya, and the KT extinction 65mya). And note that these are separated by timespans about 4000 times longer than your "every 50,000 years"...

Nonetheless, even mass extinctions do not "wipe clean" the "the advances in complexity" as you so simplistically assert. Instead, they actually weed out the less adaptable species, while increasing selective pressures on the more adaptable survivors (as well as opening existing ecological niches and creating new ones). As a result, mass extinctions actually *acclerate* evolutionary "progress" for millions of years thereafter and induce an explosion of new biodiversity.

So if you thought this was a "problem" for evolutionary biology, not only are you mistaken, but the actual case is in fact the *opposite* of what you claim. But then you'd already know this if you had spent as much time learning about biology as you do perusing creationist screeds.

Quite a hurdle to leap when a theory relies so heavily on the element of time.

No "hurdle" at all.

Then throw in the passing life ending magnitude comet like Shumaker Levy, which we saw during our lifetimes hit a planet in our solar system.

...Life sprang back just fine after the impact which knocked off the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous 65 million years ago. In fact, it opened the door for the rise of the mammals. So don't try to paint such events as "showstoppers" for life or evolution. They're not.

It is not looking good when we stretch this thing out to the time for your fledgling deaf, dumb and blind theory to do it's work. Pinball wizard indeed; bouncing life out of existence conservatively every couple 100,000 years

You have a vivid, but faulty, imagination.

Try relying on facts next time.

469 posted on 03/09/2005 6:02:34 PM PST by Ichneumon
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