"A scientific Dissent from Darwinism"

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Shermana
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"A scientific Dissent from Darwinism"

Post #1

Post by Shermana »

http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB ... oad&id=660

This here is a list of many scientists and PH.D.s of numerous subjects from Genetics to Molecular Biology to Marine Geology
Radiology, Biomedical Engineering, Chemistry, Nuclear Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Bioengineering, Immunopharmacology, Geoscience, Neuroscience, Pharmacognosy, Physiology, Kineseology, Plant Pathology, Microbiology, Molecular Biophysics, Mathematical Physics, and more, who agree that:
“We are skeptical of claims for the ability of random mutation and natural selection to account for the complexity of life. Careful examination of the evidence for Darwinian theory should be encouraged.�
This was last publicly updated December 2011. Scientists listed by doctoral degree or current position.
Are these scientists all frauds?

Are these people all motivated by personal beliefs over objective evidence?

Are they all being dishonest?

Is their view on the matter unscientific?

Do they have basis for their claim to reject the majority opinion?

Are they being more honest than the majority concensus who accepts that the Darwinian (or "Neo"-Darwinian) approach can assertively be used to define the characteristics of life?

Is there evidence that the majority concensus is using that these PH.D.s and scientists are unaware of or ignoring?

Are they evidence that there is plenty of dissent on the issue of whether Macro-evolution is a "fact"?

Can one just brush off their opinions if the majority disagrees with them?

Is it fair to conclude that their dissent might be based on an objective, empirical examination of the available data and findings?

Is it fair to conclude that those who believe that Neo-Darwinian views CAN assertively account for the diversity of life may be just as biased (i.e. coming from a "naturalistic humanism" viewpoint) in which they base their belief on their pre-determined conclusion?

Is it safe to say that "Macro-evolution" is not a 100% agreed upon fact upon Professional scientists even if the majority support such an idea?

THEMAYAN
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Post #321

Post by THEMAYAN »

RESPONSE TO CLOWN BOAT
Please, please, please explain to me how you would account for the diversity of life we see on this planet, both now and throughout the fossil record. I really want to know.

So far, this thread reminds me of having a child complain about "x" to another child and saying "x" is wrong and "y" is actually correct. When asked to explain "y", they just continue to complain about "x".

WHAT IS "Y"!
_________________



I already answered this question on previous post. I dont like to continually repeat myself. As for the fossil record, the Cambrian radiation event sometime called the Cambrian explosion which Produced a great diversity of life appeared globally within a geological blink of an eye, and this phyla first appear already within their own categories, classifications, & already in very complex forms without any known ancestors.

Shermana
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Post #322

Post by Shermana »

THEMAYAN wrote:RESPONSE TO CLOWN BOAT
Please, please, please explain to me how you would account for the diversity of life we see on this planet, both now and throughout the fossil record. I really want to know.

So far, this thread reminds me of having a child complain about "x" to another child and saying "x" is wrong and "y" is actually correct. When asked to explain "y", they just continue to complain about "x".

WHAT IS "Y"!
_________________



I already answered this question on previous post. I dont like to continually repeat myself. As for the fossil record, the Cambrian radiation event sometime called the Cambrian explosion which Produced a great diversity of life appeared globally within a geological blink of an eye, and this phyla first appear already within their own categories, classifications, & already in very complex forms without any known ancestors.
It seems every time that the issue of how much time would be needed for the forms in their models to form is of no concern.

TheJackelantern
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Post #323

Post by TheJackelantern »


I have been asking you to show empirical evidence that physic and chemistry alone can account for life and you just continue to repeat the mantra and offer nothing more as if just saying makes it true.
We did, you continue to ignore it. And you also continue to ignore the problem of your argument discussed here:

Come again? wha? .. Did this make any coherent sense at all? Well, it does if you realize that this statement is a self-refutation.. Hence, proving evolutionary principles and naturalistic law and governance do account for all the complexity of this world, or of existence entirely.. Yeah, Consciousness can't exist without cause, and thus is subject to require the same principles inherent in evolutionary theory to even be plausible. If anything that requires more cause to exist, it would be anything related to being a product of a cognitive system.. life on this planet will require far less cause to exist than some conscious being.. So to sit there and tell me that life couldn't self emerge on this Earth due to it's complexity is just utterly nonsensical..
You have not shown the complexity of life even remotely requires intelligent design. And this is what you are also intentionally ignoring:
Life is made of atoms son... And so is physical chemistry.. You can feel free to show us a living organism here on Earth missing their atoms, or functioning without electromagnetism. All living things are made of non-living matter..AKA Atoms.. Life is simply atoms, animated matter, or self-replicating molecules made of atoms. And I suggest you learn the periodic table and the reactivity between different atoms to understand why you are entirely wrong.
but lets go over your answer:
When did I say that living things were not made of atoms?
Did you not try to make the argument that life can not be made from non-life and even tried to use a radio as some sort of argument while ignoring this, and ignoring the differences between bio-chemistry and the radio?

If you don't understand by now after repeating myself over and over that I said that physics and chemistry alone cannot account for life. Then you just don't get it.
You failed to provide how it can't, you are a making an assertion and repeating things you have no understanding of. Especially concerning chemistry..
Airplanes and televisions are also made of atoms.
So are boiling volcanic pools of amino acids and other compounds. there is a huge difference of what you are talking about and what we are talking about. Yes airplanes are made of atoms as much as is a petrified tree. However, you have made no valid point.
Do you think this proves that airplanes and televisions can come about without purposeful planning?
We made no such argument on things we know were made by us... You are disingenuously using examples you know were made by people in order to equate the entire sum total of reality requiring some sort of intelligent creation whilst ignoring, wait for it..., :

Come again? wha? .. Did this make any coherent sense at all? Well, it does if you realize that this statement is a self-refutation.. Hence, proving evolutionary principles and naturalistic law and governance do account for all the complexity of this world, or of existence entirely.. Yeah, Consciousness can't exist without cause, and thus is subject to require the same principles inherent in evolutionary theory to even be plausible. If anything that requires more cause to exist, it would be anything related to being a product of a cognitive system.. life on this planet will require far less cause to exist than some conscious being.. So to sit there and tell me that life couldn't self emerge on this Earth due to it's complexity is just utterly nonsensical..

*To say life can't emerge out of the same system is basically collapsing any conceptual hope for the existence of any sort of higher complex systems such as a cognitive system capable of even supporting the mind complexity of a flea.
There is no such thing a simple life and the periodic table does not prove abiogenesis. Without a fine tuned universe we wouldn't even have these forces or complex chemistry.
There is no such thing as simple cognitive systems.. And yes the periodic table does prove abiogenesis..You can't have life here on Earth without it. And without a fine tuned reality / existence you can't have the complexity of cognitive systems..Hmmm that really defeats your argument doesn't it? Your argument is a fail to start with..
If you can speak of chaos theory then I can speak of anything I want too. You keep ignoring your own citation agreed with me and you can repeat your mantra all you want.
I can speak of chaos theory because it deals with evolution and is shown to deal with it. ID on the other hand has no empirical evidence to support it's claims in regards to the evolution of life, or the start of life. You base it off loose interpretation that if something looks like it had design, it must have an intelligent designer.. You need to show us exactly how complexity can't emerge through unconscious processes. Especially in a world that does this every day.
The current paradigm is the (RNA world) hypothesis, and even RNA would have had to take time through some kind of chemical evolution process before it eventually became RNA.
Well, we already proved a very key possible natural pathway.. Your best argument is making an unsupported assumption "Oh that couldn't happen naturally" as a major backpedal.. And all you ended up doing is jump to the next gap and fill the blank in with "GOD DONE IT".. Man GOD plays one hell of a game of hopscotch in your arguments!
You do not know this. You assume this. Chemical reaction happen all the time. Show me one that can bring non life into life.
Again someone needs to learn something about chemistry, the difference of atoms, electromagnetism, and the periodic table.... And show you? Yep, those pesky atoms again making up self-replicating molecules!

Assuming? No it is you who is assuming the most perfect conditions necessary.
No, it's you assuming that perfect conditions need exist, or hadn't.. Please provide a peer review on how you established this assumption as some sort of fact. You don't even realize you are relying on this argument as some sort of probability argument in order to ignore the fact that it's chemically possible, and all that needs happen is for it to happen. News flash, earth is a giant chemical mixing pot.
There is no reason to believe that the primordial earth would have had controlled conditions and was able to select only the
positive chemicals required in an open and hostile environment.
Chaos theory, order from chaos.. feedback in the system provides the control, and doesn't require intelligence. Your argument is as bad as saying snowflakes are impossible because the conditions must be controlled by some magical intelligence.. Maybe you can try again..??
Try creating a living thing in a nuclear reactor. Try creating a non racemic mixture of amino acids.
It might actually work.. Perhaps we should test it out. However, it's not the nuclear reactor we are discussing here, it's that anywhere you find uranium, there is a good chance of finding life. But life isn't said to come from reactors, but rather the chemistry and conditions of early earth likely near volcanic activity where you have amino acidic environments and chemical mixing conditions.. This includes deep sea vents, or that oil from volcanoes can provide being a catalyst for many such reactions. You are the one just assuming "Oh it's impossible" while clinging to the idea of something far more impossible in terms of complexity and needing of cause would magically be required or even the answer. Your argument fails to impress or provide an explanation based on a complexity argument and gaps argument.

Your just repeating yourslef
These membranes were created by intelligent agents in a lab under controlled conditions through trial and error and they still became unstable after time, and don't forget you accused me of making this up.
All they did was show what the chemicals can do under certain conditions. Your assumption that these conditions can't exist on Earth is pretty nothing more than a blind assertion. Tell us, has behe proven anything? Nope. Did he make blind assertions? Yep!

I wouldn't talk abut citations if I were you.
Why not? Your citations are terrible.
As I said before, you said it was foolish to believe that physics and chemistry alone could not account for life.
It is, it can't be done without it.. Please prove life without chemistry and physics..
You then send me a video that speaks of a (chaos theory) that you support, and in that same video it also says that chemistry and physics cannot account for life.
Quote mine alert!


The never ending "just so" mantra.
So you can't answer to that and you wonder why you're quote mining..
The video is still posted Why don't you watch it for yourself. Do you want me to give the minutes and seconds that it says that physics and chemistry cannot account for life? Why would I lie and humiliate myself when anyone reading this can view your chaos theory video and check for themselves
Do I need to give you the minutes and seconds where it explains what they meant by that? Do you even comprehend what quote mining is? Do I need to define that term for you?

You said that 2 peer review articles were removed and you named them.
Please find me those articles on a reputable journal site. You know, one that actually doesn't just post anything and everything?


OK here you go…… http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v4 ... 1062a.html The article states that ID is small but growing force on university campuses.
That journal has no barring on the subject... Pleas show me where Nature has posted David L Abel's paper, or the other paper in question..
Of course the Journal still exist. What does that have to do with you making things up?
Read the journal.. I could go over this in another thread with you.. And show me where it exists on any reputable journal site.

SCIENCE NEWS
“But while this is a step forward, it’s not the whole picture,� Ferris points out. “It’s not as simple as putting compounds in a beaker and mixing it up. It’s a series of steps. You still have to stop and purify and then do the next step, and that probably didn’t happen in the ancient world.�

Dr. Joyce said he had hoped an explanation for the one-handedness of biological molecules would emerge from prebiotic chemistry, but Dr. Sutherland’s reactions do not supply any such explanation. "One is certainly required because of what is known to chemists as “original syn

The author, John D. Sutherland, a chemist at the University of Manchester, likened his work to a crossword puzzle in which doing the first clues makes the others easier. "Whether we've done one across is an open question," he said. "Our worry is that it may not be right."
http://www.bioedonline.org/news/news.cfm?art=5277
Anyone notice the backpedalling? Gap gets filled and the Creationist jumps to the next gap and says "GOD exists here".. Wow that is amazing!.. Now when science proves something it becomes "Oh that's impossible in nature", and "oh but the next step is impossible"... Gotta love the false probability argument Creationists cling to.. All scientists really have to show is that this can happen chemically.. That's all they need to show.

Although Sutherland has shown that it is possible to build one part of RNA from small molecules, objectors to the RNA-world theory say the RNA molecule as a whole is too complex to be created using early-Earth geochemistry.
So now it goes from RNA is too complex, and then science shows a natural pathway to the first two blocks of RNA, and now it's the "whole RNA molecule" that is too complex based on an assumption "to be created by early earth geochemistry" in what was likely amino acidic conditions.. Again here is the complexity argument problem again,.. wait for it...:

Come again? wha? .. Did this make any coherent sense at all? Well, it does if you realize that this statement is a self-refutation.. Hence, proving evolutionary principles and naturalistic law and governance do account for all the complexity of this world, or of existence entirely.. Yeah, Consciousness can't exist without cause, and thus is subject to require the same principles inherent in evolutionary theory to even be plausible. If anything that requires more cause to exist, it would be anything related to being a product of a cognitive system.. life on this planet will require far less cause to exist than some conscious being.. So to sit there and tell me that life couldn't self emerge on this Earth due to it's complexity is just utterly nonsensical..

*To say life can't emerge out of the same system is basically collapsing any conceptual hope for the existence of any sort of higher complex systems such as a cognitive system capable of even supporting the mind complexity of a flea.
"The flaw with this kind of research is not in the chemistry. The flaw is in the logic — that this experimental control by researchers in a modern laboratory could have been available on the early Earth," says Robert Shapiro, a chemist at New York University.
The flaw in his argument is his assumption of amino acidic environments couldn't possibly do so..As if earth is chemically inert and doesn't have any chemical reactions and interactions, or quantum transaction ect going on at all.
Dr. Robert Shapiro, a chemist at New York University, said the recipe “definitely does not meet my criteria for a plausible pathway to the RNA world.� He said that cyano-acetylene, one of Dr. Sutherland’s assumed starting materials, is quickly destroyed by other chemicals and its appearance in pure form on the early earth “could be considered a fantasy.�
But again this is making assumptions... All that needs to be shown is that it's chemically possible..
"Ultimately, the challenge of prebiotic chemistry is that there is no way of validating historical hypotheses, however convincing an individual experiment," points out Steven Benner,
This is probably the only coherent fact presented..
Again even the video you sent me said that physics and chemistry cannot account for life. Get your stuff straight.
Quote mine alert!
I'm quoting from your own video and within context.
Incorrect.

I don't ink you understood. The point was to not take credit for others. Thats why your supposed to cite your sources like I do and most everyone else does.
Is this your excuse to ignore it?
I can cite others. In fact the most current is they are of extraterrestrial origins but that just puts the question on another planet or part of space. The fact remains as of to date, we still don't know how nature was able to select left handed amino acids from right handed amino acids which is required in the assembly of complex proteins.
And yet you are claiming GOD done it and assuming it cant'... Nobody here argued we know exactly how.. Also, How about the assembly of cognitive systems, and sensory systems?
You're the one who believes that these bio systems can come together on their own.
How about the assembly of cognitive systems, and sensory systems?
So not only is it you who believes in magic
Energy doing the work is not magic. Understanding what chemistry is, or what electromagnetism is does not deal with "magic" .. Please try again..
but since you cannot demonstrate it with empirical evidence then you also have great faith that it happened that way.
Sure I can, because it couldn't happen any other way.. Show me a living organism without electromagnetism, atoms, or chemistry.. Heck, show me a cognitive system not requiring the same reactionary systems..

TheJackelantern
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Post #324

Post by TheJackelantern »

I already answered this question on previous post. I dont like to continually repeat myself. As for the fossil record, the Cambrian radiation event sometime called the Cambrian explosion which Produced a great diversity of life appeared globally within a geological blink of an eye, and this phyla first appear already within their own categories, classifications, & already in very complex forms without any known ancestors.
This is a false claim btw.. BTW, that Cambrian event took place after a mass extinction event, and was mostly aquatic life. Life to which did not magically show no signs of evolution.. You can even look up the lectures of macro-evolution in the ocean's.. But lets site someone else here:
http://www.fossilmuseum.net/Paleobiolog ... losion.htm

The debate persists today about whether the evolutionary "explosion" of the Cambrian was as sudden and spontaneous as it appears in the fossil record. The discovery of new pre-Cambrian and Cambrian fossils help resolve the debate, as these transitional fossil forms support the hypothesis that diversification was well underway before the Cambrian began. More recently, the sequencing of the genomes of thousands of life forms is revealing just how many and what genes and the proteins they encode have been conserved from the Precambrian. The explosion of external form (the phenotype) in the fossil record is what we see now, but more gradual adaptation was taking place at the molecular level (the genotype). Wang et. al. (1999) for example, recently conducted phylogenetic studies divergences among animal phyla, plants, animals and fungi. These researchers estimated arthropods diverged from more primitive chordates more than 900 million years ago, and Nematodes from that lineage almost 1200 million years ago. They furthermore estimated that the plant, animal and fungi Kingdoms might have split split from a common ancestors almost 1600 million years ago. Finally, they conjecture that the basal animal phyla (Porifera, Cnidaria, Ctenophora) diverged between about 1200 and 1500 million years ago. If their research is valid, at least six major metazoan phyla appeared deep in the Precambrian, hundreds of millions of years before the oldest fossils in the fossil record.
and lets look at this:
forms without any known ancestors.
That couldn't be anymore wrong.. transitional forms between animal phyla have been found in Cambrian rocks Chengjiang biota:Halkieria and Maikhanella for the mollusks; Eccentrotheca and Camenella

Another thing creationists like to play on is the fact that there are problems with getting fossil conditions in the marine environments.. And there are other issues as well:

There are of course many general reasons why finding transitional fossils is a difficult task:

1)The precursor forms may have inhabited a limited range where the transition took place. We have strong evidence that evolution happens most quickly in small populations. Migrations from these source areas to an area conducive to fossilization then make it appear as if a new form arrived suddenly in the fossil record.

2) Other reasons for the scarcity of transitional fossils may be that the precursors may not have encountered the special sorts of circumstances needed to create fossils, especially of soft tissues. This is especially problematic for soft-bodied organisms. many Precambrian life forms were soft-bodied, and soft-bodied organism were likely the precursors to such organisms with hard shells.. Soft-bodied would include even sharks because sharks do not have a skeletal structure and would very rarely leave a fossil record. Most sea life was likely soft-bodied, and most precursors were likely soft-bodied.. ect..

3) Additionally the exposure of rocks from any given age (the Precambrian, for example) is not constant and does not occur at all points on the face of the Earth. Some may have already been exposed and eroded away, while many others may still be buried quite deeply.


It should be noted here that nearly all paleontologists accept that the chance of finding any marine transitional intermediate fossils is low. As Phillip Gingerich (co-discoverer of many of the whale transitional species) said in an informal talk, "finding fossils is easy. It's finding the really interesting ones that's difficult." Also, In this paper one can read a study about a single biological ornaism that shows fast or slow rates of evolutionary change depending on the conditions the population finds itself in. And then we get Stephen Meyer (Discovery Institute co-founder) apparently playing to the Dallas, Texas audience, stated about the Cambrian Radiation that "20-80 million years is not gonna git 'er done". Well the man seemed to have no idea what he was talking about since the shale is a mere 505 mya.. Well, you can feel free to read this:

http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com ... s-dilemma/

And there is another problem here that creationists do not consider. It's quite likely that the new Cambrian phyla would have originally evolved in an isolated system or area, and then populated the ocean. If this is to be the case, then it's actually fairly improbable that we'll stumble upon fossil evidence of these ancestors..You would have a better chance of finding a hey colored needle in a hey stack the size of Texas. And that would require them being in a conditions applicable to fossilization. But even if such were discovered, creationists will just play denial, or jump to the next gap and say 'GOD EXISTS HERE"... After all, they can't put him back in the volcano from where he originated from ;)
Last edited by TheJackelantern on Fri Mar 09, 2012 1:46 am, edited 2 times in total.

TheJackelantern
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Post #325

Post by TheJackelantern »

Oh, and btw ... There is a new 4 winged dinosaur fossil discovery ;)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46671488/#.T1mjC_XHuaQ

http://www.livescience.com/18914-micror ... thers.html

Image

Image


Image

Looks a lot like a raven doesn't it ;) :

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pax
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Post #326

Post by pax »

Image

Ok. Herr Schpinnmeister, explain this guy. Was he in the act of regurgitating?

I also would like to hear how petrified forests are formed. I live in a forest. trees don;t stay standing long enough to get buried in sediment, nor will you ever find a stump more than 100 years old.

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Post #327

Post by Bust Nak »

pax wrote:Ok. Herr Schpinnmeister, explain this guy. Was he in the act of regurgitating?
Looks like the big fish died trying to swallow the little fish.
I also would like to hear how petrified forests are formed. I live in a forest. trees don;t stay standing long enough to get buried in sediment, nor will you ever find a stump more than 100 years old.
The short answer is mineralisation after rapid burial. I am guessing you are suggesting these are evidence of a global flood?

THEMAYAN
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Post #328

Post by THEMAYAN »

RESPONSE TO THE JACKELANTERN


The Cambrian radiation event sometime called the Cambrian explosion which Produced a great diversity of life appeared globally within a geological blink of an eye, and this phyla first appear already within their own categories, classifications, & already in very complex forms without any known ancestors.

http://www.fossilmuseum.net/Paleobiolog ... losion.htm

The debate persists today about whether the evolutionary "explosion" of the Cambrian was as sudden and spontaneous as it appears in the fossil record. The discovery of new pre-Cambrian and Cambrian fossils help resolve the debate, as these transitional fossil forms support the hypothesis that diversification was well underway before the Cambrian began. More recently, the sequencing of the genomes of thousands of life forms is revealing just how many and what genes and the proteins they encode have been conserved from the Precambrian. The explosion of external form (the phenotype) in the fossil record is what we see now, but more gradual adaptation was taking place at the molecular level (the genotype). Wang et. al. (1999) for example, recently conducted phylogenetic studies divergences among animal phyla, plants, animals and fungi. These researchers estimated arthropods diverged from more primitive chordates more than 900 million years ago, and Nematodes from that lineage almost 1200 million years ago. They furthermore estimated that the plant, animal and fungi Kingdoms might have split split from a common ancestors almost 1600 million years ago. Finally, they conjecture that the basal animal phyla (Porifera, Cnidaria, Ctenophora) diverged between about 1200 and 1500 million years ago. If their research is valid, at least six major metazoan phyla appeared deep in the Precambrian, hundreds of millions of years before the oldest fossils in the fossil record.
The problem with this is that we can only study the genomes of modern creatures. We cannot study the genomes of creatures that existed 500MY.
and lets look at this:
forms without any known ancestors.

That couldn't be anymore wrong.. transitional forms between animal phyla have been found in Cambrian rocks Chengjiang biota:Halkieria and Maikhanella for the mollusks; Eccentrotheca and Camenella

Halkieria as of the many examples you have given are largely disputed even in the literature. These examples you cite all show during the middle or temporal Cambrian period with the exception of one that shows up in the early Cambrian period which means, that none of them could have been a pre Cambrian transitional. Even the relationship between these phyla and other known post Cambrian phyla are greatly debated over. You also seem to have failed to understand my statement. I was speaking of the absents of pre cambrian ancestors, not post Cambrian phyla. Again all your example appear after the Cambrian radiation event.
This is a false claim btw.. BTW, that Cambrian event took place after a mass extinction event, and was mostly aquatic life. Life to which did not magically show no signs of evolution.. You can even look up the lectures of macro-evolution in the ocean's.. But lets site someone else here:
How does this make this a false claim? Listen to what your saying. You are admitting that there was a massive extinction before the radiation even. The problems is that non of these enigmatic extinct creature (if they were indeed living creatures which is also disputed) show any relationship to the multi-cellular life that existed in the Cambrian phyla. Furthermore, if these ediacara biota go extinct millions of years the before the CE, then this does not make a good case for transition. In addition there is great debate as whether these enigmatic ediacara biota were even living creature. Some consider them uekaryotes only because of there size, and others believe they were non living. The fact remains that even your citation is filled with estimates based on conjecture. Your citation also admits that rapid and sudden event is apparent in the fossil record as in ......
The debate persists today about whether the evolutionary "explosion" of the Cambrian was as (sudden and spontaneous as it appears in the fossil record).

This is what Dolf Seilacher has to say on the subject.....
EDIACARA BIOTA
German paleontologist Dolf Seilacher challenged the theory that organisms of the Ediacaran gave rise to later species. Seilacher's view was that the body plans were too simple and strange to have any relation with animals. Even the sponge, the most basic creature, is divided into parts with a mouth like opening, leading to a digestive compartment, and the more complicated species have specialized organs and appendages, however, the Ediacaran fossils, show no such features. "We don't see any indication of organs. We see no legs, no mouths, no anuses, no digestive tracts, nothing to suggest they were animals. We have to stop shoehorning them into categories of modern animals." Seilacher described them as immobile, jelly-filled organisms and classified them as Vendobionts. The fossils show no characteristics indicating the ability to eat or digest food, but may have absorbed sunlight or chemical nutrients direct from the ocean water.
The evidence for multicellular life before the Cambrian event is extreme minute. The first animals we see are sponges including their embryos, and if we can fing soft bodies embryos, we should be able to find other soft bodied ancestors.

Another thing creationists like to play on is the fact that there are problems with getting fossil conditions in the marine environments.. And there are other issues as well:

There are of course many general reasons why finding transitional fossils is a difficult task:

1)The precursor forms may have inhabited a limited range where the transition took place. We have strong evidence that evolution happens most quickly in small populations. Migrations from these source areas to an area conducive to fossilization then make it appear as if a new form arrived suddenly in the fossil record.

2) Other reasons for the scarcity of transitional fossils may be that the precursors may not have encountered the special sorts of circumstances needed to create fossils, especially of soft tissues. This is especially problematic for soft-bodied organisms. many Precambrian life forms were soft-bodied, and soft-bodied organism were likely the precursors to such organisms with hard shells.. Soft-bodied would include even sharks because sharks do not have a skeletal structure and would very rarely leave a fossil record. Most sea life was likely soft-bodied, and most precursors were likely soft-bodied.. ect..

3) Additionally the exposure of rocks from any given age (the Precambrian, for example) is not constant and does not occur at all points on the face of the Earth. Some may have already been exposed and eroded away, while many others may still be buried quite deeply.

It should be noted here that nearly all paleontologists accept that the chance of finding any marine transitional intermediate fossils is low. As Phillip Gingerich (co-discoverer of many of the whale transitional species) said in an informal talk, "finding fossils is easy. It's finding the really interesting ones that's difficult." Also, In this paper one can read a study about a single biological ornaism that shows fast or slow rates of evolutionary change depending on the conditions the population finds itself in. And then we get Stephen Meyer (Discovery Institute co-founder) apparently playing to the Dallas, Texas audience, stated about the Cambrian Radiation that "20-80 million years is not gonna git 'er done". Well the man seemed to have no idea what he was talking about since the shale is a mere 505 mya.. Well, you can feel free to read this:

http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com ... s-dilemma/
And there is another problem here that creationists do not consider. It's quite likely that the new Cambrian phyla would have originally evolved in an isolated system or area, and then populated the ocean. If this is to be the case, then it's actually fairly improbable that we'll stumble upon fossil evidence of these ancestors..You would have a better chance of finding a hey colored needle in a hey stack the size of Texas. And that would require them being in a conditions applicable to fossilization. But even if such were discovered, creationists will just play denial, or jump to the next gap and say 'GOD EXISTS HERE"... After all, they can't put him back in the volcano from where he originated from
Again if you can find 600MY soft bodied sponge embryos then you should be able to find soft bodied ancestors.

You say I wrong about transitional forms and name a half a dozen that are highly disputed among experts and are not even precambrian phyla, and then on another paragraph you send me potential excuses why there are no transitionals. You also mentioned Chengjiang in China which is where some of the earliest and best preserved Cambrian phyla have been found, and what is said about the ediacara biota that preceded them is....
Their strange form and apparent disconnectedness from later organisms have led some to consider them a "failed experiment" in multicellular life, with later multicellular life independently re-evolving from unrelated single-celled organisms.
Bing Shen, Lin Dong,Shuhai Xiao, Michał Kowalewski The Avalon Explosion: Evolution of Ediacara Morphospace Science 4 January 2008:
Where are these unrelated single-celled organisms? No one knows.

Another put it like this concerning pre cambrian ediacara biota......
The first fossils that might represent animals appear towards the end of the Precambrian, around 610 million years ago, and are known as the Ediacaran or Vendian biota. These are difficult to relate to later fossils, however. Some may represent precursors of modern phyla, but they may be separate groups, and it is possible they are not really animals at all.



Jy chen a well respected paleontologist of the Nanjing institute of paleontology and geology states
that that Darwin's tree of life is upside down.
Zhou qui gin senior research fellow changing fauna states that there are no transitions and that multicelular life start suddenly appear. American scientist go to China to learn from the Chinese.

"In the cambrian period we get organisms appearing for the first time out of no where with no evolutionary history. Needles to say, this appearance of sudden planting has delighted creationist"
Blind Watchmaker," 1986, p.229)
Dawkins of course believes that this sudden appearance is illusory, but I and many others dont. Example below
"Contrary to Darwin's expectation that new data would reveal gradualistic continuity with slow and steady expansion, all major discoveries of the past century have only heightened the massiveness and geological abruptness of this formative event..." (Gould, Stephen J., Nature, vol. 377, October 1995
Gould went so far as propose punctuated equilibrium to try to explain this which was rejected by Dawkins because it raised more questions that than answers.

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Post #329

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pax wrote:Image

Ok. Herr Schpinnmeister, explain this guy. Was he in the act of regurgitating?
Could you perhaps give us a cite to the image?
I also would like to hear how petrified forests are formed. I live in a forest. trees don;t stay standing long enough to get buried in sediment, nor will you ever find a stump more than 100 years old.
They weren't standing when they were buried.

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Post #330

Post by JoeyKnothead »

From Post 328:
THEMAYAN wrote: Again if you can find 600MY soft bodied sponge embryos then you should be able to find soft bodied ancestors.
And if you could find a rabbit in the Cambrian, you'd stop the ToE in its tracks.
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