Comments on: Life, Rare and Fragile

By: Richard Nikoley

Richard Nikoley — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:03:19 +0000

Won’t work. See, for every transitional fossil you can produce, they counter with “oh, that’s a different species,” ad infinitum.

That’s how the con works, conflating a concept (species) with a real thing (fossil).

By: lbd

lbd — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:37:16 +0000

How can evolution be happening now, in this instant, so you can see it happening? Do you really think that one species can branch into several others in a year or two? Unless you are looking at bacteria, this is unlikely. It takes million, even billions of years. Even the information on this site is based on the fact that humans have not been able to evolve the tolerance for grains in the millenia we have been on this planet. Fossil evidence is scarce at best. The chances that fossil evidence exists for a transition of species to species is close to nil. Most things rot and return their nutrients to the earth. However, there are some indications of these transitions, especially in Tiktalik: http://www.nature.com/nature/newspdf/evolutiongems.pdf

By: Richard Nikoley

Richard Nikoley — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:56:14 +0000

Well, you know what the answer to that is, right?

See, the way the con goes is that _any_ fossil is a member of some species. It’s one species or another. OK, find fossils of two different species that have similarities, then find a third that’s a different species still, but in between the previous two. Then, find two more that are in-between those, and so on, ad infinitum.

No matter how many in-betweens you find, you’ll always still have to come up with “transitional” fossils.

That’s how the con works, relying on scientific illiteracy combined with the conflation of a concept (species) with the thing (fossil).

By: marilyn

marilyn — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:36:59 +0000

I do believe in evolution among species, because it is happening now and their is much fossil record for it. I do not believe in evolution across species because it is not happening now and there is no fossil evidence for it.

I am done with this useless discussion. You remind me of the Greeks who gathered to constantly talk about something new————–useless!

By: Ridgeback Runner

Ridgeback Runner — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:16:54 +0000

There are many documents actually written by the supposed prophets of the Mormon and Muslim religions. Do you believe what they say? If so, there are clear differences and contradictions (not to mention blatant plagiarisms) with christianity. If not, if you do not believe those works are true, by what right do you dismiss them?

By: Ridgeback Runner

Ridgeback Runner — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:08:14 +0000

While I would like to get back to original post, the young earthers out there derailed this conversation. If we did not evolve over millions of years, then the justification for the primal lifestyle is debunked. Nothing any one of you has presented even remotely could be considered solid proof.

Here are my questions to you:
500 eye witnesses? Exactly 500? Not 501, or 499?
Can you provide me the names of these witnesses?
I would think that seeing someone rise from the dead was a big thing (hard not to make a zombie joke here), so how many of these 500 people wrote about seeing this? For the people who want to see the transitional fossils, I could easily take their approach and demand writings from all 500 people to prove it happened.
Are there multiple sources that report 500 eye witnesses?
How can you be sure it was not just one delusional person greatly exaggerating his out of body experience?

Hell, even if you said YOU saw him, I would write you off like the people that claim to see fairies, ghosts, bigfoot, chupacabras, and so forth.

But let me try a different route. What do you need Marilyn to believe, understand, and accept evolution?

By: TruckerGirl

TruckerGirl — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:29:40 +0000

You want transitional fossils?

Try
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaeopteryx

By: Fairyism « Agnostic Innocence

Fairyism « Agnostic Innocence — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 01:54:05 +0000

[...] to the site’s primary philosophy. The author of the blog, Mark Sisson, recently wrote an excellent piece on evolution. It is an eloquent, intelligent, and objective look at the implications of evolution on [...]

By: marilyn

marilyn — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:07:59 +0000

Go bask in your philosophies Richard. One day you will know………………………………

By: Richard Nikoley

Richard Nikoley — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 22:59:55 +0000

And if someone wrote down that George Washington rose from the dead, you’d believe it?

And if not, why not? Let’s suppose it was written down in a best-selling book read by millions.