The fossil record reveals sudden explosions of new life forms followed by long periods of stasis. Is this evidence to be expected from a gradual Darwinian model? On this episode of ID The Future, host Eric Anderson talks with Casey Luskin on location at this year’s Conference on Engineering and Living Systems (CELS). Luskin discusses three different models of the fossil record – the gradual descent model, the punctuated equilibrium model, and the explosion model. He explains why gradual Darwinian models are built on a lack of data and cannot adequately explain the patterns revealed in the record. He also shows that the sudden appearance of complex organisms and long periods of non-change are exactly what we would expect to find from a design perspective. “These organisms…are designed to change within limits,” says Luskin, “and that’s why we see stasis.” Indeed, the fossil record is consistent with the engineering-based theory of bounded adaptation, the idea that organisms are deeply designed, purposeful, and capable of adapting within their operating parameters. It’s an intriguing new way to look at the history of life on earth. Says Luskin, “The only way you’re going to be able to generate all the information needed to yield an organism that’s alive and functional all at once is through an intelligent cause.” Don’t miss this intriguing conversation! Casey Luskin holds a PhD in Geology from the University of Johannesburg, where he specialized in paleomagnetism and the early plate tectonic history of South Africa. He serves as Associate Director of Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture. Want to dive deeper into the fascinating explosions of plant and animal life in the geologic record? Luskin recommends reading a chapter by Stephen C. Meyer and Gunter Bechly (Chapter 10) on the topic, in Theistic Evolution: A Scientific, Philosophical, and Theological Critique. Available here: https://www.discovery.org/b/theistic-evolution/
20 Comments
Random mutation based evolution is nonsensical to explain the reality of the natural world.
Darwin died 140 years ago. Get over him.
It's as relevant to talk about him in the 21st Century as it is to blame his contemporary Alexander Graham Bell, for issues with your cell phone coverage.
Know the truth and it will set you free. That glorious truth is, there is no god. There's no heaven, no hell, no judgment day, no celestial dictator watching everything you do and say. You're a carbon-based lifeform trying to survive on an insignificant planet in an obscure corner of the universe. You'll never be in danger of being cast into eternal fire, no matter what you believe or do. You don't need to be saved. You were born right the first time. That truth will free you from the chains of religion. Praise! Glory!
My current favorite book is Rare Earth by paleontologist and astronomers Peter Ward and Donald Brownlee who make the point that complex life is significantly more difficult than most people think it is and why alien life is extraordinarily rare if it even exists at all . In one chapter about the Cambrian Explosion, a common counter argument for the "missing fossils" before the Cambrian Explosion is that maybe they just didn't have hard body parts that could fossilize and that is why we don't see them. But if skeletons and hard body parts are required for large complex animals to protect themselves from predators, grow larger, etc. like evolutionary scientific consensus would suggest, then how could these theoretical "fossil-less" animals exist? I found that compelling towards the "Intelligent Design" position on evolutionary biology especially with regards to the mystery of the Cambrian Explosion
Read this by creationist Dr. Todd Wood, who in a moment of rare candor, wrote about evolution:
"Evolution is not a theory in crisis. It is not teetering on the verge of collapse. It has not failed as a scientific explanation. There is evidence for evolution, gobs and gobs of it. It is not just speculation or a faith choice or an assumption or a religion. It is a productive framework for lots of biological research, and it has amazing explanatory power. There is no conspiracy to hide the truth about the failure of evolution. There has really been no failure of evolution as a scientific theory. It works, and it works well.
I say these things not because I'm crazy or because I've "converted" to evolution. I say these things because they are true. I'm motivated this morning by reading yet another clueless, well-meaning person pompously declaring that evolution is a failure. People who say that are either unacquainted with the inner workings of science or unacquainted with the evidence for evolution. (Technically, they could also be deluded or lying, but that seems rather uncharitable to say. Oops.)
Creationist students, listen to me very carefully: There is evidence for evolution, and evolution is an extremely successful scientific theory. That doesn't make it ultimately true, and it doesn't mean that there could not possibly be viable alternatives. It is my own faith choice to reject evolution, because I believe the Bible reveals true information about the history of the earth that is fundamentally incompatible with evolution. I am motivated to understand God's creation from what I believe to be a biblical, creationist perspective. Evolution itself is not flawed or without evidence. Please don't be duped into thinking that somehow evolution itself is a failure. Please don't idolize your own ability to reason. Faith is enough. If God said it, that should settle it. Maybe that's not enough for your scoffing professor or your non-Christian friends, but it should be enough for you." – September 30, 2009
Thank you for this short summary of the fossil record
It seems that biology classes want us to live forever in an imaginary world called evolution
The "G" in recognize is not silent.
Omg. We have fossils evidence and genetics 🧬 be honest. Omg .this is Kent Hovind crap . Answered in Genesis .
It does you clown. Win your noble prize. This theory is fact .
Omg . Are you guy serious . You are so dishonest .
Wow disinformation .
Channel will be reported for disinformation.
Darwin himself noted in his Origin of Species the lack of intermediary species flaw, hoping time would discover them. Instead of gradual evolution the fossil record shows long epochs of no gradualism with occasional explosions of species. Entirely new species! The fossil record in other words refutes Darwinian evolution and instead supports ID.
A man of science in other words has it a lot easier being Christian than atheist. Pretty much have to be some kind of irrational atheist zealot to deny ID at this point.
Is this channel bought by a creationist?
@Discovery Science
Ok fellas, I'm a bit confused. You are advocating the position for a Creator, yet this gentleman speaks as though there are millions and billions of years gone by.
These two ideas are incongruent to one another.
If Evolutionism were true then you would need all of that time and some new research suggests it still wouldn't be enough to fill the needs of so-called biological evolution.
If Evolutionism is false or an outright lie then the fossil record has no need for that amount of time given the evidence procured from it thus far.
There are no transitional fossils because there were no transitions. Pretty simple, wouldn't you say?
All fossils ….. let me repeat myself ….. ALL FOSSILS go back to Noah's Flood. None were formed prior to that event (no rain) and very few (essentially none) have been formed since then.
Soft tissue in dinosaur bones should point this out to you.
The old guard are wasting so much time trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Acknowledge the data and move forward.
Yes, every year more evidence of evolution is produced, unlike ID which is just a legal fiction created to cover Biblical creationism.
"Hominins — humans and their ancient relatives — emerged in Africa some seven million years ago. Now researchers have gleaned genetic information from an African hominin that lived two million years ago, the oldest such data yet recovered.
The protein sequences, described in a preprint posted on the bioRxiv server on 3 July1, come from several Paranthropus robustus tooth fossils found in a South African cave.
These genetic data are the oldest that have been collected from any hominin, pushing back the genetic record to times and places previously unthinkable, scientists say."
During the discussion about stasis, I was reminded of something one of my professors said when I was a Geology undergraduate in the 1970's. I don't remember exactly how he put it, but the idea was that a species will evolve until it is optimally adapted to its environment. At that point, any change would be a disadvantage. So, if the geologic environment is stable, there would be no need for a species to evolve further. It could be inferred that changes in the geologic environment are what drove evolution. No changes in environment = No evolutionary changes.
As ye sow, so shall you reap, so says Paul. Discovery Institute is certainly reaping what it has sown as the American public drifts into scientific idiocy:
"A quarter of Americans surveyed could not correctly answer that the Earth revolves around the sun and not the other way around, according to a report out Friday from the National Science Foundation.
The survey of 2,200 people in the United States was conducted by the NSF in 2012 and released on Friday at an annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Chicago.
To the question "Does the Earth go around the Sun, or does the Sun go around the Earth," 26 percent of those surveyed answered incorrectly."
Enjoying this series, IMMENSELY.