MM wrote:The problem is that we wouldn't expect to see macroevolution at work today, simply because evolution is such a new concept, and I suspect macroevolution would take quite a bit of time. I do not doubt that it is possible for a bacteria to turn into a fish, and since nobody can provide me with an alternate PROCESS that has some evidence backing it up, I have no choice but to accept it.
Don't you know that some proposed mechanisms for evolution, such as punctuated equilibrium, match what you describe as "flashed species into existance"? Now it's not my fault if the data we have doesn't back a PROCESS in the way you desire. Obviously you adopt a form of gradual evolution only, but then you must explain why the fossil record does not accomodate this. Now you likely won't take my word for it, but gradual evolution "by itself" has been dismissed by many.
Back when Darwin was around, the fossil record did not display evidence of gradual evolution as it had jumps. Darwin's reply was: "
The geological record is extremely imperfect and this fact will to a large extent explain why we do not find interminable varieties, connecting together all the extinct and existing forms of life by the finest graduated steps. He who rejects these views on the nature of the geological record, will rightly reject my whole theory." However, "evolution" is highly adaptable. Now we have evolutionists who believe that although the fossil record is now completed in some areas, and reveals clear gaps in what would be expected of a gradual process, that some existing forms of life just spontaneously arose. As Eldredge explains:
"Standard evolutionary theory focuses on anatomical change through time by picturing natural selection as the agent that preserves the best of the designs available for coping with the environment. This generation by generation process, working on small amounts of variation, is thought to change, slowly but inexorably, the genetic and anatomical makeup of a population.
If this theory were correct, then I should have found evidence of this smooth progression in the vast numbers of Bolivian fossil trilobites I studied. I should have found species gradually changing through time, with smoothly intermediate forms connecting descendant species to their ancestors.
Instead I found most of the various kinds, including some unique and advanced ones, present in the earliest known fossil beds. Species persisted for long periods of time without change. When they were replaced by similar, related (presumably descendant) species, I saw no gradual change in the older species that would have allowed me to predict the anatomical features of its younger relative.
The story of anatomical change through time that I read in the Devonian trilobites of Gondwana is similar to the picture emerging elsewhere in the fossil record: long periods of little or not change, followed by the appearance of anatomically modified descendants, usually with no smoothly intergradational forms in evidence.
If the evidence conflicts with theoretical predictions, something must be wrong with the theory. But for years the apparent lack of progressive change within fossil species has been ignored or else the evidence--not the theory--has been attacked. Attempts to salvage evolutionary theory have been made by claiming that the pattern of stepwise change usually seen in fossils reflects a poor, spotty fossil record. Were the record sufficiently complete, goes the claim, we would see the expected pattern of stepwise graduational change. But there are too many examples of this pattern of stepwise change to ignore it any longers. It is time to reexamine evolutionary theory itself.
There is probably little wrong with the notion of natural selection as a means of modifying the genetics of a species through time, although it is difficult to put it to the test. But the predicted gradual accumulation of change within species is seldom (if ever) encountered in our practical experience with the fossil record."
(Niles Eldredge, "An Extravagance of Species")
Additionally Dr. Donald Prothero points out, "
Even their detractors concede that Eldredge and Gould were the first to point out that modern speciation theory would not predict gradual transitions over millions of years, but instead the sudden appearance of new species in the fossil record punctuated by long periods of species stability, or equilibrium. Eldredge and Gould not only showed that paleontologists had been out-of-step with biologists for decades, but also that they had unconsciously trying to force the fossil record into the gradualistic mode."—
http://www.skeptic.com/01.3.prothero-punc-eq.html
Now, it is not for me to disprove a theory, and I in no way wished to do so in this thread which has now been dragged off-topic from my original simple statements. I'm quite happy for you to hold to your "macroevolution," it doesn't matter to me one iota, and now I'm a little annoyed that I ended up in such a discussion!
There is nothing I find more futile than debating "evolution." Yet, the burdon of proof is on the one proposing the theory.
So getting back to my original statements before I unknowingly got taken into a discussion I did not want,
RTB provide a model, and a process that not only aligns with nature but also with Scripture. Their model has confirmation from the fossil record, and also explanatory power of how life could arise so early in Earth's history, be wiped out, and then arise again so quickly. Which brings us back to the origin of life probem, which is indeed related on a philosophical naturalist level to "evolution"...
MM wrote:I do not believe God just flashed species into existance, as He never seems to work that way in the Bible. Him transforming something(just look like humanity's creation) into something else seems to be the standard.
That's nice, though many Christian theologians don't agree with you in their exegesis on Scripture. Perhaps I could encourage you to research why many reject "evolution" as aligning with the Genesis creation account?
Kurieuo.