Subject: A Sort Of Fuzzy Science? Hello Rob, While searching the Net for an online Douay-Rheims Bible translation I stumbled upon your link to "On Evolution vs Creationism"... No. I don't want "prove" that God Created the Universe, Etc. Recently I've run across a few books & lectures on Evolution, Paleontology and Archaeology...which has greatly upgraded my prior paltry awareness of just how some people *define* Evolution. In addition, they addressed the questions of *how* (actual "mechanism") Evolution might have occurred, and lastly, the scientific proofs/findings, and/or lack of them thereof. To make a longer story shorter, one Major bit of Info I've run across is: Most people confuse Darwinism as being same-same as Evolution, whereas, Darwinism is simply Darwin's "explanation" of Evolution. Darwinism is by no means the only "explanation" as to "how" did all that we see about us come to be. In a few nations, such as France, theories of others (and not Darwin) have been and are taught. And, both before and after Darwin, other Paleontologists have offered both their theories, and occasionally, commentaries on Darwinism. For many years now, not just a few Paleontologists (anti-creationalist Stephen Jay Gould included) have rejected the bulk of Darwin's explanations on just *how* macro-evolution (species-to-species) occurred. Gould's "Punctuated Equilibrium" theory...has new species simply "bursting" upon the scene, a la the fossil record...but still, with no proof or explanation of just exactly "how" this occurred.. Before...Darwin's "changes" were "too slow" to be noticed, Now...Gould's are "too fast" to be noticed... Micro-evolutionary changes: changes within kind -- within species, such as making a pidgeon's wings longer, or changing it's color, etc., appears to be universally agreed upon. However, the multitudinous (hoped-for-by-Darwin) incremental "micro-evolutionistic fossil finds -- clearly linking one distinct species to another -- have never been found -- in spite of the mountains of fossils dug up since Darwin's publication of "The Origin of the Species". In fact...one of the lingering but false "proofs" of that sort is the well-known poster of horses, with little Eohippus on one end..and full-blown Equus on the other. The 5 or 6 horses depicted are distinct species who lived in different times...and in different geo-locations...which were lined up by the curator of NY's Museum and Natural History -- in order of *size* -- so as to present a "visual" as to how "Evolution" may have "looked"... Pidgeons remain pidgeons, and Eohippus remained Eohippus. Biology's "Big Bang"...the Cambrian Era 550 Million years ago, had an "explosion" of complex life forms: mollusks, jellyfish, trilobites -- for which not a single ancestral life form can be found. In a geological flash, all the major animal phyla -- vertabrae, invertabrae -- are suddenly swarming the seas with not a single new phylum since. The Pre-Cambrian strata, perfectly suited for the imprinting of fossils, is an evolutionary blank, containing not a one of the innumerable transitional species that Darwin hoped for in writing and never saw. The same is seen for flowering plants. Their abrupt introduction puzzled even Darwin. The plant record is still as discontinuous (and inexplicable in Darwinian terms) as the animal record. Lastly, and extremely interesting...is that there are no fossil "grandparents" of monkeys... NADA! Eminent Paleontologist Donald Johanson, "discover" of "Lucy" writes: "Modern gorillas, orangutans and chimpanzees sprang out of nowhere. They are here Today; they have no yesterday." The same is true of bats, elephants, and turtles. There was NOT an incremental evolving of this species into that; they all simply burst upon the scene -- de novo, as it were. Remember the highly-heralded reptile-to-bird Archaeoraptor, which inspired movies of bird-looking dinosaurs...and artistic representations of front-heavy-imbalanced tyrannosaurus-rex? The world was simply told...and the world believed! However....National Geographic's October, 2000 issue, ran a very forthright retraction article, "Feathers For T. Rex?", of it's prior November, 1999 Article, "Archaeoraptor Fossil Trail", in which it declared once and for all, "Archaeoraptor" as being a total hoax, involving many more so-called "experts" than just the Chinese farmer who glued the danged thing together using several impossible parts! NG's retraction was so thorough in it's exposition of the fuzzyness of "evolution" science, that it begged the following question: Considering the extent of deceit, ineptitude and denial amongst the various players connected with the Archaeoraptor reptile-to-bird hoax, how could one not fail to wonder if any additional less-than-acceptable Paleontological "opinions" have been foisted upon us *undetected*? So, what we are left with in the global world of "origins" is: A variety of extremely broad-brushed declarations sans any genuine scientific proofs. That is, assertions are "said", but never actually shown and/or demonstrated -- in a truly scientific manner. Peace, in Jesus, Bob Micca =-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= NOTE: BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION by Rob S. Species evolve over time. Evolution is the consequence of the interactions of: (1) the potential for a species to increase its numbers, (2) the genetic variability of offspring due to mutation and recombination of genes, (3) a finite supply of the resources required for life, and (4) the ensuing selection by the environment of those offspring better able to survive and leave offspring. Natural selection and its evolutionary consequences provide a scientific explanation for the fossil record of ancient life forms, as well as for the striking molecular similarities observed among the diverse species of living organisms. The millions of different species of plants, animals, and microorganisms that live on earth today are related by descent from common ancestors. Biological classifications are based on how organisms are related. Organisms are classified into a hierarchy of groups and subgroups based on similarities which reflect their evolutionary relationships. Species is the most fundamental unit of classification. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-