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I'm sorry, but I disagree with your first point. The fossil record does not prove evolution, rather the theory of evolution is part of our explanation for Smith's principle of biological succession. I don't think this is nit-picking. Many creationist and the general public are under the impression that we start from the standpoint of "believing" in evolution and then try to prove it using the fossil record, looking for "missing links" and such. I think this backwards understanding of the relationship between the fossil record and evolutionary theory has led to a lot of misunderstanding (some of it intentional on the part of creationist who should know better). The fossil record has and will continue to improve our understanding of the process and mechanisms that drive evolution, but it does not prove that organisms change through time. Remember, natural selection and evolution were proposed to explain the diversity and distribution of extant organisms. In fact, Darwin was very critical of the fossil record and did not think it was complete enough to add much to the understanding of evolution. I don't agree with this view, but it is still common among many biologist. As to the rest of the post, I couldn't agree more. Jon -----Original Message----- From: paleonet-owner@nhm.ac.uk [mailto:paleonet-owner@nhm.ac.uk]On Behalf Of Breandán MacGabhann Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2005 10:04 AM To: paleonet@nhm.ac.uk Subject: Re: paleonet Good news for evolution and science teaching >Thus, it's particularly important for us to point out >that evolution is good science and compatible with many religious >and philosophical views. I'm sorry, But I disagree with the second half of that entirely. I don't think palaeontologists, as palaeontologists, should get involved with showing how evolution is compatible (or not, as the case may be) with religion. All we need to do is show that evolution is proven by the fossil record. Explaining how evolution is compatible with religion, whether Christian, Islam, Hindu, etc., or one of the fundamentalist-frothing-at-the-mouth-ones or whatever is **entirely** up to the religion to explain. It's nothing to do with palaeontology. If palaeontologists want to get involved with that side as members of a particular religion, that's entirely up to the individual. But palaeontology, or any other science, has NO explaining to do on that count at all. Breandán -- _______________________________________________ For the largest FREE email in Ireland (25MB) and 20MB of online file storage space - Visit http://www.campus.ie Powered by Outblaze
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