Page 98 - The Errors the American National Academy of Sciences

The Errors of the American National Academy of Sciences

of paleontology. Following phyletic lines through time seemed to
reveal only minimal gradual changes but no clear evidence for any
change of a species into a different genus or for the gradual origin of
an evolutionary novelty. Anything truly novel always seemed to ap-
pear quite abruptly in the fossil record. 8
The way that the National Academy of Sciences ignores or else
seeks to conceal from its readers the existence of Darwinism's fossil
problem, to which Darwin drew attention 150 years ago and which is

accepted by many modern-day evolutionists, ill-becomes an institu-
tion claiming scientific respectability. Some evolutionists who have
no hesitations about admitting the dilemmas facing the theory of evo-
lution, such as Stephen Jay Gould, accept that the fossil record is a
"persistent and nagging problem" for the theory of evolution, and
9
the way that the National Academy of Sciences tries to ignore these
findings naturally casts a long shadow over its scientific credibility.

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S Stasis in the Fossil Record
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"Stasis" means lack of biological change, and that in turn means
the absence of evolution. That is indeed the case, because in the fossil
record a species exhibits no changes during its lengthy geological
lifespan. It exhibits statis—in other words its form remains the
same—from its very first appearance in the fossil record until its dis-
appearance. Stephen Jay Gould first announced that the fossil record
conflicted with the theory of evolution in the 1970s:
The history of most fossil species includes two features particularly
inconsistent with gradualism:
1. Stasis. Most species exhibit no directional change during their
tenure on earth. They appear in the fossil record looking much the
same as when they disappear; morphological change is usually lim-
ited and directionless.
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