Page 77 - Once Upon a Time There Was Darwinism
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of the theory of evolution, and that the theses proposed are
not convincing:
It might seem odd that fossils from one small locality, no mat-
ter how exciting, should lie at the center of a fierce debate
about such broad issues in evolutionary biology. The reason is
that animals burst into the fossil record in astonishing profu-
sion during the Cambrian, seemingly from nowhere.
Increasingly precise radiometric dating and new fossil discov-
eries have only sharpened the suddenness and scope of this bi-
ological revolution. The magnitude of this change in Earth's
biota demands an explanation. Although many hypotheses
have been proposed, the general consensus is that none is
wholly convincing. 28
In Icons of Evolution, the American biologist Jonathan
Wells sums up the matter in these words:
Of all the icons of evolution, the tree of life is the most perva-
sive, because descent from a common ancestor is the founda-
tion of Darwin's theory. . . Yet Darwin knew—and scientists
have recently confirmed—that the early fossil record turns the Harun Yahya (Adnan Oktar)
evolutionary tree of life upside down. Ten years ago it was
hoped that molecular evidence might save the tree, but recent
discoveries have dashed that hope. Although you would not
learn it from reading biology textbooks, Darwin's tree of life
has been uprooted. 29
For this reason, we can safely say that once upon a time,
there was a theory called Darwinism, which some people
thought was supported by fossils. But the fossil record indi-
cates just the opposite. Now, Darwinism is no more. Fossils—
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