Page 59 - Atlas of Creation Volume 2

Harun Yahya

suggested that living things evolved as the
result of sudden, dramatic mutations rather
than the gradual accumulation of small
ones. In citing a hypothetical example of his

theory, Schindewolf suggested that the first
bird in history had emerged from a reptile
egg, through a "gross mutation," in other
words, an enormous, though random
34
change in its genetic structure. According
to that same theory, some terrestrial mam-

mals might suddenly have turned into
whales through a sudden and comprehen-
sive alteration.
Stephen These claims violate all known laws of
Jay Gould genetics, biophysics and biochemistry,

and were no more scientific than the fairy
tale about a frog turning into a handsome
prince. Still, this "Hopeful Monster" theory of Schindewolf's was adopted and
defended in the 1940s by the University of California, Berkeley geneticist Richard Goldschmidt. But the the-
ory was so inconsistent that it was soon abandoned.
The impetus that obliged Gould and Eldredge to take up this theory again was, as we have already seen,

the lack of any "intermediate form" in the fossil record. Both the "stasis" and "sudden appearance" in the
record were so obvious that these two were forced to reconsider the "Hopeful Monster" theory in order to ac-
count for this state of affairs. Gould's well-known article "The Return of Hopeful Monsters" was an expres-
sion of this forced about-turn. 35

Naturally, Eldredge and Gould did not repeat Schindewolf's theory word for word. In order to give it a
more "scientific" nature, they sought to develop some kind of mechanism for the "sudden evolutionary leap"
they proposed. (The interesting term "punctuated equilibrium" which they gave to their theory was one ex-
pression of this scientific endeavor.) Gould and Eldredge's theory was adopted and fleshed out by some
other paleontologists in the years that followed. However, the punctuated theory of evolution was at least as
marred with inconsistencies and invalid logic as Darwin's original gradual theory of evolution.

Proponents of gradual evolution ignored stasis. But stasis is constantly seen in the fossil record, proving
that living things remained unchanged over millions of years. The only difference between Gould and
Eldredge and other Darwinists is that the former two realized that the stasis in the fossil record was an in-
controvertible fact that could no longer be left unanswered. Rather than admit the fact of Creation revealed
by the fossil record, they felt themselves obliged to develop a new concept of evolution.

Stephen Jay Gould said this on the subject:

"Intermediate forms," which allegedly bore the features of two
different species, never existed at any time.

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