Page 60 - Atlas of Creation Volume 2

But how can imperfection possibly explain away stasis (the equilibrium of punctuated equilibrium)? Abrupt
appearance may record an absences of information, but *stasis is data*. Eldredge and I became so frustrated
by the failure of many colleagues to grasp this evident point—-though a quarter century of subsequent de-
bate has finally propelled our claim to general acceptance (while much else about punctuated equilibrium re-
mains controversial)—that we urged the incorporation of this little phrase as a mantra or motto. Say it ten

times before breakfast every day for a week, and the argument will surely seep in by osmosis: "stasis is data:
stasis is data..." 36
Gould, Eldredge and other advocates of punctuated evolution fiercely criticized the proponents of grad-

ual evolution for failing to see the reality of stasis. But in fact, what they were doing was no different from the
actions of other Darwinists. Since the fossil record had failed to produce the results they expected, they
changed the form of so-called evolution and constructed it in a very detailed manner. The main reason for
their anger toward, and intense criticism of, the adherents of gradual evolution was that as long as their pro-
fessional colleagues failed to accept the stasis in the fossil record, they would cause the theory to lose all

credibility in the public eye. For that reason, they attempted to give the impression that they had now "dis-
covered the truth" in the face of the clear facts revealed by the fossil record.
The fact is, however, that the punctuated evolution model is at least as groundless, devoid of evidence,
and ultimately discredited as the gradual evolution theory.
Gould's admissions regarding "the mistaken perspective in the past" are criticisms aimed at the sup-

porters of gradual evolution:

We have long known about stasis and abrupt appearance, but have chosen to fob it off upon an imperfect
fossil record. 37

As Niles Eldredge describes it, the supporters of gradual evolution ignored one very important fact:

Paleontologists ever since Darwin have been searching (largely in vain) for the sequences of insensibly
graded series of fossils that would stand as examples of the sort of wholesale transformation of species
that Darwin envisioned as the natural product of the evolutionary process. Few saw any reason to

demur—though it is a startling fact that . . . most species remain recognizably themselves, virtually un-
changed throughout their occurrence in geological sediments of various ages. 38

58 Atlas of Creation Vol. 2