Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site seismo.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!floyd!harpo!seismo!flinn From: flinn@seismo.UUCP (E. A. Flinn) Newsgroups: net.misc Subject: Creat/Ev #4 Message-ID: <686@seismo.UUCP> Date: Tue, 13-Mar-84 08:45:11 EST Article-I.D.: seismo.686 Posted: Tue Mar 13 08:45:11 1984 Date-Received: Wed, 14-Mar-84 08:10:43 EST Organization: Center for Seismic Studies, Arlington, VA Lines: 27 ... Bill Jefferys comments: >>Ray [Miller] knows as well as anyone that evolutionists (even >>punctuated ones :-)) believe that speciation takes times which are very >>long by human standards, even though they may be short geologically. Actually, artificial selection can produce spectacular evolution in short times, e.g., breeding pigeons or other animals with short life spans. The whole first part of Darwin's "Origin of Species" deals with artificial selection, and it is clear that Darwin regarded this as powerful evidence for his theory that the same type of selection could take place in nature over longer times. Have any of the creationists ever *read* the Origin of Species? Most of their objections were thoroughly discussed by Darwin, who devoted a good portion of the book to seriously considering arguments against his theory of evolution by natural selection, and countering them as best he could. His main difficulty was Kelvin's calculation that the Earth couldn't be as old as it would have to be for evolution to account for the evidence, but the contribution of radioactive decay to the Earth's heat budget wasn't known at that time. Some of the sillier objections, such as the incorrect argument based on the second law of thermodynamics, hadn't been thought up then, either.