Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site mcnc.mcnc.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!mcnc!bch From: bch@mcnc.UUCP (Byron Howes) Newsgroups: net.origins Subject: Re: Darwinism vs catastrophic evolution Message-ID: <712@mcnc.mcnc.UUCP> Date: Wed, 14-Aug-85 10:15:00 EDT Article-I.D.: mcnc.712 Posted: Wed Aug 14 10:15:00 1985 Date-Received: Sat, 17-Aug-85 16:11:31 EDT References: <364@imsvax.UUCP> Reply-To: bch@mcnc.UUCP (Byron Howes) Organization: North Carolina Educational Computing Service Lines: 34 Summary: This whole discussion is silly. We have gone over this ground before. The notion that evolutionary theory is somehow "uniformitarian" in the sense that it does not allow for catastrophic events or extinctions due to catastrophic events is a red herring put forth by the creationists. Natural Selection takes place within an environment whose attributes have to be considered. A second red-herring which Ted, among others, continually introduces is the notion of an abrupt evolution -- a "reptile giving birth to a bird" which conjures images of Godzilla giving birth to Donald Duck. What these folks fail to recognize (or admit) is that reptile<->bird is a continuum wherin the difference between creatures close to the human-created "division" line may be quite imperceptable. To paraphrase the I Ching, "because we create categories of creatures does not mean the creatures are somehow obligated to fit themselves cleanly into our categories." At issue is whether the catastrophe in question is that particular catastrophe which Velikovsky and his camp-followers say it is. Ted has yet to present a shred of evidence to say it is or that it is to be preferred over a more "garden variety" meteor hit which would not ask us to rewrite physics. I am anxious to see his evidence from myths (sorry, Ted, most scientists think that mythical evidence is good "indicatory" evidence for things like the eruption of Santorini -- physical evidence must be found to corroborate, however.) Finally, you don't need guns, cannons or even cliffs to kill a Mastodon. Archeological evidence indicates the easiest way to kill a Mastodon is simply to keep it on the run until it dies of thirst, starvation or both. This remained a hunting method used by primitive people up into recorded history. Whether or not this method caused the extinction of a species is an irrelevant point, however. -- Byron C. Howes ...!{decvax,akgua}!mcnc!ecsvax!bch