Is Atheism Rational? Part2
Charles Darwin noticed the Cambrian Explosion and thought it was an artefact of a poorly preserved fossil record. We now know this was a mistake. In addition, many of our modern animals and plants are in that lowest level, just above the Precambrian. How could such complex, multi-celled creatures be there in the bottom of the Cambrian strata? But there they are.
Darwin was puzzled because of the lack of any evidence of a gradual and continuous evolution of life from a common ancestor, proof, which he needed to support his theory. He stated in The Origin of the Species, sixth edition, pages 341-342:
‘The geological record is extremely imperfect and this fact will to a large extent explain why we do not find intermediate varieties, connecting together all the extinct and existing forms of life by the finest graduated steps. He who rejects these views on the nature of the geological record, will rightly reject my whole theory.’ (Emphasis mine).
Evolution proposes that fish have evolved into amphibians, amphibians into reptiles and reptiles into mammals. Let’s look at just one of these steps. Take reptiles, which are cold blooded, lay eggs and abandon their young, which are supposed to evolve into mammals which are warm blooded, incubate their young and nurse them. Such a change is highly improbable biologically, but we must expect a large number of fossil intermediates for so completely opposite a change. We don’t find them. As we have said, there are no intermediates for any of the proposed evolutionary steps. Only separate species.
No one, including creation scientists, disputes that variation within a species by natural selection occurs. Almost all evidences given for