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Index to Creationist Claims,  edited by Mark Isaak,    Copyright © 2006
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Claim CC201.1:

The theory of punctuated equilibrium was proposed ad hoc to explain away the embarrassing gaps in the fossil record.

Source:

Yahya, Harun, 2003. Darwinism Refuted, The invalidity of punctuated equilibrium. http://www.darwinismrefuted.com/equilibrium.html

Response:

  1. The theory of punctuated equilibrium is based on positive evidence, including extensive studies of living and extinct species groups (Eldredge and Gould 1972).

  2. The idea of phyletic gradualism, which is invoked to justify a lack of gaps, fails to fit the evidence of population biology.

  3. There is nothing wrong with proposing theories to fit the data.

Links:

Elsberry, Wesley, 1996. Punctuated equilibria. http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/punc-eq.html

References:

  1. Eldredge, N. and S. J. Gould, 1972. Punctuated equilibria: An alternative to phyletic gradualism. In: Models In Paleobiology (T. J. M. Schopf, ed.), San Francisco: Freeman, Cooper & Co., 82-115.

Further Reading:

Gould, Stephen J. 1983. Evolution as fact and theory. In Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, pp. 253-262. http://www.stephenjaygould.org/library/gould_fact-and-theory.html
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created 2003-5-24, modified 2003-6-22