Yet another missing link
It's kind of cute when anti-science folks claim that the fossil record does not support natural selection. It seems as though they think that repeated this same falsehood over and over will somehow make it true, while scientists continue to discover more and more so-called missing links.
The most newly discovered missing link is a pre-spider. These near-spiders had a tail and spigots (the web-spinning organ) underneath broad plates, and no poisons. Scientists think these pre-spiders used their spigots to line burrows or create homing trails.
Here is a list of transitional fossils, for your own amusement. I know that anti-science folks like to deny natural selection is occurring by pointing out the few fraud transitional fossils, but for every fraud fossil there are hundreds of real ones, so they are surely fighting an uphill battle.
I think that evolution denial is so easy for some people because many people don't understand how evolution works. The other day, my aunt lamented that she didn't believe evolution happened because she could not see how monkeys turned into humans. I had to explain that this was good, because monkeys did not turn into humans - monkeys and humans had a common ancestor. She also told me she was never taught anything about evolution in school and so most of it she learned from church or other Christians. No wonder she thinks evolution is bogus, since anti-evolutionists often seem very good at creating strawman natural selection theories.
A lot of creationists say that they will believe in evolution when a cat turns into a dog, or some other silly nonsense like that. To tell you the truth, I'll believe in GOD when a cat turns into a dog. Such comments reflect such a gross misunderstanding of natural selection that I barely know where to begin.
The most newly discovered missing link is a pre-spider. These near-spiders had a tail and spigots (the web-spinning organ) underneath broad plates, and no poisons. Scientists think these pre-spiders used their spigots to line burrows or create homing trails.
Here is a list of transitional fossils, for your own amusement. I know that anti-science folks like to deny natural selection is occurring by pointing out the few fraud transitional fossils, but for every fraud fossil there are hundreds of real ones, so they are surely fighting an uphill battle.
I think that evolution denial is so easy for some people because many people don't understand how evolution works. The other day, my aunt lamented that she didn't believe evolution happened because she could not see how monkeys turned into humans. I had to explain that this was good, because monkeys did not turn into humans - monkeys and humans had a common ancestor. She also told me she was never taught anything about evolution in school and so most of it she learned from church or other Christians. No wonder she thinks evolution is bogus, since anti-evolutionists often seem very good at creating strawman natural selection theories.
A lot of creationists say that they will believe in evolution when a cat turns into a dog, or some other silly nonsense like that. To tell you the truth, I'll believe in GOD when a cat turns into a dog. Such comments reflect such a gross misunderstanding of natural selection that I barely know where to begin.
posted by Ziztur
at
3:00 PM
4 Comments:
I was doing the "let's argue about evolution" thing at a family get together a couple years ago when this someone asked how there could still be apes if man evolved from apes. I made the same comment you did and I swear it seemed like the old light bulb went on for her. I was both happy (that it actually made sense to her) and sad (that it seemed it was the first time she had ever heard of that). Gotta love the educational system in this country!
I know! I've heard that one too.
I also get "I don;'t believe in evolution" or "I believe in evolution" as if it is some kind of belief system - like believing in gravity.
Very interesting post. Pre-spiders. I loved the cat into a dog thing. As the lone atheist among my family plus cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents etc I would be constantly bombarded with stuff like "if there was no god then how do you.." or an aunt's fav "you can lift your hand only because of god" and such. I would tell them like "your gods were aliens" who visited earth at one time or the other. Otherwise how else could you explain all these so called Indian gods coming to earth in ancient India but are no where to be seen once bombs & other modern weapons were introduced. Got them running scared have we?
I've heard the arguments from some Christians as to why the age of the earth matters but I don't get it. Who cares how old the earth is? What does this do to my spirituality? In the Bible the Hebrew word for day is 'yom, which has about 25 difference meanings, not to mention the fact that we measure our days with the sun and in Creation we don't even get the sun until day 4. I know guys like Ken Hovind say that the average person should be able to pick up the Bible and read it and understand it without leaping through language through language barriers, but I don't think God also intended for people to use the Bible as a science book. I go back and forth with the age of the earth, evolution and all that jazz as I do more and more investigating of sources on my own but in the end all I will have determined is how old Creation is.
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