#17
Out of curiousity...what would you say is evolution's best answer for the theory of the cambrian explosion?
Plus, do you guys consider evolution a hypothesis, theory, or fact?
First off, thanks for asking an intelligent question! A rare thing in this thread. 👍
Cambrian quesion:
Environmental factors played a major role. By the start of the Cambrian, the supercontinent of land on Earth was breaking up into smaller bits. This increased the area of continental shelf and produced shallow seas, which contributed to the growth of more diverse ecosystems.
There's quite a bit of debate about whether the evolutionary "explosion" of the Cambrian was as sudden and spontaneous as it appears. Scientists long thought that rock deposits from the Cambrian held the first and oldest fossilized animals. Now, a growing body of pre-Cambrian fossils and other scientific evidence, such as genetic analysis, increasingly suggests that the developmental changes seen abundantly in the Cambrian were already underway much earlier.
National Geographic article
Is evolutionary theory fact?
Evolution has been proven to occur, so the general concept is certainly fact. Do we know everything about how it works? No. One important thing to realise is that for something to evolve, it doesn't neccessarily become more complex. It simply evolves in whatever way that creature can become more successful, including possibly becoming simpler (many GTPlanet members), staying the same (crocodiles, many insects), or becoming more complex and intelligent (most humans). Its also important to realise that evolution doesn't neccessarily happen at a linear rate, its quite dependent on the conditions and each individual species (as shown by human's evolution whilst crocodiles have remained successful and haven't needed to change much). There are quite a few intelligent assumptions regarding what happened
really early on, so there's a bit of theorising (due to lack of evidence. More fossils are always being found however) still going on. But yes, the basic concept of evolution IS factual. How many times do creationists need to be told this?
Irreverent humour aside for a second, as you probably know, I'm not likely to sit down and read the whole, unabridged Bible (not even the GT4 Bible!... well, it's in Japanese anyway, but I digress)... but I personally think it's a good idea to make the Bible more accessible. Science publications are often criticised for being too dense or inaccessible to the general public, but scientists frequently scoff at science that has been rewritten to make it more understandable. This is why I am a big fan of Richard Dawkins. Not only is he Professor of the public understanding of Science at Oxford, he is also capable of explaining some complex ideas in very simple and easily understandable language. By the same token, I think it is time there was an attempt to make the Bible a little less daunting to those who want to know 'the basics' rather than have to study the whole thing...
