home | what's new | other sitescontact | about

 

 

Word Gems 

exploring self-realization, sacred personhood, and full humanity



There is no such thing as “gaps” in the fossil record.
We should expect to find spaces, periods of inactivity.
The concept of “gap” is part of Darwinism’s gradualism.

 


 

return to "Evolution" main-page

 

The concept of “gap” is part of Darwinistic thinking. It suggests something should be, ought to be, there; but this is presumption.

There is no panoramic, steady, uniform, flow of evolution led by natural selection over long periods of time; that is, as a single dynamic. There is another kind of evolution.

We should expect to find quiet periods with no activity - because there is no ubiquitous gradualism. This is why some species have not changed in millions of years.

The fossil record reveals things as they are, not as true-believers wish them to be; not with "gaps" but with strategic intermissions between creative bursts of Consciousness. New species were introduced to the Earth suddenly, fully functional within certain parameters, as creative “big jumps" of Consciousness.

Reality, the data, does not lie and becomes the ultimate arbiter of veridical standing. Early on, there may have been legitimate question concerning “gaps,” pending better investigative technique. But that time has passed; as Goswami says, “the gaps are mainly real and are staying.” To continue to insist on “gaps” in the face of facts revealed in the actual record is to declare, “My belief is right and reality is wrong.”

 

 

Editor's last word: