Science in Christian Perspective

Letter to the Editor

Transitional Fossils Well Known
Roger J. Cuffey 
Dept. of Geology & Geophysics 
The Pennsylvania Store University University Park, Pennsylvania 16802

From: JASA 23 (March 1971): 38.

In my opinion, John N. Moore's article (Journal ASA 22, 82 (1970) ) is based upon a number of errors, chief of which is his assertion (p. 84) that transitional fossils do not exist and that therefore scientific opposition to organic evolution is reasonable and justifiable. Unfortunately for his (and many similar evangelicals') arguments, many transitional fossils do exist and are well-known to paleontologists. For example, on high taxonomic levels, numerous forms exist which collectively bridge completely the present-day gaps between amphibians and reptiles, and between reptiles and mammals. Similarly, on low taxonomic levels, many series are known in which morphologically transitional fossils are found as chronological intermediates between earlier primitive species and later advanced species. Such series are known (and published in the paleontologie literature) among late Paleozoic bryozoans from the U.S., mid-Paleozoic brachiopods from the U.S. and Europe, Cenozoic mollusks from the U.S. Gulf Coast, and Cenozoic foraminiferans from the southwest Pacific, to cite only a few.

It is time for evangelical scientists to stop wasting time fooling themselves that evolution did not happen. We should he dealing instead with determining the implications for our outlook posed by the apparent use of evolution as God's means of creation, and with repairing the damage done to evangelical non-scientists' outlook by our collective refusal to take seriously the well-founded contributions of paleontology, geology, and biology.