> At , you wrote:
> >At 03:33 PM 12/20/98 -0600, you wrote:
> >>To me, as a Christian, I found the the idea of an unbroken chain of life
> >>from simple to man limiting the sustaining power of God who can choose to
> >>break this continuity when a higher purpose can be served such as the
> >>Virgin Birth of Christ and His resurrection. As a biologist and a student
> >>of philosophy and theology, I understand that the worldview of the
> >>biologist shapes his/her interpretation of biological evidence. The
> >>mechanism of natural selection which explains variations and speciationw
> >>was taken by Darwin to justify his belief of Common Descent versus the
> >>alternative of Common Descent. Most biologists have come to the
> >>realization that natural selection fails to account for macroevolution.
> >>Some of us believe a time for paradigmatic shift may be at hand and the
> >>model of Intelligent Design, if it is allowed to be develop, may become a
> >>competing worldview to guide future biological research.
> Hi,
> Actually I don't have a commitment to an unbroken chain but I am willing
> to let it
> live until we know better one way or the other. When you say "most
> biologists" how can you define that as I would be surprised but interested
> if that was true. Also some on this list speak as if Macroevolution was an
> undefined term or false line? Can it really be laid out as a solid line
> that can or can not be crossed "naturally"?
>
Most "open minded" biologists (I mean people who do not have a
preconceived commitment to the popular paradigm of common descent)
including Michael Denton and James Shapiro. Both are not governed by their
commitment to the Christian Faith (I talked to both of them personally and
I do not think they are Christians) and have written extensively on the
faiture of Darwinism to account for the irreducibly complex bioloigical
systems. Macroevolution is commonloy accepted by biologists as the
transpecific evolution of taxa such as phyla, kingdoms and urkingdoms. The
term was popularized by Simpson and Goldschmidt(sp?), the outspoken
evolutionist of the last generation (50's). Punctualism, first popularized
by Gould and Eldredge, is fast becoming the dominant view in biology. It
contrasts with Darwinian gradualism which claims slow accumualtion of
advantageous mutation selected by favorable environments (Natural
Selection), which fails to account for the fossil record such as the
Cambrian Explosion and the general lack of intermediate fossils as well as
sequences in molecular evolution. The problem with punctualism is that
it is only a description without any mechanistic explanations. All of
these discussion is still embedded in the paradigm of common descent. You
can find these phenmonena described in any recently published general
college biology text books.
------------------------------------- Dr. Pattle Pun Professor of Biology
Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL 60187
eMail: Pattle.P.Pun@wheaton.edu
Phone: (630)752-5303
FAX: (630)752-5996
http://www.wheaton.edu/Biology/faculty/ppp/index.html