The Fossil Record and Scientific Zeitgeist
A couple of quotes and a couple of books you should read
A couple of quotes of interest. The first is from Stephen J. Gould, who was a leading paleontologist at Harvard until his death in 2002. He was a devout evolutionist, atheist, and very well-known author. He knew about the fossil record, supposedly the strongest evidence evolution has to support its theory. In his 1980 book, The Panda’s Thumb, Gould wrote:
“The extreme rarity of transitional forms in the fossil record persists as the trade secret of paleontology. The evolutionary trees that adorn our textbooks have data only at the tips and nodes of their branches. The rest is inference, however reasonable, not the evidence of fossils. All paleontologists know that the fossil record contains precious little in the way of intermediate forms. Transitions between major groups are characteristically abrupt.”
Again, that is a quote from one of America’s leading experts on fossils, and again, Gould was an atheist and evolutionist.
Here is a quote from Harvard professor Richard Lewontin, another devout evolutionist, and, in this case, refreshingly honest:
“We take the side of science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs, in spite of its failure to fulfill many of its extravagant promises of health and life, in spite of the tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstantiated just-so stories, because we have a prior commitment...to materialism. It’s not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept [materialism]...but we are forced by our a priori adherence to material causes to create...a material explanation...Moreover, that materialism is absolute. For we cannot allow a divine foot in the door.”
The theory of evolution is believed today not because the evidence proves it—witness Gould and Lewontin above—but because atheism and Leftism are the current “zeitgeist” of Western Civilization “intellectuals,” who teach us and tell us what we should believe. It takes a strong mind to rise above his “zeitgeist” and really arrive at truth. Few can do it. And as Lewontin said, the current “zeitgeist” is, “we cannot allow a divine foot in the door.” That would ruin everything.
Here are a couple of books you might wish to read. The authors are NOT “Biblical creationists,” just honest scientists and explorers:
Jonathan Wells, Icons of Evolution
Tom Bethel, Darwin’s House of Cards
There are other books worth reading (Stephen Meyer’s stuff is excellent as well), but the two above are pretty easy for anybody to understand. Just like you don’t have to be a vet to know what a dog is, you don’t have to be a “scientist” to know truth when you hear it.