02.23.08
The importance of fossils
Evolution: What The Fossils Say And Why it Matters.
Fossils are crucial, I agree, but haven’t they turned Darwinism into a theory fossil? As far as the evolution of man is concerned, the list of fossils does not constitute a theory of evolution. And the thinness of the record tells us very little about how evolution really happened.
I was in love with dinosaurs when I was a kid, and I still am. It was my love for dinosaurs and fossils and especially my time spent learning the minutea of the evolutionary history of horses that quickly brought me into direct conflict with the church that I was being inculcated into when I was very young and innocent. Subsequently, I had to learn about evolution in small niblets on the sly. But I wish I had been able to read paleontologist Don Prothero’s beautifully written and lavishly illustrated book, Evolution: What The Fossils Say And Why it Matters (NYC: Columbia University Press; 2007). More than just a lucid overview of the fossil record, this book magnificently accomplishes its two primary objectives by showing how the “hard data” of the incredibly rich fossil record supports evolution, while also pointing out how pervasive creationist lies, misquotations and various deceptions actually are.