Is this right? Do you evolutionists agree with your position? I tried to write it as you believe it. Do you have any disagreements or concerns or additions?
1.
The Cambrian Explosion and Punctuated Equilibrium
a. How did the earlier organisms evolve into different types and the vast
amount of new forms?
b. Where are the evolutionary links?
c. How did it happen so fast?
d. What environmental change could have done that?
e. How do we know how long it took?
f.
Why do we see so much catastrophe in burial?
Title: Cambrian Explosion by
Brian Mariani and others
Introduction:
The Cambrian Explosion is
the supposed explosion of life in which only a few simple organisms immediately
burst into a large variety of more complex organisms. This was also a point in
time where many organisms went extinct. The evidence and basis for this idea is
that there are simple fossils in the lower rock layers (Precambrian) and in
practically a few layers of time, there are more fossils of bigger and better
organisms in a large variety of new animal groups in the Cambrian layers.
How could the theory of
evolution explain such an impossibly fast transition of fossils in the fossil
record? Could the organisms have evolved that fast? Was there more time that is
not recorded between those rock layers? What could be the cause of so much
change?
Naturalistic/Evolutionary
Answer:
Over
the 4.5 billion year history of the earth, the rock layers have been building
up slowly a little at a time due to seasonal flooding or ocean/lake sediments
building up on the floor. As life slowly evolved on earth due to mutations and
environmental stresses, small organisms evolved into bigger and more complex
organisms. So as these organisms are trapped in the sediments, they are able to
fossilize. Thus the fossils in the Precambrian rock should be smaller and less
advanced.
Between
570-530 million years ago, there was very rapid change of organisms possibly
encouraged by greater oxygen levels than ever before and/or with the extinction
event of many organisms, the newer organisms changed rapidly to fill the niches
in the new environments. An ice age or “Snowball Earth” at this time may have
caused the change of environments and mechanism for evolution.[i]
Ozone was finally thick enough to start shielding the earth from harmful UV
rays to allow for more evolution. With more underwater volcanism, more calcium
would have been available in the oceans for organisms to develop and evolve their
shells.[ii]
It is debated, but some believe that the evolution of eyes and eyesight caused
an explosion of evolution as predators and prey coevolved.[iii]
This turnover in species was
pushed by “an unprecedented period of evolutionary experimentation – and competition.”[iv]
Once the new organisms settled into a new environment, evolutionary changes
were again small and minor changes in a stable environment. These new organisms
represent the ancestors of most modern day organisms.
This sudden “Cambrian Explosion”
can also be termed “Punctuated Equilibrium” meaning that the slow, steady
process of evolution jumped due to drastic changes in environment led to many
drastic changes in the prior species’ evolution into new species.
“It's
important to remember that what we call "the fossil record" is only
the available fossil record.”[v] More
transitional fossils or missing links of the species in between would be
expected to be found, although those transitional organisms may not have been
buried under the right conditions and therefore may not have been preserved. If
the transitional organisms were fossilized, they may have been eroded from the
fossil record. So it is not necessarily unusual that there are jumps between
grandfather species to grandson species simply since maybe Dad was not
preserved.
Creation Answer:
The
Fossil Record is made up of layer after layer of rock that has been laid down
by the different water currents before, during and after the flood. The fossils
found within the layers are the animals that have been caught up and buried
rapidly in those sediments. As the sediments build up during the flood, a
sorting happens, which is natural.
Lower layers like the
Precambrian will have smaller organisms that are less able to move and escape
the landslides and sediment deposits amidst the swirling flood waters. The
organisms that are faster yet still slow will be buried next. Then larger and
more mobile organisms will be able to swim or run uphill or climb higher till
eventually they are submerged and buried.
It
also depends on where and when the muddy sediments sweep through and engulf a
specific environment. We see evidence of large schools of fish all swimming together
and buried instantly. Chances are you may have seen evidence of rock layers
where the sediments have been swirled and smashed together leaving a concrete
of smashed up fossils, often shelled organisms, which is evidence of a
destructive flood, not slow burial over long ages.
So
what are the fossils? “Precambrian
fossils included bizarre organisms too different from Cambrian animals to be
their ancestors.” The organisms found in the Cambrian turned out to be “fossils of all the animal “crown
groups”—those groups most different from each other and thus from the most
distant parts (or “crown”) of the animal ‘family tree.’” So this diverse
amount of organisms would need to have evolved but “the ancestors of all 30–40 major animal groups (phyla)”
are simply missing![vi]
The
basic premise of evolution is that things change slowly over long periods of
time. “Without the time, the formula cannot work, and yet Cambrian fossils are
a parade of well-designed creatures that lived at the same time, not in
separate evolutionary ages.” Evolutionists are forced to come up with ideas as
to how they could have evolved, and some suggest “that animals were actually
alive and evolving 800 million years ago. But without the fossils to support
their story, why should other scientists believe it?” [vii]
Evolutionary studies of the Cambrian
explosion are on the verge of being more story-telling rather than scientific
since there are so many unknowns and there is no known mechanism for
change, just guesses.
Our theory
should be supported by the evidence that we do see (flood burials, lack of
transitional fossils, totally new family groups than what existed before), not
the evidence that hasn’t been found yet.
What the Bible
Says: Creation - Gen 1, Flood - Gen 6-9, Is 54:9-10, Matt 24:38-39, Luke 17:26-28,
2 Pet 2:5, 2 Pet 3:3-7
[i] Hoffman, P.F.,
Kaufman, A.J., Halverson, G.P., and Schrag, D.P. (28 August 1998). "A
Neoproterozoic Snowball Earth" (abstract). Science 281 (5381):
1342–1346.
[ii] Novel
Evolutionary Theory For The Explosion Of Life, October 27, 2009, Science Daily,
http://www.sott.net/article/195681-Novel-Evolutionary-Theory-For-The-Explosion-Of-Life,
accessed September 20, 2013.
[iii] McCall (2006). "The Vendian (Ediacaran) in
the geological record: Enigmas in geology's prelude to the Cambrian
explosion". Earth-Science Reviews 77: 1.
[iv]
The Cambrian Explosion, 2001, PBS, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/03/4/l_034_02.html,
accessed September 20, 2013.
[v] The
Cambrian Explosion, 2001, PBS, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/03/4/l_034_02.html,
accessed September 20, 2013.
[vi] Wise,
Kurt, Five Fossil Mysteries: One: Life’s Unexpected Explosion: What Explains
the Cambrian Explosion?, November 23, 2009, Answers in Genesis, http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/am/v5/n1/life-explosion,
accessed September 20, 2013.
Wieland, Carl, Exploding Evolution: Creatures found as
fossils in ‘Cambrian’ rocks have no evolutionary ancestors. And no new basic
body plans have appeared since. Creation Ministries International, http://creation.com/exploding-evolution,
accessed September 20, 2013.
[vii]
Thomas, Brian M.S., Is the Cambrian Explosion Problem Solved?, Institute for
Creation Research, http://www.icr.org/article/6507/, accessed September 20,
2013.
