Science and creationism

[Doug Yanega]

>>Maybe you've not been paying attention, but evolution - including
>>speciation - is not something that happened in the past and then
>stopped
>>happening.
>
>It is true we can only observe actual specation of those animals that are
>currently changing.

All living things are evolving right now, and we can observe this evolution
in action. Observing speciation, on the other hand, is something which -
for the most part - is like watching the San Andreas Fault to see it move.
Just because you can't stand there and see any change from hour to hour
doesn't mean it isn't moving. You would be just as foolish to deny that the
fault moves (because you can't personally see it happen) as you would be to
deny that speciation is taking place, as part of the ongoing evolutionary
process. Genetic change is inevitable and incessant, and sooner or later,
such changes will lead to incompatibility between two populations that USED
to be compatible if there is insufficent gene flow between them to prevent
it. Are you willing to accept that Chihuahuas and Samoyeds and Beagles and
Bulldogs and Great Danes all have a common ancestor, even though you
weren't around to see it happen? Do you think all those breeds
spontaneously popped up, in the forms we know them today, in one gigantic
mutation each, or that it took hundreds and thousands of generations to
develop them, gradually? Do you not think that 200 years from now, that
there will NOT be new and different breeds of dogs - AND new species of
wild plants and animals - just because you can't detect any changes
occurring in your lifetime? You ARE witnessing speciation in action, and
unless you plan to live for a few hundred years, you're just not equipped
to appreciate the significance of what you're witnessing, and that's too
bad.

Peace,


Doug Yanega        Dept. of Entomology         Entomology Research Museum
Univ. of California - Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521
phone: (909) 787-4315 (standard disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
                http://insects.ucr.edu/staff/yanega.html
  "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
        is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82