A big amen Chuck. It should also be pointed out that the fossil record, by definition, will always be grossly incomplete -- the process of fossilization only occurs for a tiny fraction of life forms. For example, we've never found a fossil chimp (as far as I know). And human fossils are quite rare -- it seems the greater the intellect, the less likely they are to get mired in quicksand or tar or whatever. But weigh in DNA, observable mutations in the lab (and in fossils where mitochondrial DNA from fossils can be easily studied), obvious (under our very noses) evidence of the lines of speciation blurring (ligers and mules for example), thousands of examples in the plant kingdom where it's impossible at times to tell where one species stops and the other starts -- these are observable facts (observable because in the microbial realm you can breed thousands of generations in mere days). There are countless clear indicators in our physiology that argue for common ancestry among a wide variety of life forms, structural, chemical, reproductive, neurological, functional, etc. All mammals for example (whales, mice, horses, pigs, humans) have analogous bones structures (five digits per limb, a pair of femurs, etc.). One of the things that I find fascinating is that the whole history of the evolutionary process appears to be mirrored in our own developmental cycle. We start life as a single cell. That divides and divides (in a [salt] watery environment) from formless blastocyst to embryo (replete with tail and gill-like structures, at times indistinguishable from other life forms), to finally a human shape at emerges from the watery womb into the dry air. I find such clues a big wink from the Creator. ;o) BTW, a great read on the study of mitochondrial DNA can be found in the book "The Seven Daughters of Eve" by Bryan Sykes. -Rich --- Chuck Hards <chuckhards@yahoo.com> wrote:
Aaron, respectfully, if one does not follow scientific principals, one cannot be a scientist, and to invoke deity as part of a technical solution is to clearly set science aside.
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