The fossils that have been found show a picture of a world that has changed over the span of at least 3.5 million years. The first fossils are of very simple organisms and over time the creatures found become increasingly complex as multicellular life emerges. After multicellular life gets going there is an extensive record of the mix of various types of creatures changing overtime. Can you trace the divergence of anyone creature as it changes overtime perfectly? Not right now. People have only been digging up and analyzing fossils in a scientific manner for a very short period of mankind's history, but that which has been found is tells a pretty compelling story of constant change and innovation in response to the pressures of survival. I find this story much more compelling then a Deus Ex no evidence. Do you happen to recall when the God bothers told us all that the Sun revolved around the Earth? Don't drink the same cool aid twice. I certainly trust the process of scientific method more then the tenth grade research paper. In the end your hypothesis seems that it must be that because science has not explained any and all confusing evidence that evolution could be real people should discard the development and testing of this theory through scientific method and accept that God just did it, despite the fact that you have no evidential evidence of Gods hand. In the end your proof of creationism relies only on rational (Logic), emotive, and authoritative (Bible and stuff your elders say) evidence but not a shred of credible hand of God stuff. Evolution does not preclude the hand of God in anyway, there is no reason that Evolution could not be a perfect system set up by the guy in the sky himself but there is no way to prove such a set up scientifically, it is a religious belief. The shepherd only cares about the lamb because he can exploit it for that which the lamb can provide. I don't mind people being children of god or servants of god but when they are a willing resource for exploitation I have to wonder, identifying with victimization is unhealthy, it certainly makes for good soldiers to go out and talk about how the sun revolves around the earth.
- Evolution does not preclude the hand of God in anyway, there is no reason that Evolution could not be a perfect system set up by the guy in the sky himself but there is no way to prove such a set up scientifically, it is a religious belief.
I think I grew up in a fairly unique home, with a devoutly religious father who also happens to be an anthropologist by trade. I appreciate now that he would never "tell me how it is" about evolution. He encouraged me to thoughtfully draw my own conclusions. I dont think they meant to, but cgod and mk do a pretty good job of describing where I sit. There is a lot of room for god in the discussion, but I can't imagine trying to "debunk" evolution. I once had a pretty enthusiastic creationist tell me that early hominid fossils were just fakes that god put on earth to test out faith. I think I've said this before on hubski... I believe in god. And I think he believes in us and wants us to push limits when it comes to understanding science and the universe. But I'm a little weird like that.
I was up till 2am debating this with my father in law last night. I found myself wishing that you and mk were there to help make the discussion more interesting. He is convinced that the world is 6000 years old. No matter what I said, it mattered not. Regardless of how frustrating, it was a civil exchange and a really interesting insight in to the mind of a devout evangelical.
I have been embarrassed by some of the things I used to "know". What I've come to "know" is, that I know nothing. There are things I can experience with the senses, but they can be fooled. There are things I can try to disprove with the scientific method and then accept the results. There are several things I believe in. There are things I have faith in, and hope for - but in the end, I know that I know nothing. I think people confuse "knowing" something with deciding something. It's super easy to believe that the earth is six thousand years old. You just decide it, and stop accepting notions to the contrary. It's much easier to "know" something when you don't even entertain contrary arguments. I can't do that though. I don't like being a fool. I really hate feeling stupid (I've had years of experience doing this).
There are several reasons that transitional fossils are rare. Firstly, the chance of any organism being fossilized is small, given that the conditions need to be perfect for fossilization to occur. Second, once fossilized, the fossils need to be found, which is problematic, because this requires old rock getting pushed up near the surface in many cases, and then not, say, being under the ocean. Furthermore, evolutionary transitions appear to happen relatively quickly (in geologic/evolutionary terms). This is due to the stability of ecological niches. It seems that transitions occur most readily when there is some disruption to the niche, which may happen because of a rare event such as a major volcano, asteroid impact, major river system being diverted, etc. In the mean time, it seems that slow genetic drift is dominant, which doesn't allow for radically different organisms to appear. Therefore, finding transitions is a rarity within a rarity. If you are interested to learn more, I would suggest picking up Gould's Full House. Its a masterfully written and easy to understand book about why and how evolution occurs.
Even if we have good transitional fossils for modern man they will insist that evolution is real and it happened by Gods hand and insist on teaching this as a fact in science classes. Despite the fact that I plan on teaching my daughter the most common bible stories (as a matter of cultural literacy, just like I'll read Shakespeare with her) I don't want her to be indoctrinated by others in what she should believe spiritually. It's sad, but really there is no evidence that will convince others that they shouldn't impose their spiritual belifes, this includes those of us that believe in science.