QUESTIONS

QS: Please tell me what you think the fossil record shows? I'm not being smart (read: sarcastic), I just want to understand your position so that I can respond properly.

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Originally posted by quicksink:
primitive species are found lower in the strata, and more modern and "advanced" are found further up.

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The fossil record shows nothing. You make an assumption and seek to understand the fossil record in light of that assumption. Suppose you were on a dig 2000 years from now, and you discovered, in different strata, a Shetland pony, a quarterhorse, a thorough-bred, and a Clydesdale. Being completely honest, wouldn't you try to arrange them in some sort of evolutionary fashion - as though the big horse evolved from the smaller one? Now, given the assumption of evolution, that arrangement would come easy. The fossil record has not showed it to be true, it is merely consistent with your assumption. I mean, after all, the fossils could be related. But the fossils themselves do not teach us the relation. Would you admit that the assumption has to be made?

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We can infer from the fossil record that some animals, and types
of animals existed at times when others did not.

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That last statement is sufficient to invalidate a literal
interpretation of the creation in genesis.

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I'm afriad I don't follow the quote above.My interpretation is this: In the ordinary course of events, animals usually do not fossilze when they die. Usually there is an unusual event like a volcanic eruption or flood. Fossilization is more likely to occur in some sort of cataclysm than in normal circumstances. So if we find widespread fossilization it would be reasonable to infer widespread cataclysm. And, if we find fossil graveyards with millions of animals jammed together, it would be reasonable to infer cataclysm of titanic proportions. I believe the evidence to be 'supportive' of a global flood. The fossil evidence doesn't prove there was a global flood, but it is consistent with that idea.

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[This message has been edited by Punisher, 03-11-2002]

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Now, if they were found in different layers, that would be something different

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that is what I said in my original hypothetical situation; "in different strata"original: Suppose you were on a dig 2000 years from now, and you discovered, in different strata, a Shetland pony, a quarterhorse, a thorough-bred, and a Clydesdale.