Evolution: more gaps in foraminifera (Evolution)

by David Turell , Wednesday, October 24, 2018, 18:40 (2004 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: It is best to abandon Darwin's theory of evolution, because staying with his presumptions slows real research.

dhw: It is best not to abandon a whole theory because you disagree with a part of that theory. I agree that it is best to abandon Darwin’s theory that evolution only proceeds gradually and nature does not make jumps. Even his "bulldog" Huxley disagreed with him, so what's new?

DAVID: All that is left of Darwin is some form of common descent, and Tony disagrees with that.

dhw: And you disagree with Tony, because you also believe in common descent. The dispute concerns how evolution works. You believe in a divine 3.8-billion-year-old computer programme plus dabbling; Darwin believed in random mutations and gradualism; Huxley rejected gradualism and Gould proposed punctuated equilibrium; I hypothesize cellular intelligence. None of us have abandoned the bedrock of Darwin’s theory, which is common descent.

All your reply does is agree with me. And you won't abandon Darwin as s patron saint for you. What Darwin failed to do is based on what he did not know. The concept of common descent was present before Darwin's work. The concept of evolution from simple to complex was made more popular by his book, although his method of advancing evolution is demonstrably wrong.