Let me see if I can stir something up. There was a news report of a new type
of animal being found in Greenland. While the report I have is not a
scientific description, it sounds as if this is a new phyla. The report can
be found at:
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20001012/sc/life_animal_dc_1.html
The article points out that this is the 4th new phyla found during the past
100 years. One can only conclude from this that we are in an even more
explosive period than existed at the Cambrian 'Explosion'. For those who
believe that direct divine activity is responsible for the creation of new
phyla, can it be explained exactly how we would recognize that God created
these four new phyla this century, and what would be the evidence that could
be advanced? Given that none of these newer phyla have fossil records, it
seems to me that to claim that these animals lived much longer ago and are
only now being found requires the manufacture of a belief state for their
existence in times past--something for which there is no evidence.
One of the other new phyla lives on lobster lips:
"The mouthparts of the Norway lobster Nephrops are colonized by an
acoelomate metazoan, Symbion pandora gen. et sp. nov. Sessile stages
continually produce inner buds replacing feeding structures. They also
produce one of three motile stages: (1) larvae containing new feeding
stages, (2) dwarf males, which settle on feeding stages, or (3) females,
which settle onto lobster mouthparts, eand eventually degenerate, giving
rise to dispersive larvae. All motile stages are short-lived, and do not
feed. The structure and function of the cilia suggest a phylogeneitc
position in Protostomia, while some aspects of inner budding and brooding of
larvae are similar to those of Entoprocta and Ectoprocta. the dispersive
larva possesses a mesodermal supporting chordoid structure, otherwise absent
in protostomian larvae. We believe that all the above features of this
previously undescribed species warrant the recognition of a new phylum with
affinities to Ectoprocta and Entoprocta."~Petar Funch and Reinhardt Mobjerg
Kristensen, "Cycliophora is a new phylum with affinities to Entoprocta and
Ectoprocta," Nature, 378, Dec. 14, 1995, p. 711.
How do we tell progressive creation from evolution? How do we prove that
God created these phyla within the past century? Of course it will be
denied that they were created within the past 100 years, but is that
reflective of a 'need' on the part of progressive creationists to move the
progressive creation back in time and out of the period of scrutiny? Edgar
Allan Poe, I believe, said something like, the further away in place and
time that a story is set, the more incredible the tale can be. If a
progressive creationist claims, like Hugh Ross (The Genesis Question,
(Colorado Springs: NavPress, 1998), p. 150), that there is currently no
divine creation of the creatures going on, does that constitute a case of
taking Poe's advice and moving God's creativity further off in space and
time?
glenn
see http://www.flash.net/~mortongr/dmd.htm
for lots of creation/evolution information
>
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