To: dlamoure@gpu.srv.ualberta.ca(denislamoureux)
Denis,
Would you post this to the reflector for me? I am leaving in an hour and am
currently subscribed to the reflector. If I send this, the system will
unsubscribe me and I will be unable to get any posts for the next few
days.-- Thanks. I will deal with the flack when I get back. :-)
**
I was told about a wonderful paleontological data base which lists all the
families of the kingdoms and their range of occurrence. I got it and have
been analyzing it. The most amazing thing I found is that among the
chordates (animals with back bone which excludes any middle manager of any
american corporation) only three of the 660 living families have
representatives prior to the Mesozoic. These are the Chimaeridae( a fish),
and the Rhabdoleuridae and Cephlodiscidae (hemichordates). No living family
of reptiles, mammal or bird exists from those parts of the geologic column.
The examples from those times are not the same species we have alive today.
Now, as I have mentioned several times over the past year, the entire
geologic column does exist in its proper order in 26 places around the world.
Since the column (and the encased fossils) can only be deposited from
above, it means that the lower rocks are older. Thus putting this fact with
the above analysis means that at an earlier time,(the Paleozoic) life was
DIFFERENT. There are only three ways to explain this fact. 1. Progressive
Creation and Destruction, or 2. a previous creation, or 3. evolution.
The first option can't be ruled out entirely but the Progressive Creationists
are usually reluctant to talk about the destruction aspect their theory
demands. God created a lot of animals which were subsequently destroyed
possibly directly by Him. In fact a lot of PC's argue against evolution
because it is a cruel process. But so is PC.
The second option can be ruled out, because the ranges of the families
overlap. In total there have been 1716 families of chordates only 660 are
alive today, but that is a record number. There is no clear break for a
previous creation to have occurred.
The third option explains the data quite nicely.
Could the distribution be due to a flood? No. Kurt Wise wrote:
"To my knowledge, virtually all creation geologists accept the entire
Cenozoic as post-Flood."("Speaking to the Earth", Bible-Science News, 33:5,
July 1995, p. 17.)
Since the number of chordate families literally explode after the beginning
of the Cenozoic, it would require a belief that a whole lot of animals got
off the ark that never got on the ark. Most of the families of chordates
today have no pre-Cenozoic fossil record.
Just some observations. See you in a few days.
glenn