Is Cambrian Explosion A Flaw In The Evolution Theory#socrates

Darwin, the scientific method, Danny DeVito, and Cher all manage to find a place in this mind-boggling and entertaining conversation between Eric Metaxas and Stephen Meyer, at the Union League Club in New York City in September 2013.

[bradcourt]

“Explosion” is not synonymous with “brief” in geologic terms. His position collapses almost immediately.

[spencerjoplin]

“Explosion” = 20-50 million years. So still plenty gradual.

[BillG]

Meyer is such a shameless creationist liar. Notice he won't discuss the 3 billion years' of life *before* the Cambrian including at least 100 million years of multi-cellular life.

[scottstambaugh]

This is so incredibly dumb. “Suddenly“ in geological terms is not suddenly.

[andycolborn]

Ugh. Punctuated equilibrium is the theory (framework) most scientists prescribe to. It means if the environment and ecological niche of a species is very stable (see sharks) evolutionary changes happen much more slowly if really at all. Almost all evolutionary changes instead happen during periods when this environment is shaken up to varing extents. Sometimes we even see evolution happening in real time. In the UK, they had a species of dusty white moths called "peppered moths" which were colored to blend into treebark and lichen. When smokestakes went up over Manchester during the industrial revolution covering the city in coal dust, the white moths became easier targets. Within 50 years 98% of peppered moths were black.

Also the cambrian explosion may have happened "all of a sudden" from an evolutionary timeline perspective but it took like 10-20 million years. If you look at our species, our ancestors were scurrying around on all fours 10 million years ago. 10 million years + is plenty for lots of change to happen especially if things are really shaken hp.

[Gonegonegone]

“Explosion” is relative. And within those 50 million years natural selection still ruled. We don’t even know what we don’t know about the creatures to fill in the branches on that fast growing tree.

[adamfleder]

It also involves the inspection of an incomplete fossil record. You don’t get to see every fine step in all organisms and much evolution occurred before the development of hard body parts that could be preserved.

[TomCarberry]

If you ask how scientists date these events, you will find they do it by finding Lincoln pennies dated for example 530 million BC.

[timmiller]

So, 530 million years ago there was a drastic change in environment which doesn't happen often, and that means all of the evolution before and after wasn't operating under more frequent and rhythmic constraints before and in between such events?

[bmbox]

never trust a thing out of meyers mouth, he’s a creationist.

[dichotomology]

Easily explained that this was likely when multicellular life manifested. Which is much easier to have fossils of. Most non multicellular life just gets swallowed up and leaves no trace. Very easy to explain.

[ndjarnag]

Oh my god, science has progressed since Darwin in the 1800s.

I’m

[cl]

The Cambrian explosion was 20-30 million years. How slowly did you think evolution takes?

[hi]

We know about the Cambrian explosion through the fossil record which unfortunately has big lapses in time and isn’t perfect for recording life on earth. So we only know a fraction of all the many different kinds of life on earth at that time.

The Cambrian explosion also lasted for a few thousand years so it is a much slower grind than the whole whoosh *hand wave* metaphor this guy did on screen.

And lastly, the cool thing about evolution is that it isn’t linear. Crocodiles and sharks have barely changed since they first got their shape, only slight variations to suite their ecosystem. Someone in this comment section also talked about peppered moths turning from white to black to better hide with all the smoke with the Industrial Revolution.

Science is supposed to be challenged and cross examined. But there were no counter done here. It’s just a “well that doesn’t sound quite right with Darwin” which doesn’t really help anything, it only works to undermine either Darwin or paleo research. We use Darwin’s theories because they just work, but as we grow to understand the world more that could change. This creationist vs evolutionist debate won’t get any thing done. I’m sure if the Lord didn’t want us learning, he would’ve smited farms long ago

[gigachad]

You also have to take into account that the environment completely drives evolution as well, if there is no need to change an organism won’t evolve but if the biological competition in a ecosystem is high that will accelerate evolution

[DanFedMusic]

Yeah but if you wanna believe the macro evolution hypothesis, you'll push the scientific method aside for a minute and start doing all kinds of mental gymnastics.

[charlesjoyce]

For those who are not convinced that the cambrian explosion is too small of a time period for Darwinian evolution to explain this "sudden" appearance of brand new life forms, what about the lack of intermediate species in the fossil record?
Even if one were to grant that 20 - 50 million years is not too short for the kinds life in the cambrian period to evolve, wouldnt we see evidence of this in the fossil record?

[maynardkford]

another con man misrepresenting facts to fit the grift

[Dan]

Ah yes all of sudden god decided to do something? Lol

[seanrcollier]

Every time I see Bob Odenkirk in a new video like this one I'm always so impressed with his range