Here's how one 'Christian' responds:

We say "Charles Darwin predicted that in the years following publication of his book, millions and millions of fossils would turn up that were transitional forms between lower and higher species. Although more than one billion fossils have been found and catalogued in the world's universities and museums, not one indisputable transitional fossil has ever been found. Not one. Even the curator of the Royal Museum in London so wrote." Colin somebody-or-other, last name escapes me. But thank you for asking. So many people just sneer. Oh, I also used to be an evolutionist--but then I considered the fossil evidence, among other things.

there are two types of evolution: Micro evolution, and macro evolution. Micro evolution are changes within a species to adapt to the surrounding environment. Macro evolution is when changes are made in a species that are drastic enough to create a new species. Christians have no problem with micro evolution and will support it. Macro is the only problem point, and there has never been a single amount of proof for macro evidence. As for so called fossil evidence, the oldest known fossil available today is an ant. Even though this fossil predates any other fossil, it is still exactly the same in structure and dna as the ants in your back yard today.

uhh what do we call the.. missing link?

uhhhhhh.... Gawd puddem' dehr?

If you have any questions about this, visit http://www.drdino.com/ and about the fossil thing, they have no way to prove how old a fossil is, they base it of of other fossils, but they have no way to prove those fossils

We are still looking for real evidence from fossils. Even when we see minor differences in fossils, we can't know that they were passed on to descendents. Can you know by looking at a fossil that it had grandchildren?

They take a long cruise up DeNial.

go_to_hellas Sep, 11 2006 at 03:59 PM Evolution doesn't occur over one generation, or one hundred generations. It's such a massively slow process that you'll never see it at work. You'll never see it at work, but you accept it as fact. Isn't this a major complaint that evolutionists have against belief in creation? Doesn't this require as much faith as accepting an unseen designer?

Let's look at it this way. Walking in the woods, we find an old arrowhead. We look at the craftsmanship and know that it is an artifact. We ponder the person who made it, its form, its function, the selection of materials, the tools required to fashion it. Perhaps with some digging, we could find those tools, a harder piece of flint shaped to form the arrowhead. We may marvel at the ingenuity of the mind who discovered and implemented this process. As we explore we find the remains of the fabricator of these interesting artifacts. Though the maker is much wiser and complex than the thing made, so complex, in fact, that we can't even duplicate it, we suddenly assume that the ancient man who created the arrowhead and the cutting tools had no creator. The direct answer to the question is: Christians see the fossil evidence and look beyond the narrow limitations of so-called modern science. Having tools unavailable (by choice) to the scientific community, we see not only the creation, we see the Creator. Christians are just as smart as anyone else. Just as a scanning electron microscope makes the 'invisible' visible, we are able to 'see' what is invisible to ordinary eyes. If you don't understand this, we can't explain it; if you do, we don't have to.

There is increasing evidence that time is not constant. For further info, research the alpha constant in cosmology. Recent evidence shows that alpha, aka the fine structure constant, may not be constant but may vary across time. This means that time may vary. So biblical history of people living for 900+ years, or having 40 days and 40 nights of rain (followed by weeks of floating around) may be true and accurate as related by the person experiencing them, although they seem like fiction now. Just as flying, television, etc. were fiction years ago.

[My comments don't always post so i've sent this as an answer, too. If the comment posts, i will delete this copy.] GTH, i appreciate your passion. Maybe i can clarify things a little. I do put weight behind the scientific method, but not to the point of trusting it blindly. I already have one faith. Accepting science as the ultimate truth is just another faith. Consider a few points, please. You speak of how long evolution theory has survived. Bible teachings have been around 35 centuries, not the less than 2 of Darwin. Yes,it's been questioned and buffeted, but it still holds up. Peer review is fine as far as it goes, but has limits. If little, limited, imperfect men review each others' work, it's still little, limited and imperfect. The God i trust has no peers. His work needs no review. Still, when MY peers review the evidence, we find that our beliefs fit it. Can you prove that your peers are truly smarter or more correct than mine? I ask this with respect and await your reply.

Easy..evidence of species once alive but are now extinct.

I have been thinking about this question since my last post and this comes to mind. True, there are many fossils, and yet the record is far far from complete. Here is a problem with faith in fossils: Finding fossils tells us nothing of their owners' descendents. There is no proof that any given creature found had grandchildren. (We might forensically determine that a female gave birth, but)we have no idea whether that 'child' grew to bear young. Put another way, there is no unbroken chain of descent. We have many fossils from various layers, but even the layers are far from consistent and the fact that some may be older than others in no way indicates that they were the direct ancestors of other creatures (if you'll pardon the expression) found. So, unless you can fairly prove that fossil creature B was the direct descendent of fossil creature A, the differences in them mean little or nothing. We have nothing like all the records of all living things. We have only snapshots. It's like future archaeologists finding an auto salvage yard and trying from the dismantled, twisted and oddly arranged specimans deciphering the development of the car without any other criteria. There's more to say, but my time is up. Another time. Please comment.

I am not trying to prove anything either way, but all evidence is subject to analysis and interpretation. I also think that it is probably a fallacy to claim that all Christians or creationists who question inter-species evolution deny all aspects of the theory of evolution. It is obvious to even most creationists that evolution takes place within species and that organisms are evolving. I would say that those who have problems in this area interpret the evidence through use of a different paradigm than others.

You may know more about human science than i do and that's fine. What i do know is religion and you are very deeply entrenched in one. I simply state this as a fact, without judgment of merit. You trust your god of manmade knowledge and i won't try to dissuade you. I've answered the question of how we respond to the fossil record. We look at the record and interpret it differently. Everyone is free to make his own choices. I admire your faith and tenacity in defending your creeds. You do it with eloquence and determination. You do fundamentalist evolutionists proud. Thank you for the lively discussion.

There is alot more proof of evolution than God existing

Some of them say that fossils are something that "the devil" put there in order to confused those who are on it's way to be saved. They place "evil" or "the devil" everywhere that Science and Knowledge collides with their nonsense.

Here is another response to fossil evidence. We know fossils are real because we can see and touch them. What they tell us is open to interpretation. Finding many similar though not identical fossils around the world in no way tells us that they all line up in a neat genealogical line. The fact that they have similar DNA proves not that they are ancestors and descendants of one another. It can simply mean that they had the same designer. A crude example: The Ford Ranger and Mazda B3000 have a very similar body design and most interchangeable parts. One did not descend from the other. It is reasonable that creatures designed to live in the same environment and subsist on similar foods would have related structures. Even gasoline and Diesel engines are somewhat similar. Fossils can tell us much about creatures, but it cannot tell us who their descendents are. Even the science of DNA testing is in its early stages and is not foolproof. Dating methods, while widely accepted, are still debated and far from reliable. The fact that reputable and respected scientists argue about the meaning of data tells us that the interpretations are subject to revision. Scientists have learned much and have helped us in many ways. Still, knowledge is limited. If you want me to live only by absolute knowledge and not faith, please show me a substantially intact line of complete fossils and remains starting with my grandparents and working back to the first cell. Does this basically answer your question?

I will admite i did not read all the answers, but there is somethnig i amm missing. Some cristian extremists will say that the earth is only 10.000 years old. You tell them that fosils milions of years old have been found, to wich they answer: "Well God putt them there to test our faith"

I will respond to this question with another question. Every evolutionist text i've read on the origin of life claims that a complex non-living molecule came to life and is the ancestor of all living things. The question is: Where can i go to see the fossil of this first living cell? If there is structure of fossil evidence leading us back to the beginning, this one is more critical than any other. Once we establish the foundation, we can examint the next course of blocks in this building. I eagerly await the answer.

i see many fundamentalists claim that god put fossils in the ground to test our faith in his creation ;) lol! so, what they're saying is god's a practical joker? he deliberately lies to us and then expects us to know he lies and those that fall for the lies get punished for eternity? yeah, then they wonder why i no longer believe in their god!

Im Christian myself, but I think that there can be an equal balance between science and faith, so I do believe in the big bang and all that [I also beleive that pluto is still a planet, but that besides the point]