Posted by Gunnar on March 29, 1999 at 22:44:47:
In Reply to: almost forgot Gould posted by rpcman on March 27, 1999 at 23:47:59:
: . . . you will plainly see that he does not believe "transitional forms (missing links) do not exist" . . .
Having read and enjoyed several of Gould's books myself, I agree that anyone who thinks he doesn't believe in transitional forms must not have read much of what he wrote, He does believe that evidence of them would be rare and hard to find, and gives very good reasons why this would be so.
I think it was Michael Shermer who pointed out one of the most absurd aspects of the "no transitional forms" argument (one I had already noted before I read his book). Whenever a transitional form is discovered that fits nicely in a gap between two previously known forms, creationists often focus only on the two new gaps created between the transitional form and the forms on either side of it. Thus every new transitional form discovered only increases the number of gaps in which creationists can claim there are no known transitional forms, and, to their absurd way of thinking, only serves to strengthen their argument!
Gunnar