Punctuated Equilibrium and the Validation of Macroevolutionary Theory 987
are not supposed to show in-between forms. The new forms appeared suddenly, in
large steps."
We may at least label creationist Everett Williams as timely in adding the insult
of misnaming to the injury of the same distortion in a 1980 newspaper column: "The
latest version of the process is called 'punctual [sic] evolution.' In this version,
evolution is seen as moving in giant surges and then becoming stagnant for eons."
A broadsheet from Hillsborough, North Carolina, entitled "Harvard scientists
agree: Evolution is a hoax!!!" goes whole hog in assimilating us to its own version of
the rock of (small) ages: "The facts of 'punctuated equilibrium' which Gould,
Eldredge, Stanley and other top biologists are forcing the Darwinists to swallow fit
the picture that Bryan insisted on, and which God has revealed to us in the Bible.
Every species of organism was separately created during the six 'days' of creation...
This is the doctrine taught by Scripture and by Cuvier (the father of paleontology)
alike, and modern biology is forcing the Darwinists to accept it."
In The Genesis Connection, J. L. Wiester commits the same error of scaling (in
maximal degree this time), and then also cites us as hidden supporters of his one true
way: "The theory of punctuated equilibrium holds that life did not evolve in the slow
uniform method that Darwin envisioned but rather in rapid evolutionary bursts of
major change called adaptive radiations. The Cambrian explosion of marine life was
such an adaptive radiation... The new theory of punctuated equilibrium brings the
thinking of science remarkably closer to the biblical view. It is notable that the more
evidence scientists discover (or fail to discover), the closer scientific theory moves
toward the unchanging biblical pattern."
9 - 38. Creationist distortion of punctuated equilibrium modified from original in "Fossils: key
to the present" by Bliss, Parker, and Gish, 1980. They misdepict punctuated equilibrium as a
saltationist theory, with all vertebrate classes arising in single steps, all at the same time.