The Quote Mine Project Or, Lies, Damned Lies and Quote Mines Gould, Eldredge and Punctuated Equilibria Quotes by the talk.origins newsgroup Previous Introduction Contents Next s noted in the Introduction , our intent was to continue to add to our collection of quote mines. This is the second such addition and it primarily concerns one of, if not the , most fertile areas for quote mining by creationists: Punctuated Equilibria. If you have never heard of Punctuated Equilibria, it is a theory (or, more correctly, a related group of theories) first advanced by Niles Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould that primarily concerns the mechanisms, frequency and rate of speciation events, especially as they are reflected in the fossil record. In Gould's words, the theory of Punctuated Equilibria calls for a "jerky, or episodic, rather than a smoothly gradual, pace of change" in evolution. There is, of course, much more to it than that and the theory has been and continues to be controversial (at least in some respects) within the scientific community. For anyone who wishes to know more about Punctuated Equilibria, an excellent place to start is: Punctuated Equilibria by Wesley R. Elsberry. | |
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