North-Central Section–40th Annual Meeting (20–21 April 2006)

Paper No. 5
Presentation Time: 2:20 PM

COUNTERING CREATIONIST CLAIMS ABOUT MACROEVOLUTION


SEPKOSKI, David, History Department, Oberlin College, 308 Rice Hall, 10 N. Professor St, Oberlin, OH 44074, dsepkosk@oberlin.edu

Many creationist books and pamphlets claim that prominent biologists and paleontologists have challenged the validity of evolution because they have questioned central tenets of 'Darwinism.' This is particularly true in the area of macroevolutionary theory, where Stephen Jay Gould and others have been misrepresented as anti-evolutionists (and often quoted wildly out of context). The fundamental misconception, of course, is that any revision of orthodox Darwinism must also pose a challenge to evolutionary theory. This presentation will discuss strategies for answering questions and countering claims that modern macroevolutionary theory somehow opposes Darwin's theory of evolution.