Cambrian Explosion in the context of BioLogos

Faith & Science Conversation
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I wanted to get people’s thoughts on the Cambrian explosion. I know it has been used in the past to throw a wrench in evolution. I don’t consider myself to be a BioLogos believer but I’m not against the idea either. I was wondering what your opinions are on this subject?

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@BLeonard

I’m not going to pay any attention to criticisms of the Cambrian Explosion until critics find a pattern of either land animals, or whales, buried in the Cambrian layers. If we can’t find anything modern in that layer, then what are they talking about?

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A quick search located this article on the Cambrian Explosion, right here on BioLogos.

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I’ve seen people who are using it to throw a wrench in, so to speak, leave out details like the fact we see precursors of the ‘new’ animals in older rock layers, or that this ‘sudden explosion’ still covered a span of millions of years. Another factor is that it’s a lot less likely for things that had no shells or hard parts to fossilize. People who study the Cambrian consider it a very interesting time in prehistory, but don’t consider it evolutionarily improbable.

I think there was a lot of genetic ‘set-up’ or ironing out of kinks that had to occur before multi-cellular life was ready to really take off, and possibly environmental factors like oxygen levels had to be at a certain point as well that enabled life to expand in ways it couldn’t have before.

But I’m not a real expert on it. I’d really encourage you to read up on all the science if it’s a topic that interests you!

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@Lynn_Munter

If there is no pattern of animals from the wrong time period… just tell them they weren’t their … HA!

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Here’s more BioLogos materials on the Cambrian explosion:

http://biologos.org/blogs/dennis-venema-letters-to-the-duchess/evolution-basics-the-cambrian-diversification-and-assembling-animal-body-plans-part-1
http://biologos.org/blogs/dennis-venema-letters-to-the-duchess/evolution-basics-the-cambrian-diversification-and-assembling-animal-body-plans-part-2

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Just the other day I had a fellow claim to “prove” a rabbit in the Cambrian sort of thing by posting Carl Baugh’s infamous “London Hammer” artifact. If anyone hasn’t heard of it, look it up. It is quite fun! (It is a hammer left on a ledge that is covered by simple carbonate concretions. They call it a “fossil” and because of the age of the rock of the ledge where it was found, Carl Baugh is certain that it must be billions of years old! (Or millions or whatever. It depends on how he is feeling that day.) Provenance is not a big priority with Carl. Kind of like his “Dr.” title.

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Thanks Ill give it a read!!!

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