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To: SeaLion
Evolutionists: consistent with basic ToE, but a 'course-correction' revision in order, perhaps?

It's important to note that the actual "theory of evolution" has to do with *how* things evolve and speciate (i.e., the actual biological processes), whereas the sorts of "course-corrections" described in this article don't affect the *theory*, it just adjusts the *history* of which evolutionary changes occurred when.

It's similar to how your mechanic's initial estimate of why your car has stopped running may be found to be wrong once he opens up the engine and looks inside, but that still doesn't count as a change in the science by which internal combustion engine operates, or the theories in physics (thermodynamics, gas laws, etc.) which are involved.

Likewise, many people mistake revisions to life's "history book" as being changes to the "theory of evolution" itself, when in most cases it isn't at all, nor do such discoveries (like feathered dinosaurs) require any change to the theory whatsoever.

At the risk of oversimplification, evolutionary theory deals with "how and why", whereas evolutionary histories deal with "where and when".

9 posted on 09/17/2005 3:56:21 AM PDT by Ichneumon
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To: Ichneumon
Also remember: these changes in the history narratives don't take place over night. The idea that (non-avian) dinosaurs may have been feathered is an old one, with some dinosaurs (Syntaursus, Avimimius) showing either definite or possible evidence of being feathered, but only now are we certain of this, and that feathers were the rule, not the exception.

Some ten or fifteen years ago, Gregory Paul published a magnificent book on predatory dinosaurs, in which all but the largest carnosaurs were depicted as being feathered. He said in his introduction that, unless the evidence proves otherwise, he would continue to portray his smaller theropods as being feathered, because he felt the evidence of their being endothermic and their close relationship with modern birds demanded it. Luckily for him, he seems to have been proven right.

68 posted on 09/17/2005 7:59:24 AM PDT by RightWingAtheist (Bring back Modernman!)
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To: Ichneumon
At the risk of oversimplification, evolutionary theory deals with "how and why", whereas evolutionary histories deal with "where and when".

Then tell us how and why the dinosarus evolved feathers. Better yet, why don't you go back and tell us how and how and why the first living self replicating cell "evolved." Since that only involves one cell that would obviously be easier to explain the "how and why" than explaining "how and why" a 5 ton feathered dinosaur evolved from a..... what did the dinosaurs evolve from, anyway?

107 posted on 09/17/2005 10:19:08 AM PDT by P-Marlowe
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