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Quote by Stephen Jay Gould

“Humans arose ... as a fortuitous and contingent outcome of thousands of linked events, any one of which could have occurred differently and sent history on an alternative pathway that would not have led to consciousness.”

Quote by Stephen Jay Gould

Author

Stephen Jay Gould

Stephen Jay Gould was a renowned paleontologist, evolutionary theorist, science writer, and academic. He is known for his work in ornithology, paleontology, evolutionary theory, and speciation. Gould's writings and papers have had a profound impact on the scientific community, and he was a long-time contributor to the journal 'Nature'. more

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“Speciation does not necessarily promote evolutionary change; rather, speciation 'gathers in' and guards evolutionary change by locking and stabilization for sufficient geological time within a Darwinian individual of the appropriate scale. If a change in a local population does not gain such protection, it becomes-to borrow Dawkins's metaphor at a macroevolutionary scale-a transient duststorm in the desert of time, a passing cloud without borders, integrity, or even the capacity to act as a unit of selection, in the panorama of life's phylogeny.”

Source: Punctuated Equilibrium

“Since we proposed punctuated equilibria to explain trends, it is infuriating to be quoted again and again by creationists-whether through design or stupidity, I do not know-as admitting that the fossil record includes no transitional forms. Transitional forms are generally lacking at the species level, but they are abundant between larger groups.”

Source: Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes: Further Reflections in Natural History

“The literal record was not a hopelessly and imperfect fraction of truly insensible gradation within large populations but an accurate reflection of the actual process identified by evolutionists as the chief motor of biological change. The theory of punctuated equilibrium was, in its initial formulation, little more than this insight adumbrated.”

Littles Process Records Theory Evolution Reflection Population Insight Chiefs Imperfect Accurate Initials Motor Literal Fractions Equilibrium Insensible

Author:Stephen Jay Gould

“I emphatically do not assert the general 'truth' of this philosophy of punctuational change. Any attempt to support the exclusive validity of such a grandiose notion would border on the nonsensical.”

Philosophy Support Evolution Notion Borders Exclusive Validity Nonsensical Grandiose

Book:The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History

Source: The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History

“... many folks take them seriously because they just 'know' that evolution can never be seen in the immediate here and now. In fact, a precisely opposite situation prevails: biologists have documented a veritable glut of cases for rapid and eminently measurable evolution on timescales of years and decades.”

Knows Years Facts Situation Cases Evolution Opposites Folks Decades Rapids Here And Now Biologist

Author:Stephen Jay Gould

“Our creationist detractors charge that evolution is an unproved and unprovable charade — a secular religion masquerading as science. They claim, above all, that evolution generates no predictions, never exposes itself to test, and therefore stands as dogma rather than disprovable science. This claim is nonsense.”

Evolution Tests Claims Nonsense Dogma Secular Predictions Indication Charades Creationist

Author:Stephen Jay Gould

“If evolution almost always occurs by rapid speciation in small, peripheral isolates, then what should the fossil record look like? We are not likely to detect the event of speciation itself. It happens too fast, in too small a group, isolated too far from the ancestral range.”

Ifs Should Looks Happens Records Groups Events Evolution Range Isolated Fossils Rapids Speciation

Author:Stephen Jay Gould

“Sigmund Freud often remarked that great revolutions in the history of science have but one common, and ironic, feature: they knock human arrogance off one pedestal after another of our previous conviction about our own self-importance.”

Humans Self Common Revolution Evolution Importance Conviction Features Arrogance Ironic Pedestal Self-importance History Of Science

Author:Stephen Jay Gould

“Life shows no trend to complexity in the usual sense-only an asymmetrical expansion of diversity around a starting point constrained to be simple.”

Life Shows Simple Evolution Diversity Starting Complexity Trends Usual Expansion Starting Point

Book:Eight little piggies: reflections in natural history

Source: Eight little piggies: reflections in natural history

“The modern theory of evolution does not require gradual change. It in fact, the operation of Darwinian processes should yield exactly what we see in the fossil record. It is gradualism that we must reject, not Darwinism.”

Should Doe Facts Process Records Modern Theory Evolution Operations Rejects Yield Fossils Darwinism Theory Of Evolution Gradualism Gradual Change

Book:The Structure of Evolutionary Theory

Source: The Structure of Evolutionary Theory