What is the Cambrian Explosion?

​​In the minds of many, explosions are not good things.  However, they can be good or bad, depending on whether they are planned and properly controlled.  Every time I drive my car numerous explosions occur under the hood, and it is the very thing that helps me get from point A to point B. Fortunately, the series of explosions are timed and controlled just right as to transform the powerful forces they create into useful mechanical motion via the pistons and driveshaft.

​The explosion we will be addressing (the Cambrian Explosion) is truly not a good thing, and not an actual explosion in the literal sense.

Most people are at least somewhat familiar with the geologic column.  According to Merriam-Webster, it is “a columnar diagram that shows the rock formations of a locality or region and that is arranged to indicate their relations to the subdivisions of geologic time.”  More commonly, it is purported to be a record of Earth history, specifically the formation of numerous rock layers over billions of years, accompanied by the evolutionary development of life during that same time.
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All public school systems and state universities teach the view that the Earth is about 4.5 billion years old and that all life evolved from a single celled organism which arose spontaneously from non-living chemicals approximately 3.8 billion years ago.  Allegedly, the geologic column powerfully reflects and confirms this view--that life evolves very slowly from one form to another over multiplied millions of years (Darwinian evolution).

Does the geologic column, specifically the fossils therein, reflect such a view?  If so, we should expect to find life appearing at some point towards the bottom and then in each successive layer, we should see very slight modifications, gradually leading to creatures that are quite different from their distant ancestors: slow, gradual change, bottom to top.

Well, things don’t always turn out as planned.  Even though many institutions and news sources would have you believe the geologic column is just what we would expect if evolution were true, nothing could be further from the truth!  So, are these experts all lying to us?  I don’t believe they are for one second.  (I’m sure someone, somewhere is lying about their findings or conclusions, but those are the exceptions to the rule.)  Most of the teachers and professors who espouse these views do not have first-hand knowledge of the facts, only years and years of being taught the same story themselves.  They are under the powerful impression that the proof exists, and they only need to convey the ​conclusions to their students and the general public.  They are not truly lying when doing so, simply repeating the only story they’ve ever heard.  Even though they may have some serious questions about all of it themselves, they keep quiet, not wanting to make waves, fight the system or even possibly lose their job for daring to say, “The Emperor has no clothes!”

​​So, what’s the Cambrian Explosion? To begin with, the Cambrian layer in the geologic column is towards the bottom and one of the first to contain any fossil forms of life.  If the idea of evolution is true, you would expect to find only relatively “simple” forms of life here.

The “Cambrian Explosion” alludes to the fact that contrary to finding what I mentioned “should” be there (if Darwinian evolution were true), what is actually found is a sudden “explosion” of complex life-forms, with no known “simpler” ancestors.  These complex life-forms come out of nowhere and are fully-formed right from the get-go. For example, the trilobite has arguably the most complex eye known to man, but the first time we see it in the rock record, it is fully formed!  It wasn’t on its way to becoming complex or functional; it was complete and complex right from the start.

Stephen J. Gould, who was one of the leading evolutionists, said there were two main features regarding the fossil record: (a) abrupt appearance of species and (b) stasis, meaning a lack of substantial change to a species during its existence.

Hmmm.  Creatures seem to appear suddenly, out of nowhere, and don’t seem to change much during their tenure.  Maybe it’s just me, but that doesn’t sound like slow, gradual evolution, where you can generally tell where a creature came from and see it slowly changing over time as you progress higher up in the rock record.  It sounds a lot more like the biblical model of miraculous creation of complex life forms that, while they can “reproduce after their kind,” always do so within definite limits, producing a nice variety but not molecules-to-man evolution (or even ape-to-man evolution).

Within the Cambrian layer, almost every “phyla” (i.e., major body plan”) appear suddenly, without ancestor.  What’s perhaps even more surprising is that in all the alleged 500 million years or so after the Cambrian layer was deposited, nothing truly new shows up!  Again, according to Gould, they (individual species) may get “a little bigger or a little bumpier,” but nothing new appears.  How is that support for evolution?  It’s not!  Certainly not Darwinian evolution, which requires slow, gradual, unguided change.  Did Gould become a creationist?  Hardly.  He worked hard at developing a version of evolution that would encompass fast, sudden changes.  His idea was called “Punctuated equilibrium.”  Basically, things stay the same for long, long periods of time.  Then, relatively speaking, they suddenly undergo rapid change.  So fast, in fact, there wasn’t enough time for the transition to be captured in the fossil record.  The evidence that it happened is the fact that we don’t see any evidence!  This idea was a revision of an older view espoused by Richard Goldschmidt, which he called the “Hopeful Monster” theory.  That’s a whole story in and of itself.

What we actually see in the fossil record (and the geologic column) is a snapshot of where creatures were living when the flood came.  We see ecological zones and evidence of different phases of the year-long Genesis flood. 
I am getting ready to record a 4-part video series entitled, “The Genesis Flood: This Changes Everything!”.  Make sure you’re on our free email newsletter list to be alerted for its release this year.
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The Cambrian Explosion is just one of many, many serious challenges to evolutionary theory.  Whereas man’s theories and opinions change constantly, God’s Word never does and never will.  When you get it right the first time, there’s no need to change!

If you have any questions about this or any other issue, please don’t hesitate to contact us!
  
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