The Cambrian, Evolution And Creation

Before moving on to consider the Cambrian explosion itself, we first need to briefly compare what features are to be expected from the fossil record according to the theory of evolution, versus creation.

Darwin's theory of evolution claims that all forms of life are descended from one original single cell. According to that claim, all the millions of plant and animal species must have descended from this single cell. In the fossil record, therefore, there should exist various traces of the "family tree" deriving from this common ancestor. Evolutionists maintain that there is a direct line of descent between this imaginary first cell and all later living species, from fish to primates and from octopuses to frogs. If this hypothesis is true, then it should have left available traces. Namely:

1. An enormous number of intermediate forms, and

2. A slow, incremental, gradual change in the anatomy of specimens in the fossil record,

3. The earliest living things should display a simple structure and show evidence of their development from even simpler forms,

4. New life forms should emerge not as entirely different species, but as subspecies barely distinguishable from one another. And these subspecies should diverge from one another more and more over the course of time. Higher biological categories such as families, order and classes should gradually appear as the living world expanded-that is, slowly.

All these four requirements can be summed up as the condition of continuity. That is because evolutionists claim that all forms of life are descended from one another, straight back to that first imaginary cell. They believe that the process of change between species took place on a constant basis. Such continuity logically demands that countless intermediate forms must once have existed-and so, evidence of their assumed evolutionary development must be observable-in fact, plentiful!-in the fossil record.

On the other hand, the fact of creation requires none of these imaginary preconditions. It teaches that living things were flawlessly created by Allah, in their complete and present forms, and with all their characteristic features. For that reason alone, it does not presuppose that "later" form of life must be more complex than the one that preceded it. There is no need to observe similarities of structures and behaviors between different living groups. On the contrary, the fact of creation suggests that all living things were created with their own unique structures, and can be conveniently classified into distinct groups on the basis of anatomical characteristics.

When you examine the information regarding the Cambrian explosion provided by paleontologists, you can clearly see why this information verifies creation while demolishing the theory of evolution. That explosion saw the emergence of dozens of organisms distinguished from one another by enormous differences. This reveals that there are unbridgeable gaps-in terms of both descent and complexity-between the complex living things that appeared during the Cambrian and those that existed before.

So striking are these differences that evolutionists, who need to be able to prove continuity between living groups, have been unable to establish any familial links between them, even on the theoretical level.

The Cambrian Period shows that even the very earliest creatures appeared suddenly with all their exceedingly complex structures-which is exactly what creation teaches. The origin of the perfect structures possessed by living things is creation by Allah. These perfect structures exhibit no deficiencies, no missing or functionless stages of the kinds predicated by the theory of evolution. Instead, each one appears in flawless fashion in the fossil record.

In short, the Cambrian explosion makes the absence of continuity in the fossil record plain for all to see; and this constitutes one of the most concrete pieces of evidence for creation.