The discussion this week about cognitive dissonance has gotten me thinking about creationism, a religious “theory” that virtually screams with cognitive dissonance. Let’s look at how creationists game the gaps in the fossil record. Let’s imagine we start with two fossils — we’ll call them A and Z to illustrate that they are widely separated in geologic time.
“There’s no evolution,” says the creationist, “Look at that gap between your fossils. Where is the transitional form between them?”
So, we go out and find another fossil — we’ll call it M to illustrate that it is somewhere between A and Z.
“There’s no evolution,” says the creationist, “Look, you now have TWO gaps [A-M & M-Z], so you’re missing TWO transitional forms.”
So, you go out and find another fossil Q.
“There’s no evolution,” says the creationist. “Look, you now have THREE gaps [A-M, M-Q & Q-Z]. You’re now missing THREE transitional forms. Your theory of evolution sure is a mess.”
So, you go out and find five more fossils — C, F, G, R & W.
“There’s no evolution,” says the creationist, “Look, you now have EIGHT gaps and EIGHT missing transitional forms. Your theory of evolution is nonsense. How can you possibly believe your theory of evolution is correct when there are so many holes in your data?”
And so it goes. To the archeologist, each new fossil serves as a bridge across one of the gaps in the fossil record; but, to the creationist, each new fossil creates an *additional* “gap” in the fossil record — or, rather, a new opportunity for obfuscation.
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