Most of the dogmatic religions have exhibited a perverse talent for taking the wrong side on the most important concepts in the material universe, from the structure of the solar system to the origin of man.
George Gaylord SimpsonSpecies evolve exactly as if they were adapting as best they could to a changing world, and not at all as if they were moving toward a set goal.
George Gaylord SimpsonSplitting and gradual divergence of genera is exemplified very well and in a large variety of organisms.
George Gaylord SimpsonIt remains true, as every paleontologist knows, that most new species, genera, and families, and that nearly all categories above the level of families, appear in the record suddenly and are not led up to by known, gradual completely continuous transitional sequences.
George Gaylord SimpsonCertainly paleontologists have found samples of an extremely small fraction, only, of the earth's extinct species, and even for groups that are most readily preserved and found as fossils they can never expect to find more than a fraction.
George Gaylord SimpsonMan is the result of a purposeless and materialistic process that did not have him in mind. He was not planned. He is a state of matter, a form of life, a sort of animal, and a species of the Order Primates, akin nearly or remotely to all of life and indeed to all that is material.
George Gaylord Simpson