Macroevolution and the distinction between microevolution/macroevolution are creationist fantasies

The concept of macroevolution is not a creationist fiction, nor is the distinction between microevolution and macroevolution a creationist fiction. To dispel the opposing view, perhaps it is sufficient to represent a few biology textbooks, as well as some writings of non-creationists.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------"[M]acroevolution: Evolutionary change on a grand scale, encompassing the origin of novel designs, evolutionary trends, adaptive radiation, and mass extinction." "Microevolution: a change in the gene pool of a population over a succession of generations" (1)"MACROEVOLUTION, that is, the origin and diversification of higher taxa." "Microevolution: slight, short-term evolutionary changes within species." (2)From a book entitled Macroevolutionary Dynamics:"Most families, orders, classes, and phyla appear rather suddenly in the fossil record, often without anatomically intermediate forms smoothly interlinking evolutionarily derived descendant taxa with their presumed ancestors." (3)From a book entitled Macroevolution: Pattern and Process:"The known fossil record fails to document a single example of phyletic evolution accomplishing a major morphological transition and hence offers no evidence that the gradualistic model can be valid." (4)"The central question of the Chicago conference was whether the mechanisms underlying microevolution can be extrapolated to explain the phenomena of macroevolution. At the risk of doing violence to the positions of some of the people at the meeting, the answer can be given as a clear, No." (5)From an article entitled, "Paleontologists confronting macroevolution":"The punctuated equilibrium model has been widely accepted, not because it has a compelling theoretical basis but because it appears to resolve a dilemma. ...apart from its intrinsic circularity (one could argue that speciation can occur only when phyletic change is rapid, not vice versa), the model is more ad hoc explanation than theory, and it rests on shaky ground." (6)"In evolutionary debates one is apt to hear evolution roughly parceled between the terms "microevolution" and "macroevolution". Microevolution, or change beneath the species level, may be thought of as relatively small scale change in the functional and genetic constituencies of populations of organisms. That this occurs and has been observed is generally undisputed by critics of evolution. What is vigorously challenged, however, is macroevolution. Macroevolution is evolution on the "grand scale" resulting in the origin of higher taxa. In evolutionary theory, macroevolution involves common ancestry, descent with modification, speciation, the genealogical relatedness of all life, transformation of species, and large scale functional and structural changes of populations through time, all at or above the species level (Freeman and Herron 2004; Futuyma 1998, Ridley 1993)." (7)"From what I can see, microevolution is a fact; we see it all around us regarding small changes within a species, and biologists demonstrate this procedure in their labs on a daily basis. Hence, there is no argument regarding microevolution. The core of the debate for me, therefore, is the extrapolation of microevolution to macroevolution." (8)“One of the oldest problems in evolutionary biology remains largely unsolved; Historically, the neo-Darwinian synthesizers stressed the predominance of micromutations in evolution, whereas others noted the similarities between some dramatic mutations and evolutionary transitions to argue for macromutationism.” (9)"A persistent debate in evolutionary biology is one over the continuity of microevolution and macroevolution — whether macroevolutionary trends are governed by the principles of microevolution." (10)-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------It is worth pointing out that (3), (4) and (6) are works promoting the concept of punctuated equilibrium over and above the classical gradualistic view; the quote may be less relevant than the title. Also, all bolding is done by me.(1) Campbell, Biology, 4th ed.(2) Futuyma, Evolutionary Biology, pg. 447(3) Eldredge, Macroevolutionary Dynamics, pg. 22(4) Stanley, Macroevolution: Pattern and Process, pg. 39(5) Lewin, "Evolutionary Theory Under Fire," Science, Vol. 210:883-887, Nov. 1980(6) Ricklefs, "Paleontologists confronting macroevolution," Science, Vol. 199:58-60, Jan. 6, 1978(7) Theobald, "29+ Evidences for Macroevolution," http://www.talkorigins.org...(8) Tour, "Layman's Reflections on Evolution and Creation. An Insider's View of the Academy," http://www.jmtour.com...(9) Stern, “Perspective: Evolutionary Developmental Biology and the Problem of Variation,” Evolution 2000, 54, 1079-1091(10) Simons, “The Continuity of Microevolution and Macroevolution,” Journal of Evolutionary Biology 2002, 15, 688-701