Bill ,your link did,nt come up , but I shall assume it is an amplification of the ladder v bush concept. Maybe I was unclear , or maybe it is you who are presenting the straw man. Infact, I had previously mentioned that darwins tree is now a bush. I hear it is a very tangled bush with plenty of branches unjointed! I did not really know of the ladder concept. When I say fish to philosopher, or microbes to mudcatters, I am assuming the (supposed)intervening eons are understood.   I also understand that the bush concept is not all vertical in a straight line, but sideways and messy as well. Either way, you are espousing what cannot be evidenced....or falsified !       And I reject your charge of equivocation , as I said before, if you cannot evidence your theory, it is a belief system......and all the more so, when experimental science contradicts the theory.