We've all got a "moral stature". Contrary to popular belief Christians (or other religious types) don't have a monopoly on that. I'm not arguing against pete's character (although I think his self-deprecation is tiresome and means he can be evasive in a lazy way), I'm arguing against his YEC. I'm not even arguing against the existence of God.

Pete, if you did find a horse in the Burgess Shale it would really put the cat amongst the pigeons. Evolution would need to accommodate it's presence there, and as far as I understand evolution, it doesn't. It would make you famous. It would go a heck of a long way to disprove the theory thou so despise.

"there is no way the GTE can be proved false as it is so flexible"

No it's not. If the evidence was there, it could be disproved. Also, you'd have to move the upper and lower limits of the Burgess Shale formation to accommodate a horse being present, and most scientists would not allow that.

As for gradualism vs punctuated equilibrium, the debate is nowhere near as absolutist as that. For what it's worth, I think both are valid, but variables in local conditions where isolated populations exist mean either can come into play.