"in the mean time, I must admit , that it is quite amusing watching a bunch of scientists who all believe evolution is true, squabbling about how it is supposed to have happened!"

and in the statement above we have a classic example of scientific misconceptions. he couldn't have done better to demonstrate why we need to a much better job educating people as just what science and scientific method is about...

1. the bickering on a mudcat thread IS NOT scientific debate or peer review.

2. unlike dogma, the writings of an individual in the past are a reflection of the current understanding and available information of that time... and a scientist like Darwin fully expected, and indeed hoped, that others would take up the study and expand upon it. The Origin of Species was intended to posit an explanation for what he had observed in nature and find answers. Darwin was painfully aware of his ignorance regarding how heredity works, but he was sure that better understanding would support his basic premise... and it does. The entire genome study supports his theory of evolution.

3. science includes peer review, and Darwin really only had one peer in his lifetime... Alfred Wallace, who had also traveled widely and made close observations of the natural world around him. They both were in close agreement. Those who opposed him did so on theological grounds, not scientific ones...

4. today you can have sample of your DNA sent out to a lab and have it examined to determine, in general terms, your ancestry. A co-worker and his wife had this done recently. This "full blooded" Sicilian includes Germanic and Scandinavian ancestry. You can even look to see if any Neanderthal genes are present. Our increased understanding of genetic material makes this possible. It also supports the theory of evolution, it is the missing information/understanding that Darwin was looking for, but could not find.