Evolution's development parallels this path as.... (Score 1)

...well. The original idea of the missing link doesn't come from Evolution, but from a mythological belief in the continuity of the world. A missing link between man and ape was assumed because a spectrum of intermediary forms was believed to exist as an expression of the completeness of God's creation. Evolution then is a temporalization of this idea. I think it's ironic so much conflict between science and Americanized religion is built around evolution, when historically evolution signifies a continuity between the two.