Hey, EVOLUTIONARIES! Get over this:

[Guest]

1: Evolution explains the similarity of species
Like any good scientific theory or law, evolution explains all the known facts in a consistent and convincing manner. Most especially, it explains convincingly how present day species are related to each other.
It explains the similarity – the technical term is homology – between the skeletons of all mammals, which share the same 28 bones although in different proportions, and how mammals have many similarities with other vertebrates including the basic features of their skeletons and their digestive, circulatory and nervous systems. It explains why the body plan of all crustaceans – lobsters, prawns, crabs and the like – is the same. It explains why the DNA code is invariant across all living creatures while individual genes vary.
Argument 2: Evolution explains the geographical distribution of species
Evolution explains why animals tend to live on the same continent as fossils that are probably their ancestors and why animals share the same continent with species that resemble them. Conversely, no frogs are found on oceanic islands because frogspawn is immediately killed by sea water.
Particularly striking is the evidence of life on oceanic islands formed by volcanic action and never connected to a continent – such as the Galápagos and Hawaiian islands. Evolution suggests that such locations would have few species because of the difficulty of crossing the ocean and that such places would have animal forms that are found nowhere else because the habitat is so distinct. This is exactly what we find: so on the Galápagos islands there are only just over 20 species of bird and 14 of those are finches and on the Hawaiian islands the number of species of the fruitfly Drosophila exceeds that found in the rest of the world.
Argument 3: Natural selection is analogous with other forms of selection
We are reinforced in our view that over time random mutations can through natural selection result in different types of life and different versions of animals because we observe that artificial selection - for instance, of cabbages, roses, pigeons, dogs and horses - and sexual selection - for instance between peahens and peacocks - does the same on a much shorter timescale.
Argument 4: Evolution is confirmed by scientific dating methods
We know that life has evolved over millions and millions of years and not a few thousand years because of scientific dating techniques such as the decay of radioactive materials and carbon dating. All these dating techniques not only reveal a very long process of evolution but are remarkably consistent in the dates that they offer us.
Argument 5: Evolution is confirmed by observation and experimentation
The most striking case is the ever-increasing resistance of bacteria to anti-biotics. Bacteria multiply fast and are present in enormous numbers so that mutations that are resistant to a particular anti-biotic can occur easily. The more we use anti-biotics, the faster bacteria can evolve to be resistant to them. Another example is the increased frequency of tuskless elephants because of the killing of elephants for their ivory. The explanation is that the elephants that were not killed for their tusks were more likely to survive and became a growing band proportionally while their offspring with genes that did not produce tusks also had a better chance of survival.
In 1971, a type of insect-eating lizard that was present on an island called Pod Kopište but not on the island of Pod Mrčaru – both islands being located off the Croatian coast – was transported to the second island where the lizards had a more vegetarian diet. In 2008, scientists found that the descendants of the transported lizards had significantly larger heads because they were eating more plant material. This was natural selection at work over a mere 37 years. [For more information click here]
An experiment conducted by the bacteriologist Richard Lenski and his colleagues at Michigan State University in the United States took a common bacterium called Escherichia coli and, through a series of ingenious techniques, replicated the effect of over 50,000 generations of the bacteria. The results were entirely consistent with the principles of natural selection through random mutation. [For more information click here]
Argument 6: Evolution is confirmed by the fossil record
Very few fossils had been discovered at the time of Darwin's original thesis, but it was clear from the theory that, if evolution is true, fossils of simpler forms of life should be found at earlier or lower levels of strata of the Earth and fossils of more developed forms of life should be discovered in later or higher levels of strata. This is exactly what the fossil record reveals. All fossils which have been found - and there are now very many - are in the correct temporal sequence. No fossil has ever been found in the 'wrong' sequence. Specifically we now have a rich supply of intermediate fossils linking modern humans with the common ancestor that humans share with chimpanzees.
You can view for yourself a selection of such fossils in most museums of natural history.
Of course, the fossil record is not complete and never could be especially for animals which are not susceptible to being fossilised, but the fossil evidence in many major animal groups is strong and becoming ever stronger.
Argument 7: Evolution is confirmed by the gene pool
Darwin did not know about genes which were first suggested by the Austrian scientist Gregor Mendel, although Mendel himself did not use the term which was only coined in 1909. A gene is a length of DNA that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all living organisms. As the science of genetics has rapidly developed, we have become capable of mapping the genetic code of different life forms and identifying the incredible similarity in genetic composition of life forms which have common ancestors as explained by evolution.
This has enabled geneticists to say that humans and chimpanzees share 98% of their genes – although it is important to understand what is meant by such a statement. It does not refer to the number of whole genes but to the number of DNA 'letters' that match each other. The point is that shared DNA is confirmation of shared ancestry as set out in the theory of evolution.
Argument 8: There is an absence of design
If emergence of life was not the result of a process of natural selection through random mutation, then it might be that it was the result of a non-random process involving design which would suggest a designer (God). In fact, it is clear that there is no design. On the contrary, there many instances of imperfection.
A wonderful case occurs with the pouch of the koala bear which opens downwards instead of upwards as in a kangaroo, even though the koala spends its time hanging upright from trees. The explanation - provided by evolution - is that the koala is descended from a wombat-like ancestor who flung soil backwards, necessitating a pouch facing downwards. The most dramatic illustration that life was not designed by a beneficent God is that of the ichneumon wasp which paralyses a caterpillar and then lays eggs inside its body which hatch to produce young which proceed to devour the caterpillar alive one organ after another in an order which keeps the caterpillar alive (and therefore fresh) as long as possible.
A classic example of imperfection is what is called the recurrent laryngeal nerve which takes a bizarre route from the brain to the larynx in mammals and humans. Another example is the odd detour taken by the vas deferens - the pipe that carries sperm from the testis to the penis - in male humans. A third example is found in the sinuses of humans which has its drainage hole in the top rather than the bottom, a consequence of our shift from being quadruped to biped. Yet another example occurs in the eye - often represented by creationists as a marvel of design - where the retina is back to front, a defect that has to be corrected by the brain. In fact, the human body abounds with imperfections which can only be explained by the long process of gradual evolution and modification.
One more piece of evidence against any notion of design: the genetic code as formed by DNA has an enormous amount (the majority) of redundant DNA. Why is it there?
There are currently two possible explanations. The first view is that it must have coded for proteins no longer used by the descendant of the entity that did have use for that protein. If this is the case, it is not a good design. All these redundant genes (in every cell) take energy to create. What a waste. Hardly intelligent. The other view scientists are considering is that this redundant DNA may have something to do with the structural integrity of the DNA helix. But again it is not an elegant design for a structural solution and was probably the result of the DNA's long evolution to the stable structure it eventually formed utilising the redundant DNA for structural purposes. Proteins form complex structures using ionic bonds (electrical repulsion and attraction). So nature can be beautifully simple and unnecessarily complex - but that is evolution not intelligent design.
Over and above the routine imperfections to be found in the natural world, the absence of design (at least by a rational and beneficient God) is evident from the vast wastefulness and immense cruelty of nature. Most animals die early, without even having the opportunity to create offspring, and they frequently die cruelly, eaten alive or torn apart by another animal, or die slowly, wasted by disease or starvation. Not a sensible or kind design or indeed any design.
Argument 9: Evolution is a falsifiable theory
Like any good scientific theory or law, evolution is falsifiable by contradictory evidence. There has been no such contradictory evidence.
If one fossil was found in strata representing a period older or younger than one would expect to find it, then the theory would be massively challenged. This has never happened.

Bottom Line: Evolution is TRUE and Adam and Eve and the Mormon Creation Story are a Myth

[_fetchface]

Craig,

I don't think anything you posted will get NL to change his mind because NL believes in a trickster God who arranged all of that elaborate evidence just to challenge our faith, but good try.

Can you prove that NL's trickster God doesn't exist? Checkmate, Craig.

[_Craig Paxton]

Craig,

I don't think anything you posted will get Nightlion to change his mind because Nightlion believes in a trickster God who arranged all of that elaborate evidence just to challenge our faith, but good try.

Can you prove that Nightlion's trickster God doesn't exist? Checkmate, Craig.

A better question is can Nightlion give any convincing evidence for his god? I'll even answer that question. No he can't

[_fetchface]

A better question is can Nightlion give any convincing evidence for his god? I'll even answer that question. No he can't

I predict that he will argue that his subjective, unverifiable evidence is totally convincing to those who don't hate God. Let's see if I'm wrong.

[_DrW]

What? Taken to the woodshed again!

Subtle little blips of genetic mutations can pass on. We are talking about the huge jumps from what youse guys image must have been lightning struck Primordial Soup to human nuts. That be the god of the gaps folks. At your rate of evolution it would by now be just beginning to crawl out, if its habitat survived so long.

OH, and what'shisnuts admitted intelligent design of late.

So, let me get this straight. NL asks a question that could be answered correctly by any teenager who paid attention in high school biology. I (and several others) take the time to answer the question anyway, in the hope that NL might actually learn something.

NL then makes a follow up statement that shows he knows even less about biology, and evolution in particular, than the first question would indicate. That accomplished, NL then decides to punt by insulting everyone on the board who does understand evolution.

Well done, NL. Sorry that life is so frustrating for you. Really. Its sad.

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

MIND IS BLOWN

- Doc

[_Nightlion]

Evolution is science looking at the similarities shared by various species separated into various groupings. The more details science uncovers the more obvious it becomes that intelligent design better answers the sophistication of these varieties.

Let's imagine that God first made his own physical body. A perfect creation! Then, from that worked backwards to add all the various species tweaking his own DNA as he goes to infinity and beyond. Darwin then looks up the butt hole of creation and sees the opposite. Bottom feeding High Schoolers chose the later since their hormones are raging there is little grace in any of their members.

The world refusing to give God glory become all the more darkened in their minds only wishing for the raging hormones of yesteryear.

[_Holy Ghost]

Evolution is science looking at the similarities shared by various species separated into various groupings. The more details science uncovers the more obvious it becomes that intelligent design better answers the sophistication of these varieties.

Let's imagine that God first made his own physical body. A perfect creation! Then, from that worked backwards to add all the various species tweaking his own DNA as he goes to infinity and beyond. Darwin then looks up the butt hole of creation and sees the opposite. Bottom feeding High Schoolers chose the later since their hormones are raging there is little grace in any of their members.

The world refusing to give God glory become all the more darkened in their minds only wishing for the raging hormones of yesteryear.

You lost me right there, with "Let's imagine... ."

The "butt hole of creation"? I thought that was non-pregnancy sex.

[_RockSlider]

I predict that he will argue that his subjective, unverifiable evidence is totally convincing to those who don't hate God. Let's see if I'm wrong.

I'm pretty sure one must have had the baptism of fire before said subjective, unverifiable evidence is given to an individual.

[_Nightlion]

Since all varieties of levels of intelligence are possible. Then God is probable and the rest is old news. If there IS news then there is an equal and opposite fake news.