Evolution, the combination of such processes as Natural Selection, Sexual Selection, and others, is the subsequent collection of scientific processes that eventually change one organism into another. It is important to discount a few widely held myths here that Creationists often erroneously use to discount Evolution, bringing up half-baked ideas about how one or more "facts" disprove evolution, without bothering to actually know what they're talking about. However, a little care and attempt at education can easily clear up these mistakes:
1.) Evolution does NOT necessarily dictate that animals (or plants, or fungi, or whatever you fancy) must evolve into something more complex. If all animals over the size of cockroaches were wiped out tomorrow, that would be a form of evolution: the Cockroaches and smaller animals would be the surviving species, and "Survival of the Fittest" (a common saying used in evolution) would hold true.
2.) Evolution does NOT, I repeat NOT suggest that humans "magically appeared from crawling fish". Evolution takes time. HUGE amounts of time. We're talking about half a billion years here (~500,000,000)for the total evolution from the first protochordates into the modern Homo sapiens. Not a couple days. Not even a couple centuries. This time span is so long that it's often hard to comprehend. The changes were gradual, as some random "mistakes" in our DNA made some animals better able to adapt, and others not as able to adapt. It is NOT like throwing sand in the air and having it come down as a sand castle. It is, however, like sprinkling little tiny bits of sand here and there - sometimes a grain at a time - and eventually building up to a sandcastle. And sometimes having bits of the sandcastle knocked down.
3.) Species that died out, such as Homo neanderthalis (Neaderthal Man) are not counterexamples. In fact, it shows that two different species, with two different natural "sets of equipment", have different ways (and thus chances) of surviving or outlasting eachother. We and Neanderthals DID stem from the same common ancestor. However, whereas Neanderthals had stocky, tough, but not to bright build, we went the lean and brainy root. That was fine for a little while, but soon we outcompeted them, and they died out.
4.) In regards to the comment above that some species were found in the wrong area: The earth moves. Ever see a volcano? An earthquake? Rocks don't always just sit there.
5.) Any educated biologist will not respond by saying "oh, you're right, evolution didn't happen."
1.) Evolution does NOT necessarily dictate that animals (or plants, or fungi, or whatever you fancy) must evolve into something more complex. If all animals over the size of cockroaches were wiped out tomorrow, that would be a form of evolution: the Cockroaches and smaller animals would be the surviving species, and "Survival of the Fittest" (a common saying used in evolution) would hold true.
2.) Evolution does NOT, I repeat NOT suggest that humans "magically appeared from crawling fish". Evolution takes time. HUGE amounts of time. We're talking about half a billion years here (~500,000,000)for the total evolution from the first protochordates into the modern Homo sapiens. Not a couple days. Not even a couple centuries. This time span is so long that it's often hard to comprehend. The changes were gradual, as some random "mistakes" in our DNA made some animals better able to adapt, and others not as able to adapt. It is NOT like throwing sand in the air and having it come down as a sand castle. It is, however, like sprinkling little tiny bits of sand here and there - sometimes a grain at a time - and eventually building up to a sandcastle. And sometimes having bits of the sandcastle knocked down.
3.) Species that died out, such as Homo neanderthalis (Neaderthal Man) are not counterexamples. In fact, it shows that two different species, with two different natural "sets of equipment", have different ways (and thus chances) of surviving or outlasting eachother. We and Neanderthals DID stem from the same common ancestor. However, whereas Neanderthals had stocky, tough, but not to bright build, we went the lean and brainy root. That was fine for a little while, but soon we outcompeted them, and they died out.
4.) In regards to the comment above that some species were found in the wrong area: The earth moves. Ever see a volcano? An earthquake? Rocks don't always just sit there.
5.) Any educated biologist will not respond by saying "oh, you're right, evolution didn't happen."
Bill: But monkeys and fish look real different, so evolution must be wrong! Fish change into monkeys suddenly? LOL!
Jill: That's not really what Evolution says...
Jill: That's not really what Evolution says...
by Newms34 October 08, 2006
1. In biology: Descent with modification. Change in the genetic composition of a population during successive generations, as a result of natural selection acting on the genetic variation among individuals, and resulting in the development of new species.
2. In everyday speech: A gradual process in which something changes into a different and usually more complex or better form.
2. In everyday speech: A gradual process in which something changes into a different and usually more complex or better form.
1. Darwin's theory of evolution does for biology what quantum mechanics does for physics.
2. It is interesting to note the evolution in computers over the years.
2. It is interesting to note the evolution in computers over the years.
by OneBadAsp October 21, 2006
Basically, it's how creatures, and plants were made a billion years ago, and how they changed (evolved). According to most Christan's, this is 'just a theory', as they like to believe that God did it. All of it. And that science is wrong. That's like saying "Oh, gravity's just your wacky, blasphemous theory." Jesus Christ, people! This isn't the 1600's any more. We have highly educated, trained, and intelligent people spending billions of dollars to tell you how bugs have changed in the last million years. It's called fucking science, and science (sigh-ents) is what us normal, non-God fearing people accept as real. Even the fucking Taliban accept science to some level. Chemistry, and physics goes into that bomb making.
Sir Issac Newton: "Hey guys! An apple hit me on the head, and I figured out some ideas on what makes stuff fall to the ground!"
God-fearing simpleton: "Really? And the answer's not God?"
Sir Issac Newton: "Nope, it's something I've called 'physics!"
God-fearing simpleton: "Let me see that." (Burns Issac's theory)
Sir Issac Newton: "Hey, what the hell, man?"
God-fearing simpleton: "Nope. God did it. And bring me your theory on evolution. I'll be sure to give that a read."
God-fearing simpleton: "Really? And the answer's not God?"
Sir Issac Newton: "Nope, it's something I've called 'physics!"
God-fearing simpleton: "Let me see that." (Burns Issac's theory)
Sir Issac Newton: "Hey, what the hell, man?"
God-fearing simpleton: "Nope. God did it. And bring me your theory on evolution. I'll be sure to give that a read."
by Comrade 47 March 02, 2008
After reading all the inept douchebags' definitions for evolution, I feel like I need to straighten some things out. Yes, I am an atheist. Yes, I do believe in evolution. I can't believe I even worded it like that, because that makes it sound like it's just some crack-pot theory. It is a fact. For all of you people who think that it is just some way for atheists to describe a world without "God", this just increases how incredibly inane you come off as. Some of you even think that there hasn't been proof of evolution, that there haven't been any fossils that show adaptations. Did you just not pay any attention in your science classes on purpose? "LOL SIENTS IZ STUPID EVOLUSHUN SAYZ THT WE CAYM FRUM MUNKEYZ".
Wow...
seriously?
Some of you have said that the Big Bang Theory is asinine as well, because "it says that the universe was created from one atom." The universe did not explode from hydrogen or any one element. It was all quarks and masons and charged particles so dense that they were opaque to light.
One person even mocked how scientists know the age of each layer of the earth. Just so you know, we do have actual intelligent people (unlike you, of course) that know a googolplex more than you. They do have actual technology that can date things now. If you haven't noticed it's actually the 21st century, not the 19th.
Please, just because you don't understand something, do not go and trash it. If I wanted to, I could talk shit about everyone's religion and tell about how ridiculous they all are. But I'm not going to, because I am a good person. I have been raised in a Christian family all my life (which has no correlation with my morality and knowledge of ethics). I go to church at least once a week. I do not disrespect my family or friends for what they believe in, even though I am completely against their religion. So I will say this: do not put others down because they believe in evolution - even though it really isn't a belief, it's a fact - it just makes you look like a fucking hypocrite.
Wow...
seriously?
Some of you have said that the Big Bang Theory is asinine as well, because "it says that the universe was created from one atom." The universe did not explode from hydrogen or any one element. It was all quarks and masons and charged particles so dense that they were opaque to light.
One person even mocked how scientists know the age of each layer of the earth. Just so you know, we do have actual intelligent people (unlike you, of course) that know a googolplex more than you. They do have actual technology that can date things now. If you haven't noticed it's actually the 21st century, not the 19th.
Please, just because you don't understand something, do not go and trash it. If I wanted to, I could talk shit about everyone's religion and tell about how ridiculous they all are. But I'm not going to, because I am a good person. I have been raised in a Christian family all my life (which has no correlation with my morality and knowledge of ethics). I go to church at least once a week. I do not disrespect my family or friends for what they believe in, even though I am completely against their religion. So I will say this: do not put others down because they believe in evolution - even though it really isn't a belief, it's a fact - it just makes you look like a fucking hypocrite.
Evolution and issues like this make me so angry. It just kills me that these people haven't been educated thoroughly enough. I was holding back so much. I have to let a just little more out...
Maredith's 53rd Calypso
Foma may make you happy, yes.
All these religions,
Cinderelli fairy tales,
Where they go when they dies.
But when do harmless untruths
Become harmful lies?
Maredith's 53rd Calypso
Foma may make you happy, yes.
All these religions,
Cinderelli fairy tales,
Where they go when they dies.
But when do harmless untruths
Become harmful lies?
by Maredith June 20, 2008
by Squirel December 22, 2006
In the beginning we were all fish, swimming around in the water. And then one day a couple of fish had a retard baby, and the retard baby was different so it got to live. So retard fish goes on to make more retard babies, and then one day a retard baby fish crawled out of the ocean with its mutant fish hands, and it had butt sex with a squirrel or something, and made retard frog-squirrel. And then that had a retard baby which was a monkey-fish-frog, and then this monkey-fish-frog had butt sex with another monkey, and then that monkey had a mutant retard baby that screwed another monkey, and then that screwed another monkey and then that made you. So there you go, you're the retarded offspring of five monkeys having butt sex with a fish-squirrel, congratulations.
by mrs garrison July 15, 2008
The idea that organisms change over time, and that is change occurs through natural selection which allows favorable traits to be passed along through generations. It has been refered to as a theory, which, in science, means it is an idea that has not been disproven. Many scientists are moving towards calling it the Law of Evolution, similar to the Law of Gravity, in order to help reduce frivolous claims that it is "only a theory" by people ignorant of what a scientific theory entails.
Some (especially miseducated critics) refer to macro and microevolution. There is no such thing. Evolution is evolution. Fruit flys, rats, frogs, etc., have all been observed undergoing character change in laboritories, resulting in the inability to mate with other members of the base species (the control), thus forming a new species. Several examples of so-called macroevolution (the change at a genus level) have been observed by biologists in the rain forest. Furthermore, good fossil evidence shows transition between genera, and even higher taxanomic orders (incorrectly called Kingdom, Phylum, etc. - current work in phylogentic taxonomy does away with Linnean ranks). Representatives of higher order change in the fossil record includes change with fish, fish to amphibians, with amphibians, within reptiles, "reptiles" to dinosaurs, within dinosaurs, dinosaurs to "birds", within "birds", "reptiles" to mammals, within mammals, and other mammals to humans. I am not mentioning invertebrates here, as I do not deal with them in my line of work. See current molecular and physical phylogenetic phylogenies in Nature, Science, Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, etc., all of which are peer reviewed, something most parties who oppose evolution will not do (publish in peer-reviewed journals).
Evolution has nothing to do with The Big Bang - that is astronomy, not biology.
The synthysis and subsequent radiation and adaptation of life is a wonderful and beautiful thing, and far more complex than the, "We don't look like fish, so can't have evolved," argument presented by many whom view evolution/natural selection as the work of the devil.
Some (especially miseducated critics) refer to macro and microevolution. There is no such thing. Evolution is evolution. Fruit flys, rats, frogs, etc., have all been observed undergoing character change in laboritories, resulting in the inability to mate with other members of the base species (the control), thus forming a new species. Several examples of so-called macroevolution (the change at a genus level) have been observed by biologists in the rain forest. Furthermore, good fossil evidence shows transition between genera, and even higher taxanomic orders (incorrectly called Kingdom, Phylum, etc. - current work in phylogentic taxonomy does away with Linnean ranks). Representatives of higher order change in the fossil record includes change with fish, fish to amphibians, with amphibians, within reptiles, "reptiles" to dinosaurs, within dinosaurs, dinosaurs to "birds", within "birds", "reptiles" to mammals, within mammals, and other mammals to humans. I am not mentioning invertebrates here, as I do not deal with them in my line of work. See current molecular and physical phylogenetic phylogenies in Nature, Science, Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, etc., all of which are peer reviewed, something most parties who oppose evolution will not do (publish in peer-reviewed journals).
Evolution has nothing to do with The Big Bang - that is astronomy, not biology.
The synthysis and subsequent radiation and adaptation of life is a wonderful and beautiful thing, and far more complex than the, "We don't look like fish, so can't have evolved," argument presented by many whom view evolution/natural selection as the work of the devil.
A good example of evolution is the fossil record showing the transition between fish and amphibians, or dinosaurs and birds.
by Robert Gay - Biologist December 05, 2003