I think many people have difficulty with discussing evolution in general, most likely because most people don't know the theory well. Evolution is taught in our public system as a general scientific certainty, yet most people only know words or phases like "survival of the fittest" or "Darwin" and "natural selection." Though these terms are used often in evolutionarily debates, most people don't really have a grasp on the theory (yet i obviously understand that all of you know about evolution far more than the common person). I'd like to state the Webster's definition of evolution, its as follows, "Certain observable small variations, very limited in extent, that occur over a period of time as a species adapts to its surroundings." Webster here describes evolution as very small changes in a species that will benefit the whole species due to the environmental conditions thru the survival of the fittest. Let me just quote Charles Darwin for a moment in his famous publication "The Origins of Species." He says, "If it could be found that any organisms could change without small, slight, successive modifications, my theory would break down." In simple terms, if any organ(s) could be created without small changes or adaptations his theory would break down. Powerful words by the father of evolution don't you think. I like to state first and foremost that Charles Darwin was an AWESOME scientist, why? Because, he was humble. When you read his books you noticed certain phrases that he places in there to nullify his theory. Darwin lived in the 1860's, at that time humans knew very little about biology, biochemistry, cells, DNA, ect. Darwin knew this; he simply proposed an idea that might be the valid if science could back it up in later advancements. Darwin knew that at the time scientist knew very little about the grand scheme of things, they only knew the basics. Only in the past 100 years or so have science exploded into the great scientific findings we see today. There are some areas that I would love to point out that Darwin would claim would be a problem to his theory. 1: Fossil Record 2: Complex systems 3: The "tempo" or speed at which evolution happens 4: Living Fossils 5: Symbiotic relationships in between organism 6: Tree of Life, 7: Random mutation, just to name a few. I'd like to restate, Darwin was an awesome scientist, but hoped to see science confirm his theory later on. I'd like to discuss each problem briefly that Darwin viewed as a problem to his theory and how it relates to today.
Fossil Record: In the time of Darwin, fossils were a new thing. They had many fossil discoveries but nothing compared to today's standards. Darwin noticed the lack of "transitional fossils" in the fossil record. A transitional fossil is a fossil that would show one species "in change" to another. For example: A fish changing into a lion. In order to show proof of this change there would have to be a fossil that had a fish growing legs, getting fur, becoming much larger, ect. In Darwins age of science the fossil record was not full at all, so He had hoped that transitional fossils would show up sooner or later. As of today, we have found fossils that are of extinct or modern day species, no transitional fossils. Yet, there is still much debate as to weather there are transitional fossils or not, science is split on this subject. You must understand that 95% of all species that have ever lived since to beginning of the first single cell are extinct (thats a lot of species). Many people who have claimed to have discovered a transitional fossil either notice that it was another form of a species, or just a highly mutated species. All transitional fossils are fossils that belong to a certain class of species. Most people think that evolution teaches we come from apes, such is not the case. Evolution claims that we have come from a similar ancestor from an ape. In all actually we, as humans, are closer physically to monkeys since both monkeys and humans have tailbones, apes do not. The closest DNA related animal to humans is a pig, I believe we have about 96% the same genetic code. See what people dont realize is that that 4% makes a difference. A cloud and a jellyfish both contain the same amount of water, its the 4% that makes the difference. See an ape isnt a transitional fossil to humans because its ultimately just another species. A human and an ape are on a different part of the evolutionary tree. The main point here is to know that there are "yes" fossils that appear to have some transitional form or feature, yet they are still very debatable. If evolution were a true science, we shouldnt find these far and few between questionable transitional fossils. These transitional fossils should appear all throughout the fossil record with zero question or debate, and yet all we have are a handful of somewhat questionable ones.
Complex systems: Remember that quote that Darwin made in His book, "The Origins of Species?" This is where I discuss it more in depth. A complex system is a system or organ that are complex enough to show zero signs of slight modifications. A perfect example of this is the human eye, heart, immune system, and a bats sonar system, ect. These are examples of systems that are so important for a species survivability. The human heart has four chambers that are responsible for pumping blood to other parts of the body. You cant have 3 chambers working, or even 2, all 4 must pump to efficiently pump blood. The human eye is so complex that one can see a grain of sand on our fingertip but still view mountains hundreds of miles away. The human eye is has perfectly evolved or created for humans to have the ability of seeing such beautiful wonders. Take the eye of a goldfish, or a bee, or an elephant, there eyes, for better lack of words, suck. Yet they have all had the same account of time to evolve as humans. The immune system is any organism is so incredibly complex that it would be hard to understand how any species lived while building an immune system. The immune system has many parts. It allows for blood clotting, it allows for mast cells to attack harmful outside viruss or bacteria, it has cells whos sole purpose is to find harmful bacteria to inform the fighting cells to fight, the list literally goes on and on. What evolved first, the attacking cells or the cells to warn the attacking cells? They BOTH must work together for the system as a hole to work properly. Bats and dolphins both have complex sonar. They use this sonar to operate in there environment without getting killed and going extinct. Sonar, in these animals, cant slowly but surely change, those species entire survival depends on these complex systems. I have only named a few examples here, but I have yet the time nor the knowledge to explain all the complex systems that each individual species have that they depend on for its survivability.
The tempo or speed of evolution: Its no surprise that evolution takes an extremely long time to impact a specie. Yet, Darwin noticed a huge time problem with his theory. The earth is about 4.5 billion years old, but the newly formed earth had to cool down before anything. The first single cell came into existence a couple hundred million years ago. Remember the earth didnt suddenly form, according to evolutionist, and have simple single cells, it took a lot of time. A species, on average, takes 1-2 million years to go extinct from the its first appearance to its final extinction. Do the math. Remember 95% of all species that have ever lived are extinct. There are so many species that have ever lived with diversity that no man could even possibly imagine. Take the fish of the sea to the animals on the ground, to the birds of the air. There are countless types of species that have such immense diversity that 800 million years doesnt even account for. A couple million years, heck, 4.5 billion years isnt enough time to create the amount, and diversity we see on this very planet. Evolutionists say that this time difference is okay, since all species evolve at different rates, or speeds. This is true, but to an extent. A species will change or alter due to mutation, hopefully a beneficial mutation. A individual organism will be born with a mutation, lets say, more hair for cooler climates. That mutation will be passed down to its offspring and eventually to the entire species. Thousands or millions of years later we see that same species with thicker hair. Yet, a mutation is not based on the species environment. This is important. A mutation will occur weather or not the species needs to be altered or not, remember though that mutations occur in individual organisms, but species evolve. A mutation has nothing to do with its environmental condition. But, lets assume that this mutation of more hair is introduced, and the climate is cooler, than that species would benefit from this mutation. This is where survival of the fittest plays a part. The species would benefit with more hair, the same species that dont get introduced with this hair mutation will die thru a process called natural selection. The hair mutation will, over a LONG period of time, be passed to every individual in that species (this is why evolution takes so long), every individual must eventually have this mutation. Like I said earlier we find that a billion years isnt even enough time to produce the differences we see in every single species that has ever lived on this earth. Can a species evolve quickly, well, thats very subjective. All of evolution is very subjective, for example. My offspring may have a mutation that will make him have no nose, yes, its beneficial to him because he never again has to smell my bad cooking, yet that wouldnt benefit all of humanity, same is true for every species. A species may adapt to its surroundings quickly yet to change it from one species to another takes millions of years. Mathematically, the earths age doesnt provide enough time for species to evolve. Ive seen many equations dealing on this very subject.
Living Fossils: A living fossil is a species that is virtually unchanged from its first appearance. An example of this is bats, alligators, and many insects. Ill explain: We have found many bat fossils, yet they all look the same, with zero differences from a present day bat. We date the fossilized bat to 250 million years, and here today, its unchanged. This puzzled Darwin because the earth has always, and will always be in different changes, ie, the ice age to now. The current condition of the earth is not the same as a few thousand years ago, the earth is constantly changing. This puzzled Darwin because a species will evolve because of its environmental condition. The fact that a bat has never changed in all the different environmental changes on the earth is a huge stab toward evolution. You must understand, evolution never stops. A species will always need to change slightly due to the environment and its surrounding predators. The alligator does not have the same predators as in its first appearance in the Jurassic Era. This doesnt add up, evolution is never-ending, it allows occurs, constantly. The more puzzling part to this subject is to find a pre-bat or pre-alligator, well, there isnt one. We find no primitive bat or alligator in the fossil record, but we do find them, as fossils, in there current state. There was a huge discovery made about 80 years ago called the "Cambrian Explosion." This is a huge portion of fossils that are dated back to the Cambrian Era (just before the Jurassic). In this area we find literally millions of fossils that are dated from the exact same time, yet zero primitive fossils are found. We find millions of fossils with no primitive fossils for these species to evolve from, odd isnt it. Every single one of these fossils are fully formed and all vertebrates (an animal with a backbone), but no invertebrates. The way evolution works is this: A single cell evolved into an invertebrate (sponges, jellyfish) that evolved to a vertebrate (fish) that evolved to an amphibian(frogs) that evolved to reptiles (dinosaurs) that evolved to mammals (humans). In evolution, you must have a simpler form of life to evolve from, yet Cambrian shows no such thing. We find all the animals fully formed, fully developed with zero trace of ancestry
Symbiotic relationships between organisms: A Symbiotic relationship is an organism that depends on other for survival. There are many instances where organisms of different species are completely dependent upon each other for survival. Now, organisms in a symbiotic relationship "evolved together" per NECSI or any science foundation anywhere. According to evolutionist organisms have co-evolved too whose families they first appeared with in relation to time. Now the first segmented flatworms originated millions of years before the first mammals. However, the tapeworm, a segmented flatworm that is a parasite of humans, cows, and other mammals, could not have evolved before the first large mammals. Members of the honeybee family, consisting of the queen, workers, and drones, are interdependent. If one member of each interdependent group evolved first (such as the plant before the animal, or one member of the honeybee family before the others), it could not have survived. Because all members of the group obviously have survived, they must have come into existence at essentially the same time. This relationship is not something that helps the organism out somewhat, no, its a way of life. Without another species to feed upon and vis vera the animal or insect, ect, would die. It's not a thing you put in your "nice things to have" bag, no, its life for them. There are thousands of species that rely on plants, other animals, ect to survive. Evolution claims that each species evolves due to natural selection, independent on other organisms.
Fossil Record: In the time of Darwin, fossils were a new thing. They had many fossil discoveries but nothing compared to today's standards. Darwin noticed the lack of "transitional fossils" in the fossil record. A transitional fossil is a fossil that would show one species "in change" to another. For example: A fish changing into a lion. In order to show proof of this change there would have to be a fossil that had a fish growing legs, getting fur, becoming much larger, ect. In Darwins age of science the fossil record was not full at all, so He had hoped that transitional fossils would show up sooner or later. As of today, we have found fossils that are of extinct or modern day species, no transitional fossils. Yet, there is still much debate as to weather there are transitional fossils or not, science is split on this subject. You must understand that 95% of all species that have ever lived since to beginning of the first single cell are extinct (thats a lot of species). Many people who have claimed to have discovered a transitional fossil either notice that it was another form of a species, or just a highly mutated species. All transitional fossils are fossils that belong to a certain class of species. Most people think that evolution teaches we come from apes, such is not the case. Evolution claims that we have come from a similar ancestor from an ape. In all actually we, as humans, are closer physically to monkeys since both monkeys and humans have tailbones, apes do not. The closest DNA related animal to humans is a pig, I believe we have about 96% the same genetic code. See what people dont realize is that that 4% makes a difference. A cloud and a jellyfish both contain the same amount of water, its the 4% that makes the difference. See an ape isnt a transitional fossil to humans because its ultimately just another species. A human and an ape are on a different part of the evolutionary tree. The main point here is to know that there are "yes" fossils that appear to have some transitional form or feature, yet they are still very debatable. If evolution were a true science, we shouldnt find these far and few between questionable transitional fossils. These transitional fossils should appear all throughout the fossil record with zero question or debate, and yet all we have are a handful of somewhat questionable ones.
Complex systems: Remember that quote that Darwin made in His book, "The Origins of Species?" This is where I discuss it more in depth. A complex system is a system or organ that are complex enough to show zero signs of slight modifications. A perfect example of this is the human eye, heart, immune system, and a bats sonar system, ect. These are examples of systems that are so important for a species survivability. The human heart has four chambers that are responsible for pumping blood to other parts of the body. You cant have 3 chambers working, or even 2, all 4 must pump to efficiently pump blood. The human eye is so complex that one can see a grain of sand on our fingertip but still view mountains hundreds of miles away. The human eye is has perfectly evolved or created for humans to have the ability of seeing such beautiful wonders. Take the eye of a goldfish, or a bee, or an elephant, there eyes, for better lack of words, suck. Yet they have all had the same account of time to evolve as humans. The immune system is any organism is so incredibly complex that it would be hard to understand how any species lived while building an immune system. The immune system has many parts. It allows for blood clotting, it allows for mast cells to attack harmful outside viruss or bacteria, it has cells whos sole purpose is to find harmful bacteria to inform the fighting cells to fight, the list literally goes on and on. What evolved first, the attacking cells or the cells to warn the attacking cells? They BOTH must work together for the system as a hole to work properly. Bats and dolphins both have complex sonar. They use this sonar to operate in there environment without getting killed and going extinct. Sonar, in these animals, cant slowly but surely change, those species entire survival depends on these complex systems. I have only named a few examples here, but I have yet the time nor the knowledge to explain all the complex systems that each individual species have that they depend on for its survivability.
The tempo or speed of evolution: Its no surprise that evolution takes an extremely long time to impact a specie. Yet, Darwin noticed a huge time problem with his theory. The earth is about 4.5 billion years old, but the newly formed earth had to cool down before anything. The first single cell came into existence a couple hundred million years ago. Remember the earth didnt suddenly form, according to evolutionist, and have simple single cells, it took a lot of time. A species, on average, takes 1-2 million years to go extinct from the its first appearance to its final extinction. Do the math. Remember 95% of all species that have ever lived are extinct. There are so many species that have ever lived with diversity that no man could even possibly imagine. Take the fish of the sea to the animals on the ground, to the birds of the air. There are countless types of species that have such immense diversity that 800 million years doesnt even account for. A couple million years, heck, 4.5 billion years isnt enough time to create the amount, and diversity we see on this very planet. Evolutionists say that this time difference is okay, since all species evolve at different rates, or speeds. This is true, but to an extent. A species will change or alter due to mutation, hopefully a beneficial mutation. A individual organism will be born with a mutation, lets say, more hair for cooler climates. That mutation will be passed down to its offspring and eventually to the entire species. Thousands or millions of years later we see that same species with thicker hair. Yet, a mutation is not based on the species environment. This is important. A mutation will occur weather or not the species needs to be altered or not, remember though that mutations occur in individual organisms, but species evolve. A mutation has nothing to do with its environmental condition. But, lets assume that this mutation of more hair is introduced, and the climate is cooler, than that species would benefit from this mutation. This is where survival of the fittest plays a part. The species would benefit with more hair, the same species that dont get introduced with this hair mutation will die thru a process called natural selection. The hair mutation will, over a LONG period of time, be passed to every individual in that species (this is why evolution takes so long), every individual must eventually have this mutation. Like I said earlier we find that a billion years isnt even enough time to produce the differences we see in every single species that has ever lived on this earth. Can a species evolve quickly, well, thats very subjective. All of evolution is very subjective, for example. My offspring may have a mutation that will make him have no nose, yes, its beneficial to him because he never again has to smell my bad cooking, yet that wouldnt benefit all of humanity, same is true for every species. A species may adapt to its surroundings quickly yet to change it from one species to another takes millions of years. Mathematically, the earths age doesnt provide enough time for species to evolve. Ive seen many equations dealing on this very subject.
Living Fossils: A living fossil is a species that is virtually unchanged from its first appearance. An example of this is bats, alligators, and many insects. Ill explain: We have found many bat fossils, yet they all look the same, with zero differences from a present day bat. We date the fossilized bat to 250 million years, and here today, its unchanged. This puzzled Darwin because the earth has always, and will always be in different changes, ie, the ice age to now. The current condition of the earth is not the same as a few thousand years ago, the earth is constantly changing. This puzzled Darwin because a species will evolve because of its environmental condition. The fact that a bat has never changed in all the different environmental changes on the earth is a huge stab toward evolution. You must understand, evolution never stops. A species will always need to change slightly due to the environment and its surrounding predators. The alligator does not have the same predators as in its first appearance in the Jurassic Era. This doesnt add up, evolution is never-ending, it allows occurs, constantly. The more puzzling part to this subject is to find a pre-bat or pre-alligator, well, there isnt one. We find no primitive bat or alligator in the fossil record, but we do find them, as fossils, in there current state. There was a huge discovery made about 80 years ago called the "Cambrian Explosion." This is a huge portion of fossils that are dated back to the Cambrian Era (just before the Jurassic). In this area we find literally millions of fossils that are dated from the exact same time, yet zero primitive fossils are found. We find millions of fossils with no primitive fossils for these species to evolve from, odd isnt it. Every single one of these fossils are fully formed and all vertebrates (an animal with a backbone), but no invertebrates. The way evolution works is this: A single cell evolved into an invertebrate (sponges, jellyfish) that evolved to a vertebrate (fish) that evolved to an amphibian(frogs) that evolved to reptiles (dinosaurs) that evolved to mammals (humans). In evolution, you must have a simpler form of life to evolve from, yet Cambrian shows no such thing. We find all the animals fully formed, fully developed with zero trace of ancestry
Symbiotic relationships between organisms: A Symbiotic relationship is an organism that depends on other for survival. There are many instances where organisms of different species are completely dependent upon each other for survival. Now, organisms in a symbiotic relationship "evolved together" per NECSI or any science foundation anywhere. According to evolutionist organisms have co-evolved too whose families they first appeared with in relation to time. Now the first segmented flatworms originated millions of years before the first mammals. However, the tapeworm, a segmented flatworm that is a parasite of humans, cows, and other mammals, could not have evolved before the first large mammals. Members of the honeybee family, consisting of the queen, workers, and drones, are interdependent. If one member of each interdependent group evolved first (such as the plant before the animal, or one member of the honeybee family before the others), it could not have survived. Because all members of the group obviously have survived, they must have come into existence at essentially the same time. This relationship is not something that helps the organism out somewhat, no, its a way of life. Without another species to feed upon and vis vera the animal or insect, ect, would die. It's not a thing you put in your "nice things to have" bag, no, its life for them. There are thousands of species that rely on plants, other animals, ect to survive. Evolution claims that each species evolves due to natural selection, independent on other organisms.
however this smacks of the old hovindian "refutations" in which he gives a speciation so complex, that it would take many many steps to describe it (actually it is slightly better than hovind, usually he tries to get one to defend something that never happened) In order to see the above "transition" you would need a fish becoming land-based (we have those) land based animal becoming more complex with land nased features (we have those, lizards and so on) transitions to basic mammals (we have those) transitions to more specific categories of mammals such as the carnivora (we have those) and then carnivora to felis (we have em) to the lion. as you can see, this is a very very crude outline, that includes far more steps, and even appears far more realistic than the thought of a cod with a mane and sabre-teeth.
