Ive posted this before, but im gonna do it again. This was a speech i wrote for speech class last year... It was 4 minutes too long for the allotted time (8 minutes), but i think it could have easily been an hour long.
I. Introduction
a. Attention: What would the world be like today had Darwin never existed? A Utopia? A biologically devoid mental wasteland? A clergy-run society with strict religious morals? Well, since he DID exist, no one really cares. Evolution is pretty much here to stay.
b. I am very much an evolutionist, and am against Young and Old Earth Creationism, but I have no problem with Theistic Evolution in which God may have created evolution or otherwise set things in motion. The evolution, creation debate has been a side interest of mine for a few years now.
c. Talking about Misconceptions, Positive evidence, and how evolution and religion are not mutually exclusive.
II. Misconceptions: Misconceptions are probably evolutions greatest enemy. These simple comprehension mistakes can skew the image of evolution and the way that people who are new to the theory learn to understand it. Not only are these misconceptions about the Theory of Evolution and its processes broad and numerous, often times they are intentionally fabricated from misquotations, insufficient technical knowledge, illogical mind exercises, and false analogies. Regardless of these misconceptions, most of them, when used against evolution are false dichotomies, and are rendered a logical fallacy.
a. Thermodynamics: A commonly misconceived notion about evolution is that it violates the Second Law of Thermodynamics. In laymans terms, the SLoT states that the entropy in a closed system cannot decrease. Creationists oftentimes misinterpret this to say that systems cannot move from un-complex to complex in a system or, for instance, a single strand of RNA to evolve into a human.
i. Rebuttal: The misconception comes from two parts of the SLoT. One, entropy is not equivalent to complexity. Entropy is used when talking about energy. Two, while the total entropy of a closed system cannot decrease, localized entropy can spontaneously increase or decrease. If heat flows from a hot part of the system to a cold part of the system, the entropy of the hot area spontaneously decreased.
b. Abiogenesis/BB: Abiogenesis and the Big Bang are almost always wrongly associated with the Theory of Evolution. Abiogenesis is the theory which proposes how, through chemical reactions and bonding, that RNA strands formed from a pre-biotic soup. The Big Bang is a theory which proposes how the universe, as we know it today, began.
i. Rebuttal: As much as creationists try to tie Abiogenesis and the Big Bang to evolution, it simply cannot be done. The biological evolution to which we are talking about mentions nothing about cosmology. It is absurd to even bring up the Big Bang when talking about the Theory of Evolution. Abiogenesis is more closely related to evolution, but still has no bearing on the validity of the theory. Evolution assumes that life exists, and explains the process of which it changes. Evolution does NOT explain how the first life on the planet came to be.
c. Theory = just theory: The theory of evolution is, indeed, only a theory. However, this does not mean that its title represents any kind of lack of evidence. The standard misconception is that this means that evolution maybe be simply dismissed on the notion that it is not hard fact.
i. Rebuttal: Wikipedia states that, In sciences, a theory is a model or framework for understanding. Evolution is a model for how life as we see it today came to be, based on the facts. Theories can only be accepted or falsified by the facts. Theories are also malleable because they will be modified to allow for the facts to be consistent. Evolution has withstood thousands of tests, and 150 years of scrutiny by scientists and religions alike. Its still here and supported by more evidence now than ever.
d. Fossil record: The misconception with the fossil record is that there does not exist any transitional fossils, of which evolution predicts.
i. Rebuttal: This is based on the idea that transitional fossils should be a mix between two certain species we see today. The misinterpretation could say that if an ant were evolving into a dog, then the transitional fossil would be an animal with 5 legs, one antenna, and mandibles. Wrong. In fact, the species we see today will become the transitional fossils of tomorrow as these species evolve into new things.
e. False Dichotomies: To take a direct quote from Wikipedia, on false dichotomies: The logical fallacy of false dilemma is to set up two alternative points of view as if they were the only options, when they are not. Examples:
Either creationism must be true or Darwin's theory of evolution must be true. Therefore, if it is shown that Darwin's theory is false, then creationism must be true.
This argument is fallacious because its premise fails to recognize that there are many other possibilities than just Darwin's views and creationism. (If it were somehow proven that there were no other possibilities, then the logic would be sound. Until then, the argument is fallacious.)
III. Positive evidence: False dichtomoies show us that in this controversy, it is illogical to recant the other sides views. What is needed is positive evidence which supports one theory or another. To give all the evidence for evolution would take a very long time. To simply explain the significance of Human Endogenous Retroviral Insertions would take many hours, in addition to a thurough background in genetics and microbiology, one reason I really dont understand it
a. Microevolution: Microevolution is described as being a change in gene frequency in a population. Because this happens in a relatively short amount of time, we can often observe it directly.
i. Building resistance: An example of this is Neisseria gonorrhoeae, (pic) the bacteria that causes gonorrhea. In the 1960s penicillin and ampicillin were able to control most cases of gonorrhea. Today, more than 24 percent of gonorrheal bacteria in the U.S. are resistant to at least one antibiotic, and 98 percent of gonorrheal bacteria in Southeast Asia are resistant to penicillin. Infectious bacteria are much harder to control than their predecessors were ten or twenty years ago because of these strains evolving a resistance to the antibiotics.
ii. Artificial Selection: Guppies have been observed experiments adapting to their environment through changes in their spot patterns. As you can see, when the guppies survival depended on their ability to blend into the gravel rock surroundings, in a number of generations, their spots were quite bigger and more suited for surviving and blending. The opposite is true when the surroundings were changed and had a finer gravel. (pics)
b. Human transitional skulls: In the debate over transitional fossils and remains, one of the most complete transitional fossil sets has been put together: That of humans. (Pic) The skull in the top left is that of a chimpanzee, and in the bottom right is a human. Can you determine a distinct line between ape and human? Fossils will always co-exist with gaps. To expect that a perfect record of every stage of evolution on earth is just not possible as fossils themselves are very, very rare.
c. Concepts SotF: Survival of the Fittest, otherwise known as Natural Selection is defined by Merriam-Webster as, A natural process that results in the survival and reproductive success of individuals or groups best adjusted to their environment and that leads to the perpetuation of genetic qualities best suited to that particular environment. This is primary driving idea behind evolution. It is not a difficult concept. What is is difficult is understanding HOW this concept works and the examples of it. As we have seen with the guppies and the bacterium, the ones which were best able to survive in their surrounding were able to pass on those beneficial traits to their offspring. Over a very long period of time, and many many mutations and generations, a species will no longer to be able to breed with the species from whence it evolved from: the quality which defines a species.
d. Others: As I have mentioned before, there are mountains of evidence for evolution. Instead of my speech being a little over 8 minutes, it would be weeks long. Some of the other evidences include, speciation, embryonic features, avatisms, radiometric dating, geological layers, fruit fly experiments and many, many more.
IV. Evolution and Religion: While it seems religion and evolution contradict and clash, they dont necessarily have to. In fact, it is only the litteral interpretation of the Bible or Koran or Torah which seems to butt heads with this scientific theory. There are many other interpretations for religion which include God and evolution. In fact, Pope John Paul II himself has said, quote, If the human body has its origin in living material which preexists it, the spiritual soul is immediately created by God. While not everyone is Catholic, this serves as a good example as to how God and evolution can co-exist peacefully in the same belief. Another question I would ask of a creationist is, Why is it that evolution cant be the process by which God has laid down to govern living organisms? Or, Why is it that God couldnt have placed the first strand of RNA on earth and said Go? Were the nomads thousands of years ago capable of understanding biological evolution? Maybe God, as he is all-knowing, understood their ignorance and granted them a simplified form of how they came to be. However, this is all speculation. But what I was trying to show was that evolution does not contradict God or threaten the idea or existence of Him in anyway.
V. Conclusion:
a. I am in favor of evolution because I see that it is the best explanation for the world around me and that the theory is currently the best and most accurate model to fit the facts.
b. Evolution is supported by incredible compilations of evidence from multiple fields of science, something which is direly needed when the existence of False dichotomies tells us that positive evidence is required.
c. And to sum it up, an exerpt from Dont Know Much About The Bible, by Kennith C. Davis.
That miraculous process resulted in the appearance, a brief moment in time ago, of a two-legged creature that walked upright. This creature held tools in his hands that were no longer needed for moving through the trees. He built fires and eventually held a sharp, pointed stick that made intricate symbols in pieces of hardening mud. It was the beginning of writing, the beginning of the Word [of God].
I. Introduction
a. Attention: What would the world be like today had Darwin never existed? A Utopia? A biologically devoid mental wasteland? A clergy-run society with strict religious morals? Well, since he DID exist, no one really cares. Evolution is pretty much here to stay.
b. I am very much an evolutionist, and am against Young and Old Earth Creationism, but I have no problem with Theistic Evolution in which God may have created evolution or otherwise set things in motion. The evolution, creation debate has been a side interest of mine for a few years now.
c. Talking about Misconceptions, Positive evidence, and how evolution and religion are not mutually exclusive.
II. Misconceptions: Misconceptions are probably evolutions greatest enemy. These simple comprehension mistakes can skew the image of evolution and the way that people who are new to the theory learn to understand it. Not only are these misconceptions about the Theory of Evolution and its processes broad and numerous, often times they are intentionally fabricated from misquotations, insufficient technical knowledge, illogical mind exercises, and false analogies. Regardless of these misconceptions, most of them, when used against evolution are false dichotomies, and are rendered a logical fallacy.
a. Thermodynamics: A commonly misconceived notion about evolution is that it violates the Second Law of Thermodynamics. In laymans terms, the SLoT states that the entropy in a closed system cannot decrease. Creationists oftentimes misinterpret this to say that systems cannot move from un-complex to complex in a system or, for instance, a single strand of RNA to evolve into a human.
i. Rebuttal: The misconception comes from two parts of the SLoT. One, entropy is not equivalent to complexity. Entropy is used when talking about energy. Two, while the total entropy of a closed system cannot decrease, localized entropy can spontaneously increase or decrease. If heat flows from a hot part of the system to a cold part of the system, the entropy of the hot area spontaneously decreased.
b. Abiogenesis/BB: Abiogenesis and the Big Bang are almost always wrongly associated with the Theory of Evolution. Abiogenesis is the theory which proposes how, through chemical reactions and bonding, that RNA strands formed from a pre-biotic soup. The Big Bang is a theory which proposes how the universe, as we know it today, began.
i. Rebuttal: As much as creationists try to tie Abiogenesis and the Big Bang to evolution, it simply cannot be done. The biological evolution to which we are talking about mentions nothing about cosmology. It is absurd to even bring up the Big Bang when talking about the Theory of Evolution. Abiogenesis is more closely related to evolution, but still has no bearing on the validity of the theory. Evolution assumes that life exists, and explains the process of which it changes. Evolution does NOT explain how the first life on the planet came to be.
c. Theory = just theory: The theory of evolution is, indeed, only a theory. However, this does not mean that its title represents any kind of lack of evidence. The standard misconception is that this means that evolution maybe be simply dismissed on the notion that it is not hard fact.
i. Rebuttal: Wikipedia states that, In sciences, a theory is a model or framework for understanding. Evolution is a model for how life as we see it today came to be, based on the facts. Theories can only be accepted or falsified by the facts. Theories are also malleable because they will be modified to allow for the facts to be consistent. Evolution has withstood thousands of tests, and 150 years of scrutiny by scientists and religions alike. Its still here and supported by more evidence now than ever.
d. Fossil record: The misconception with the fossil record is that there does not exist any transitional fossils, of which evolution predicts.
i. Rebuttal: This is based on the idea that transitional fossils should be a mix between two certain species we see today. The misinterpretation could say that if an ant were evolving into a dog, then the transitional fossil would be an animal with 5 legs, one antenna, and mandibles. Wrong. In fact, the species we see today will become the transitional fossils of tomorrow as these species evolve into new things.
e. False Dichotomies: To take a direct quote from Wikipedia, on false dichotomies: The logical fallacy of false dilemma is to set up two alternative points of view as if they were the only options, when they are not. Examples:
Either creationism must be true or Darwin's theory of evolution must be true. Therefore, if it is shown that Darwin's theory is false, then creationism must be true.
This argument is fallacious because its premise fails to recognize that there are many other possibilities than just Darwin's views and creationism. (If it were somehow proven that there were no other possibilities, then the logic would be sound. Until then, the argument is fallacious.)
III. Positive evidence: False dichtomoies show us that in this controversy, it is illogical to recant the other sides views. What is needed is positive evidence which supports one theory or another. To give all the evidence for evolution would take a very long time. To simply explain the significance of Human Endogenous Retroviral Insertions would take many hours, in addition to a thurough background in genetics and microbiology, one reason I really dont understand it
a. Microevolution: Microevolution is described as being a change in gene frequency in a population. Because this happens in a relatively short amount of time, we can often observe it directly.
i. Building resistance: An example of this is Neisseria gonorrhoeae, (pic) the bacteria that causes gonorrhea. In the 1960s penicillin and ampicillin were able to control most cases of gonorrhea. Today, more than 24 percent of gonorrheal bacteria in the U.S. are resistant to at least one antibiotic, and 98 percent of gonorrheal bacteria in Southeast Asia are resistant to penicillin. Infectious bacteria are much harder to control than their predecessors were ten or twenty years ago because of these strains evolving a resistance to the antibiotics.
ii. Artificial Selection: Guppies have been observed experiments adapting to their environment through changes in their spot patterns. As you can see, when the guppies survival depended on their ability to blend into the gravel rock surroundings, in a number of generations, their spots were quite bigger and more suited for surviving and blending. The opposite is true when the surroundings were changed and had a finer gravel. (pics)
b. Human transitional skulls: In the debate over transitional fossils and remains, one of the most complete transitional fossil sets has been put together: That of humans. (Pic) The skull in the top left is that of a chimpanzee, and in the bottom right is a human. Can you determine a distinct line between ape and human? Fossils will always co-exist with gaps. To expect that a perfect record of every stage of evolution on earth is just not possible as fossils themselves are very, very rare.
c. Concepts SotF: Survival of the Fittest, otherwise known as Natural Selection is defined by Merriam-Webster as, A natural process that results in the survival and reproductive success of individuals or groups best adjusted to their environment and that leads to the perpetuation of genetic qualities best suited to that particular environment. This is primary driving idea behind evolution. It is not a difficult concept. What is is difficult is understanding HOW this concept works and the examples of it. As we have seen with the guppies and the bacterium, the ones which were best able to survive in their surrounding were able to pass on those beneficial traits to their offspring. Over a very long period of time, and many many mutations and generations, a species will no longer to be able to breed with the species from whence it evolved from: the quality which defines a species.
d. Others: As I have mentioned before, there are mountains of evidence for evolution. Instead of my speech being a little over 8 minutes, it would be weeks long. Some of the other evidences include, speciation, embryonic features, avatisms, radiometric dating, geological layers, fruit fly experiments and many, many more.
IV. Evolution and Religion: While it seems religion and evolution contradict and clash, they dont necessarily have to. In fact, it is only the litteral interpretation of the Bible or Koran or Torah which seems to butt heads with this scientific theory. There are many other interpretations for religion which include God and evolution. In fact, Pope John Paul II himself has said, quote, If the human body has its origin in living material which preexists it, the spiritual soul is immediately created by God. While not everyone is Catholic, this serves as a good example as to how God and evolution can co-exist peacefully in the same belief. Another question I would ask of a creationist is, Why is it that evolution cant be the process by which God has laid down to govern living organisms? Or, Why is it that God couldnt have placed the first strand of RNA on earth and said Go? Were the nomads thousands of years ago capable of understanding biological evolution? Maybe God, as he is all-knowing, understood their ignorance and granted them a simplified form of how they came to be. However, this is all speculation. But what I was trying to show was that evolution does not contradict God or threaten the idea or existence of Him in anyway.
V. Conclusion:
a. I am in favor of evolution because I see that it is the best explanation for the world around me and that the theory is currently the best and most accurate model to fit the facts.
b. Evolution is supported by incredible compilations of evidence from multiple fields of science, something which is direly needed when the existence of False dichotomies tells us that positive evidence is required.
c. And to sum it up, an exerpt from Dont Know Much About The Bible, by Kennith C. Davis.
That miraculous process resulted in the appearance, a brief moment in time ago, of a two-legged creature that walked upright. This creature held tools in his hands that were no longer needed for moving through the trees. He built fires and eventually held a sharp, pointed stick that made intricate symbols in pieces of hardening mud. It was the beginning of writing, the beginning of the Word [of God].
