I don't disagree with anything you wrote. The questions for me are more about the middle species and missing link. On Jan 2, 2014 4:01 PM, "Judah McAuley" <ju...@wiredotter.com> wrote:
> > Which parts of evolution do you consider not proven facts? One of the big > problems with the word "evolution" is that many people mean different > things when they use the word, so I never know what someone thinks has or > has not been proven. > > I'll go for a fairly simple definition of evolution, starting with Darwin. > > It was recognized long before Darwin that species change over time. Every > dog breeder knows that species change. They also know that those changes > can be adaptive (short legs for tunnel hunting dogs, long shaggy coats for > winter dogs, etc). Nothing in those notions was new at the time of Darwin. > > What Darwin proposed that was novel was pretty much right there in the > title of his book: "On the origin of species by means of natural > selection". He proposed that new species arose from old species and that > old species went extinct. And that the means of the creation of new species > and the demise of old species was differential survival of individuals with > characteristics favored by their (often changing) environment and that > those characteristics can be passed on to the offspring, creating diverging > paths of development and the creation of new species. > > The biggest argument to the contrary, at the time, was that characteristics > of species could change over time (a small value of evolution) but could > not give rise to new species. This was primarily driven by biblical > literalism, that God created the Heavens and the Earth and all the species > that walk the earth and swim the seas and was ordered just so. This view is > incompatible with a system of evolution that allows for the creation of new > species that did not exist at the time of creation. > > Now, then, onto the facts. > > #1: Speciation occurs. This is an observed fact. Existing species die off. > New species arise. The variety of ways in which speciation occurs and even > the most useful definition of species are areas of debate and research. > Speciation still occurs. > > #2: Natural selection occurs. This is also an observed fact. There is > differential survival of species members based on phenotype (what > characteristics the individual possesses). > > #3: Characteristics that natural selection acts upon are heritable. This is > also an observed fact. More efficient mechanisms for using water in an arid > environment, for example, can be passed down to future generations and have > a differential effect upon the survival of those offspring. > > That, in a nutshell, is Darwinian evolution and there are generations of > scientific documentation of all of the above items. It is real, plain and > simple, and well established and tested. > > Now, there are a whole bunch of things that are awesome open questions and > things that challenge established notions. The field of Epigenetics alone > is causing me to rethinking some views I have about where the level(s) of > natural selection work, how they interplay, what role genes versus > environment have, all sorts of stuff. It is exciting. But it does nothing > to change the validity of the items I list above. > > Cheers, > Judah > > > > > > On Thu, Jan 2, 2014 at 12:26 PM, Timothy Heald <timothy.he...@gmail.com > >wrote: > > > > > Or that you don't. > > > > Simply put it's not a proven fact. > > > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:369095 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
