TalkOrigins Search

Evolution is defined ambiguously, and claims that it is fact are based on the ambiguity. It is usually defined as "change in heritable characteristics in a population over time" (often expressed as "change in allele frequencies"), which everyone accepts as fact, but that does not mean that macroevolution or common descent are fact.

...rwhelming: evolution is not only a theory ; major aspects of it, such as common descent, are also facts. Creationists sometimes misuse the ambiguity to their own advantage, trying, for example, to include cosmological change as part of the theory of evolution (Hovind n.d.). This is gross igno...

Hovind, Kent. n.d. Dr. Hovind's $250,000 offer. http://www.drdino.com/seeArticle.php?artid=67

DNA and chromosome counts differ widely between different organisms. This dissimilarity contradicts the similarity we expect from common descent. Chromosome counts should be either the same because the different forms of life descended from a common ancestor (Pathlights n.d.), or more complex as organisms get more complex (Thompson and Butt 2001). Neither is the case. For example, humans have 46 chromosomes, some ferns have 512, and some gulls have 12.

...ploidy, where the entire genome is duplicated. Polyploidy, in fact, is a common mechanism of speciation in plants.

Lewis, Harlan, 1993. "Clarkia", In: The Jepson Manual: Higher Plants of California , J. C. Hickman, ed., Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 786-793. Nachman, M. W., S. N. Boyer, J. B. Searle and C. F. Aquadro,...

Amphibians and mammals both have five-fingered hands, supposedly homologous structures indicating common descent. However, they develop in completely different ways. In humans, the limb tip (called the apical ectodermal ridge, AER) thickens, and then programmed cell death divides the AER into five regions that develop into digits. In frogs, the digits grow outward from the beginning.

Frogs and mammals (and other tetrapods) use the same mechanisms of limb develpment, including the same HOX genes and the same molecules. All (except a few highly derived frog species) have an AER. The difference between ...

Sequences of transitional fossils do not show direct ancestry. For example, with the fossil whale transition , which evolutionists consider as good a series of transitional fossils as one could hope to find, the fossils show extinct side lineages at best. Even if we had a fossil of every individual in the lineage, we could not verify direct ancestry. Fossils cannot show evidence of descent with modification even in principle.

...ly for twelve years, without blinking, to verify that it orbits the sun. Common descent implies a pattern of gradual change and diversification through time. The hundreds of thousands of fossils which have been discovered are consistent with this pattern, and they are not consistent with any...

Mud springs near Swindon, Wiltshire, England produce fossils, supposedly about 165 million years old, of remarkable preservation. Some bivalves still have their original organic ligaments, and ammonites are irridescent and still have their original shells of aragonite, a metastable form of calcium carbonate.

...preserved, their organic material is not. Irridescent fossils are not uncommon from mudrocks of that age. Dr. Hollingworth, cited secondhand in the source for this claim, wrote, The bivalves found at the Wootton Bassett Mudspring come from the Upper Jurassic, Oxfordian Ampthill Clay Formatio...

Harding, I. C., J. Armitage, N. Hollingworth, and N. Ainsworth. 2000. Sourcing mudsprings using integrated palaeontological analyses: An example from Wootton Bassett, Wiltshire, England. Geological Journal 35: 115-132. H...

Students should be taught all sides of a controversial issue. Evolution should not be taught without teaching the controversy that surrounds it.

...the fundamental issues of the theory of evolution, such as the facts of common descent and natural selection, there is no scientific controversy. The "teach the controversy" campaign is an attempt to get pseudoscience taught in classrooms. Lessons about the sociological issues of the evoluti...

Scott, E. C. and G. Branch, 2003. Evolution: what's wrong with 'teaching the controversy'. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 18(10): 499-502. Brauer, Matthew J., Barbara Forrest and Steven G. Gey. 2005. Is it science yet?:...

Evolution is only a theory. It is not a fact.

...ave changed and diversified over life's history; Species are related via common descent from one or a few common ancestors; Natural selection is a significant factor affecting how species change. Many other facts are explained by the theory of evolution as well. The theory of evolution has pr...

Barnhart, Clarence L., ed. 1948. The American College Dictionary , New York: Random House. Bull, J. J. and H. A. Wichman. 2001. Applied evolution. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 32: 183-217. Eisen, J. A. and M....

Evolution has not been, and cannot be, proved. We cannot even see evolution (beyond trivially small change), much less test it experimentally.

...the mechanisms of replication, heritability, catalysis, and metabolism. Common descent predicts a nested hierarchy pattern, or groups within groups. We see just such an arrangement in a unique, consistent, well-defined hierarchy, the so-called tree of life. Different lines of evidence give t...

Benner, S. A., M. D. Caraco, J. M. Thomson and E. A. Gaucher. 2002. Planetary biology--paleontological, geological, and molecular histories of life. Science 296: 864-868. Mercer, John M. and V. Louise Roth. 2003. The eff...

...sulting in the origin of higher taxa. In evolutionary theory, macroevolution involves common ancestry, descent with modification, speciation, the genealogical relatedness of all life, transformation of species, and large scale functional and structural changes of populations through time, all at or above the species level ( Freeman and Herron 2...

...the species level ( Freeman and Herron 2004 ; Futuyma 1998 ; Ridley 1993 ). Universal common descent is a general descriptive theory concerning the genetic origins of living organisms (though not the ultimate origin of life). The theory specifically postulates that all of the earth's known biota are genealogically related, much in the same way...

...in the same way that siblings or cousins are related to one another. Thus, universal common ancestry entails the transformation of one species into another and, consequently, macroevolutionary history and processes involving the origin of higher taxa. Because it is so well supported scientifically, common descent is often called the " fact of...

Darwin's Precursors and Influences 2. Common descent by John Wilkins Copyright © 1996-2003 [Last Update: 21 February 2003] Previous Contents Next Theories of common descent precede Darwin. The earliest I have information of is in a 1745 book by French physicist Pierre Maupertuis, Vénus Physique ,...

...yright © 1996-2003 [Last Update: 21 February 2003] Previous Contents Next Theories of common descent precede Darwin. The earliest I have information of is in a 1745 book by French physicist Pierre Maupertuis, Vénus Physique , in which he also proposed that inheritance was derived equally from each parent, in a particulate form, with something l...

...mals were descended from a single "living filament" created by God, getting closer to common descent for all organisms: All which seem to have been gradually produced during many generations by the perpetual endeavour of the creatures to supply the want of food, and to have been delievered to their posterity with constant improvement of them fo...

...hanged), so I decided to insert "evidences" as an inside joke for all who realize how common that bit of language is in creation/evolution debates. Personally, I thought it was pretty funny. It also lends a nice eccentric air to the title, giving it some name recognition. Who would remember "The Scientific Evidence for Common Descent" or some o...

...tle, giving it some name recognition. Who would remember "The Scientific Evidence for Common Descent" or some other insipid appellation? Recently, I've had some fun investigating the historical usage of the word "evidences," and I am surprised to report that it is not at all limited to Christian apologetics. It appears to be somewhat of an arch...

...are usually well treated; and we saw evidences of courtesy and consideration not too common even among civilized people." An Autobiography . (1913) III PRACTICAL POLITICS "When I knew him he was already making his way up; one of the proofs and evidences of which was that he owned a first-class racing trotter-"Alice Lane"-behind which he gave m...

...and evolution of macroevolutionary adaptations. This is why scientists call universal common descent the "fact of evolution". As explained in the introduction, none of the predictions directly address how macroevolution has occurred; nevertheless, the validity of the macroevolutionary conclusion does not depend on whether Darwinism, Lamarckism...

...lution of macroevolutionary adaptations. This is why scientists call universal common descent the "fact of evolution". As explained in the introduction, none of the predictions directly address how macroevolution has occurred; nevertheless, the validity of the macroevolutionary conclusion does not depend on whether Darwinism, Lamarckism (i.e. i...

...s Reptile-birds Reptile-mammals Ape-humans Legged whales Legged seacows Chronology of common ancestors References Prediction 1.1: The fundamental unity of life " OH JEHOVA, quam ampla sunt opera Tua. " – Carolus Linnaeus at the beginning of Systema Naturae , 1757 According to the theory of common descent, modern living organisms, with all their...

...arolus Linnaeus at the beginning of Systema Naturae , 1757 According to the theory of common descent, modern living organisms, with all their incredible differences, are the progeny of one single species in the distant past. In spite of the extensive variation of form and function among organisms, several fundamental criteria characterize all l...

...anisms and structures that execute these four basic life processes. Confirmation: The common polymers of life The structures that all known organisms use to perform these four basic processes are all quite similar, in spite of the odds. All known living things use polymers to perform these four basic functions. Organic chemists have synthesized...

...every species has a unique genealogical history. Each species has a unique series of common ancestors linking it to the original common ancestor. We should expect that organisms carry evidence of this history and ancestry with them. The standard phylogenetic tree predicts what historical evidence is possible and what is impossible for each giv...

...tory. Each species has a unique series of common ancestors linking it to the original common ancestor. We should expect that organisms carry evidence of this history and ancestry with them. The standard phylogenetic tree predicts what historical evidence is possible and what is impossible for each given species. Part 2 Outline Anatomical vestig...

...ralists throughout history and were noted long before Darwin first proposed universal common descent. Many eighteenth and nineteenth century naturalists identified and discussed vestigial structures, including Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), Georges-Louis Leclerc, Compte de Buffon (1707-1788), and Georges Cuvier (1769-1832). Over sixty...

...the air by the help of their wings. Both endowed with the property of swimming, their common derivation from the waters has made them of one family. – St. Basil, Bishop of Caesarea, 329-379 A.D. from The Hexaemeron: Homily VIII.- The Creation of Fowl and Water Animals. making one of the earliest known inferences to common descent from biostruct...

...he Creation of Fowl and Water Animals. making one of the earliest known inferences to common descent from biostructural similarity. One major consequence of the constraint of gradualism is the predicted existence of parahomology . Parahomology, as the term is used here, is similarity of structure despite difference in function. When one species...

...phylogenetic tree shows why these species have these same structures, i.e. they have common ancestors that had these structures. This is the conclusion supported by the phylogenetic tree, even though these parahomologous characters were not used to group these species together. Viewed objectively, this is truly a remarkable result, since only...

...mely impressive probability calculations that demonstrate how well the predictions of common descent with modification actually match empirical observation. Common descent is a deduction that directly follows from premises based on empirically observed molecular evidence. In addition, knowledge of biological molecular mechanisms and structures,...

...predictions of common descent with modification actually match empirical observation. Common descent is a deduction that directly follows from premises based on empirically observed molecular evidence. In addition, knowledge of biological molecular mechanisms and structures, combined with macroevolutionary theory, has given very specific, novel...

...retroviruses References Prediction 4.1: Protein functional redundancy The support for common descent given by studies of molecular sequences can be phrased as a deductive argument. This argument is unique within this FAQ, as it is the only instance we can directly conclude that similarity implies relatedness. This conclusion depends upon the si...