When I was growing up, I never for a minute considered that evolution might be true. I already “knew” that the Bible was the inerrant word of God, so evolution was simply error. And in my high school biology classes, our teacher made it clear that she had to teach us about evolution by law, despite the fact that she didn’t believe in it herself. I had a handful of friends who believed it, but we never really talked about it. Even if they had, I knew they weren’t “true” Christians, so it was no surprise that they held “inaccurate” ideas.
Many years later, after I had left Christianity, I decided to give evolution another look. I was completely blown away by the amount of evidence I encountered. And so many of the criticisms I had heard against it, that it was “only” a theory, that the fossil record contradicted it, that it had never been observed, that positive mutations were so rare there hadn’t been enough time for this diversity of life to develop, etc were all untrue.
Now as I stated in my last post, I don’t think evolution and religion have to be at odds, so I’m not trying to criticize religion in this post. I think there are many ways for Christians to hold onto their faith while also accepting what science tells us about evolution. So without further ado, here’s the first post in a series that will present some of the evidence for evolution:
Geographic Distribution — Microevolution
When Charles Darwin was a young man, he spent 5 years traveling the world via the HMS Beagle. During the voyage, he managed to spend some time in the Galapagos Islands, about 600 miles off the western coast of South America. One of the things that really struck him was the diversity among the various species of finches there. He identified at least 14 different species, each of which had beaks that were specially suited to their particular food source: ” three species of ground-dwelling seed-eaters; three others living on cactuses and eating seeds; one living in trees and eating seeds; and 7 species of tree-dwelling insect-eaters” [1].
This type of variation is known as adaptive radiation, and it’s a form of microevolution. In case you’re not aware, microevolution is a term for the changes that occur over time within a species — different breeds of dog, variations in height among a population, etc. Almost no one objects to this type of evolution. Macroevolution is a term for the changes that occur over time from one species to another. Quite a number of people object to this version of evolution; however, it’s really no different than microevolution. It just requires a longer period of time.
How did Darwin’s finches evolve once they reached the Galapagos Islands? As they settled among the different islands, they encountered different food sources. Scientists believe the first finches that arrived there were of the ground-dwelling, seed-eating variety. Some of the birds wound up in places where their typical diet was more scarce, but larger, harder seeds were available. As you might imagine, the birds with thicker, stronger beaks could eat that food more easily than the birds with thinner, weaker beaks. They survived better, and simply out-bred the others. Since they were separated from the rest of the finch population, the changes in their physiology became more and more pronounced over time. So there are two factors that are very important in evolution: separated populations and scarce resources.
But the importance of geographic distribution goes much further than this example. Islands are isolated from the other main land areas. Not-so-coincidentally, they also have vastly different plants and animals. Hawaii, for instance, had no land animals until the arrival of humans. There were only birds, bats, and insects living there. Considering how far away Hawaii is from other land masses, it makes sense that if any animals were to migrate there, they would be flying animals. However, if God had created all animals exactly as they are today all at one time, there’s no obvious reason why he would have left Hawaii barren. If it had been teeming with the typical creatures we find elsewhere, that would have been good evidence against evolution.
Australia is also isolated from the other continents, and it provides another fascinating example. Prior to humans, Australia had no placental mammals (dogs, cats, deer, horses, etc). Instead, it contained many species of marsupials that never developed anywhere else in the world. While koalas and kangaroos are some of the most familiar to us, there are other marsupials that developed in Australia to fill niches left empty by the animals most of us are more familiar with. For instance, Australia had no wolves, but Tasmanian tigers developed to fill a similar role. Australia had no cats, but the Thylacine developed to fill that niche. Instead of rats, Australia has bandicoots and bilbies. If God had created all animals just as they are all at one time, why create marsupial versions of animals when there are perfectly good placental animals that could have filled the same roles? And why do it in such an isolated spot? But when you look at it from the view of evolution, it makes much more sense. Marsupials found their way to Australia long, long ago, when Australia, Antarctica, Africa, and South America were all part of a larger continent, Gondwana. When that continent broke up, and Australia began to drift away, the isolation necessary for evolution was achieved. As time went by, more and more changes occurred among marsupials, culminating in the various species we know of today.
But that may be jumping the gun a little. It’s one thing to talk about differences among finches, but one species changing into another is a completely different matter. How could that be possible? We’ll get into that; just follow along.
Finding Truth 
Hi Nan,
Your friend might be interested to know that some evolutionary changes can be seen within our lifetimes — they just require life forms that breed very, very quickly. Lenski’s long-running experiment with e coli is a great example.
And thanks to the rest of you for the great points! When people ask why chimps still exist if we have a common ancestor, they’re also not thinking about the different environments that chimps and humans live in. There were environmental pressures on our ancestors that selected for the ability to walk long distances on land rather than hanging out in trees, which seemed to jump start many of the things that make us different from other apes.
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Yes, but …. you’d have to look through a microscope to see these changes, right? I think he feels that if evolution is factual, there should be demonstrated evidence within our lifetimes. It’s like esell says, folks don’t understand that speciation takes millions of years. In essence, you have to trust the scientists and their studies. And as we already know from a couple of people that have participated on your blogs, science is all a big cover-up.
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Touche — excellent point.
I’ve often thought that another of the big problems is the constant stream of misinformation coming from the YEC camp, like “there are no transitional species.” Completely bogus, but it’s what people remember.
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Good point, William. Yes, there has to be SOME kind of selective advantage for one form of a species to do better than another, or for one species to edge out a similar one…otherwise we’d all still be Homo habilises. lol
And Nan, I know not much will convince those who don’t want to be convinced, but Darwin pointed to Selective Breeding as an Observable form of evolution. “But it doesn’t matter if it is a tea-cup Poodle or a St. Bernard, they’re still dogs!” Ahhh, but that kind of breeding has only been going on for 300 years or so, and ALREADY there are breeds that cannot have viable offspring, or that have sterile offspring (donkey + horse = sterile mule). That means there is genetic isolation, and that means those breeds are on the way to becoming Independent Species.
Cabbage, broccoli, brussel sprouts, and a couple other garden veg all came from the same wild ancestor that people started playing with in the 1800’s. THAT is speciation via “natural selection”! Yeah, it was Unnatural selection, but it all was a result of “non random selection of random genetic mutation” that could be passed down from one generation to another…and nobody can say “but they’re still like the original” b/c they’re not. Until I read that those veggies came from the same wild ancestor (I forget if it was Origin of Species or Why Evolution is True), I NEVER would have guessed as they’re so different.
But, yeah, I love the Lenski experiments. Complicated (multi-step) chemical pathways evolved that were relevant to the environment the e Coli were in. Plus, this happens naturally, at the rate of 10s of thousands of generations, so is more “realistic” than the dogs or veggies.
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I was reminded of this story when I saw eSell’s post yesterday but I was hesitant to post as it was a little off topic, I thought. But after seeing Nan’s response this might help with her friend.
This was posted back in 2007 and was sent to me by a friend at the time. I had forgotten about it until yesterday. It is an ugly story but some are referring to it as proof of the evolution of Chimpanzees.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn11234-spearwielding-chimps-snack-on-skewered-bushbabies.html#.U98kb2MVC50
Apparently this tribe of Chimps are now living in caves and creating spears to hunt Bushbabies, which is a very small and cute primate.
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Wow, I’ve never heard of spear-wielding, cave-dwelling chimps before! Almost scary…
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AND THAT! Is why I do NOT pick fights with PRIMATES!
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and here’s an article on a new species of frog discovered under yankee stadium a few years ago.
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I’ve only skimmed this article so far, but it’s interesting.
http://www.huecotanks.com/debunk/therapsd.htm
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For any of you tired of having your favorite site trolled by theists, you could reverse the procedure by visiting ATHEIST AGENDA EXPOSED</strong? – spoiler alert, she moderates.
I’m pretty sure my agenda has never been exposed, but sometimes my zipper has a mind of its own —
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— as apparently does my little finger – messed up the HTML!
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Bird, The link isn’t working and I can’t get it to tell me where it is supposed to go. You gonna post it again? Without your little finger. Odd name for it by the way. I call mine Jack.
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Yeah, well you call a lot of things names they don’t want to be called.
http://kimbalogh.wordpress.com/2014/01/06/atheism-agenda-exposed-are-atheists-moral/
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Thank you BIiiiiiiiiiiiiiirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrdAH:) And when are you going to get your site back up? I’m wallowing in my own Christianity and I have no Atheist library to dry off with. Help me. Help me.
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“…when are you going to get your site back up?” – I can promise you it won’t be until after you quit calling me “Bird”!
“Help me. Help me.</em." – what do I look like, a psychiatrist?
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Good afternoon Archeopteryz1, and how you feeling today?
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Much closer, but your spelling could use some work. Did that link work for you?
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The “Atheism Exposed” link? Yeah it worked good. Just too… oh what’s the word for it… Uhhhh… Oh yeah.
F%^&K’n STUPID for me to get through. I got to the second paragraph and wanted to vomit.
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@Hayden – and you can see that smug, “Why, yes, I DO know it all!” look on her face —
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I left several comments yesterday there, but they’re still awaiting moderation…
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@William
Step 2: Grow a long beard
Step 3: When your beard turns white, check back – they will still be awaiting moderation.
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@Arch — oh my YES! That picture of her does tell a story of its own. Jeez, I would hate to sit in her congregation.
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@arch
whoa…talk about a tsunami of insanity.
On her “about” page she writes: “I am a minister (servant) of the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
Guess she never read 1 Timmy 2:12 😀
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Like most Christians, she probably cherry-picks whatever scripture fits her own desires.
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let us not forget 1 Corinthians 14:34. Amen.
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