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"Would be nice to see the same intellectual honesty on the other side."

There are jerks everywhere. They are found on both sides. I have had professors screaming spit into my face for asking a question. Fortunately, I also had good professors.

"Now you are just being intentionally dense. Common descent means we share an ancestor with all other life, and you knew I meant that. At the roots of the Tree of Life, it gets more tricky, but we certainly share a common ancestor with other apes. That is a fact. That is the fact of evolution I am talking about. The way we evolved is the ToE."

I was pointing out that 'common descent' is to the debate on evolution like 'pro-choice' is to the debate on abortion.

"ID is an argument from ignorance. It's a gutless choice. It has no physical evidence, it makes no testable predictions. It's Creationism with an ugly dress on."

In fact, ID is analogous to 'pro-life' or 'common descent' - an attempt to make an arguement socially acceptable. But it is certainly NOT gutless. I'll take far more heat for suggesting ID than you will ever take for promoting evolution - oops, 'common descent'!

I would also be curious as to the testable predictions in evolution...

"I was pointing out that 'common descent' is to the debate on evolution like 'pro-choice' is to the debate on abortion."

Except that this is a really bad analogy.

"In fact, ID is analogous to 'pro-life' or 'common descent' - an attempt to make an arguement socially acceptable."

Common descent(usually called universal common descent)is an accurate description of what is happening.

"But it is certainly NOT gutless. I'll take far more heat for suggesting ID than you will ever take for promoting evolution - oops, 'common descent'!"

I should have been more explicit. It may have it's political and cultural opponents, and may require a certain amount of *courage* in that sense. It is intellectually gutless though, as it is a fatalistic hypothesis that says we will never be able to understand things in a scientific way. It looks at a problem and tells us to throw up our hands and give up. Science doesn't work that way.

"I would also be curious as to the testable predictions in evolution..."

Every time a fossil is unearthed a prediction of evolution is tested. Every time a new genome is sequenced and analyzed for ERV's and mDNA evolution is tested.