"If the species adapts in the wrong direction, we should find evidence of it in the fossil records. We don't. All we find is evidence of species that adapted in the right direction."
Erik, I get the sense that you are actually trying to think logically, and that you're not used to it, and that it's tough for you.
So, if I dance logical circles around your argument, how are you going respond? Can you maintain your logical facade, or will you just blow up, like some of our other posters?
Well, here goes:
Evolution 101: in every generation are born some with minor physical changes.
Some of these changes are neutral, and neither benefit nor harm the individual.
Many of the changes are harmful, and those individuals do not survive as well.
A small number of changes benefit the individual, who then survives to pass the changed genes on to the next generation.
In your example, an animal which moves north from a warmer to colder climate will have some offspring with shorter hair and some with longer hair. The shorter haired will not survive as well, the longer haired will survive better. In due time, over many generations, the longer hair and other cold adaptive changes will add up to a new species.
Time marches on, now the climate changes again, warming up quickly this time, and now our longer haired animals find themselves "adapted the wrong way," and become extinct. They are then replaced in the fossil record by their shorter haired cousins, who never left the warmer climate.
This is basic evolutionary theory. What is your problem with it?
Can you show this to be true? Can you show me examples of animals that grew shorter hair after moving to a colder climate?
I believe you cannot show this in the fossil record. Otherwise, it would be filled with MOSTLY wrong adaptations. Instead, we see a record of MOSTLY right adaptations.
I don't believe the adaptation is random, which is the unerpinning of Darwinism. I believe the adaptation is deliberate, rising from some inner programming we do not understand yet.
The examples of correct adaptation outnumber the examples of incorrect adaptation, which lends credence to the ID theory.
True proponents of ID do not subscribe to creationism, just that there are mechanisms or programming that guides nature.