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To: hopespringseternal
To my knowledge no large scale change or drift in genetic code has ever been observed.

*Sigh.* Okay, for one, there are the mosquitoes in the London Underground. They were bird-biting when they got trapped it the tunnels when the system was being built, and now they prey on rats and people, and they are almost impossible to breed with their aboveground cousins. "The ones underground are well on their way to becoming a separate species."

And then there's my personal favorite, the lizards on the island in the Mediterranean. Scientists moved 5 pairs of lizards to a new island, then war broke out and they couldn't get back for a while. When they finally did, 36 years later, they found "striking differences in head size and shape, increased bite strength and the development of new structures in the lizard’s digestive tracts."

Now, that article says "What could be debated, however, is how those changes are interpreted—whether or not they had a genetic basis." I'm sure scientists are examining that question right now. Is Behe or any other intelligent design advocate looking for evidence of the designer's touch during those 36 years? Yeah, sure they are.

Pointing out something in the middle suggests there might be a path, but it doesn't define the path.

Yes, but with enough stuff in the middle, we can assume there's a path until we define it (unless we refuse to). If someone shows me a series of snapshots of them in Philadelphia, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Denver, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles, time-stamped in sequence a day apart, I could assume there's some path linking them. Or I could insist they flew to Cincinnati, flew back to Philly, flew to St. Louis the next day, flew back to Philly, and so on, or that the photos must be Photoshopped, until they document to my satisfaction every turn, every rest stop, every gas station they stopped at along the way.

And once I accept that they took that path, I can predict that I could find evidence for it if I looked in Kansas. Which brings me to another testable prediction of evolution: the discovery of Tiktaalik. Paleontologists determined there was a gap in the fossil record, figured out how old the rocks that contained the missing fossil would be, used geological maps to find where rocks of the right age were, went there, and found the transitional form they predicted would be there. Testable prediction, confirmed.

215 posted on 05/31/2012 10:17:21 AM PDT by Ha Ha Thats Very Logical
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To: Ha Ha Thats Very Logical
Mosquitoes: How did they verify that they would only prey on birds? The article says they preyed on people using the tunnels as shelters during WWII 70 years ago.

Lizards: This article makes claims about their appearance but provides no evidence. In fact, those kinds of large scale changes that quickly mean that the lizard either mated with other lizards or had the genes already.

Tiktaalik: A, B, C.

Dogs can undergo major changes in size, head and body shape, bite strength in one generation. It is called sexual reproduction, not evolution. The species already has the genes -- they aren't mutating. And they aren't changing into cats.

Yes, but with enough stuff in the middle, we can assume there's a path until we define it (unless we refuse to).

You don't have enough stuff, especially when it comes to cellular biochemistry. If you can't build those systems piece by piece intentionally, how on earth can they come about randomly? Science is not the business of assuming, it is the business of testing.

217 posted on 05/31/2012 6:58:24 PM PDT by hopespringseternal
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