[biblewonk]

Evolution is about improvement. We must get from bacteria to man via time and chance and random changes and survival of the fittest in 3 billion years. This is about improving species. We all know that if it happens gradually the fossil record should show it, if it happens in large bursts or big changes then those changes are much harder to explain. To say evolution is happening around us you must show an improvement in DNA that yields a better species not a minor change that is only an adaptation or hybridization.

[js1138]

Evolution is not about improvement. Some change results in greater complexity, but the overwhelming mass of living things is made of single-celled organisms. They are significently more successful than multi-celled organisms by any measure that would be used by biologists.

Change toward greater complexity happens but it is not a trend.

[Junior]

Define "improvement." Honestly, evolution, as has been pointed out, is simply about reproductive advantage. A mutation that makes it possible to leave more offspring than others in your species will mean that mutation will be passed onto the next generation. Evolution is not about "improvement" (other than to confer reproductive advantage).

[balrog666]

To say evolution is happening around us you must show an improvement in DNA that yields a better species not a minor change that is only an adaptation or hybridization.

Stangely enough, the nylon-eating bacteria meets even this unusual definition.