Evolution Isn't Just Pokémon (part one)

Well, let me start this by saying it's still dark out. I have been sitting in bed, for over an hour and a half staring at the glow in the dark stars on my ceiling, begging sleep since I woke up at three in the morning. Needless to say, I give up. (I think it's my blog's way of informing me that I have once again broken my promise to actually *write* a blog. )

I wanna talk about something that I have been pondering for a while: Evolution, specifically the philosophy behind it, but first, I want to lay a little groundwork, so before you roll your eyes at the "(part one)" understand that I wanted to clarify a few things. I promise i won't have more than two parts.

*cough* ah hem.... *cough*

When I think about evolution, really, I think about Pokémon. It's true. I admit it, the only time I really apply the theory that anything I interact with has or can evolve, I automatically think Pokémon. I know, it's geeky, but other than that, it's also wrong. Things do evolve all the time :waits for audience to finish saying their prayers for my hell-bound soul: To evolve, is merely to move on to a greater complexity. When phrased like that, we realise the suddenly obvious; technology evolves. Think about the iPod for a moment. Its certainly changed from the first iPod! I remember I had an iPod mini, which by comparison to the iPod nano III generation, is a brick! Laptops, computers, cellphones, cars, toasters and hairdryers have all become more complex over the years. Architecture, fashion, philosophies, sciences, music, all these things have evolved over the centuries. I merely make this point to prove that evolution and evolve shouldn't be taboo in Christian circles. Now that we have cleared that up, let's think about the Theory of Evolution :).

There are two sides of this coin. Micro- and Macro evolution. You and I both believe in microevolution. Don't believe me? (patience grasshopper...)

Were gonna play a little game here. I will have simplified and complex examples in a few of my points, and I figure you probably don't want to read both. For the simple examples, I'll put a [*], and for the complex ones, I'll put a [**] This way, you can skip to the one you want to read, or if you understand the first, and think you understand what I'm talking about, you can skip to the next idea. I'll let you know when I get to my next point by indenting the paragraph so you don't miss anything. Deal?

Microevolution is the little changes, that a new species can come from existing genes. For example, dog breeding.

[*] Lets say that you have two labrador retrievers, a male and a female. If you were to breed your two dogs, the puppies would be labrador retrievers. No matter how many times you breed your dogs, the puppies will always be the same breed. Now let's say you have a male lab, and a female poodle. If you breed the two dogs, and they have puppies, their puppies won't be a few lab puppies, and a few poodle puppies, all the puppies will be part lab and part poodle. All the puppies will share several of the same characteristics of both the mother and the father, but are not the same as either. The puppies would be an entirely new breed of dog altogether (one that we call labrodoodles if you didn't catch that) We see this all the time, with backyard breeding, and designer mutts. Now, let's further this example with a little more complex example.

[**] The UKC (United Kennel Club) has recently admitted a new breed to their pure breeds. This is a fairly regular occurrence, as new breeds develop all the time. Silken Windhounds were admitted to the UKC this past month. Now is that important at all? Yes, yes it is. You see, there was no such thing as a Silken Windhound fifty years ago, they started much like the labrodoodle example from earlier, except with a little more, ok, fine, alot more care and genetic intentionality than the labrodoodles we see around today. Champion Borzoi breeder Francie Stull loved her breed. She had been breeding Borzois successfully for years, turning out AKC champions. She regretted however, that borzois tend to have a rather short life span of 6-9 years on average due to breed related health problems. She hated seeing her dogs pass away so quickly. Over the span of the next few years, she sought to found a new breed. She bred whippets to a borzois, experimenting with the turnout of the puppies. Her end goal was a smaller, healthier breed of dog, that carried the characteristics of her beloved borzois. Eventually, she found a litter of puppies that she really liked. She repeated her last breeding and bred specifically and carefully for what she saw. And this is where it differs from labrodoodles and the other designer mutts. After she had several male and female puppies of the same kind as the successful litter, she stopped breeding whippets and borzois together and rather started breeding what she later referred to Silken Windhounds like she would borzois: silken to silken. The silkens look like small borzois (about 21"-24" inches at the shoulder as opposed to the 37" and up borzoi) they have no breed related health problems, and currently have a life span of about 18-21 years, which is remarkable for a dog of that size. My point being, Silken Windhounds are recognised as a new breed, not as part of the Borzoi breed, or the Whippet breed.

It is a new species that came from existing genes. As we can see, this happens all the time. This sort of evolution is both observable and repeatable. Microevolution is also referred to as creationism.

Macroevolution on the other hand is the big changes, where new genes make new animals through the mutation of old genes.

We've all seen the pictures of the snake with two heads, or the cow with five legs, and the bird with three legs (if you haven't, look them up). Each of these examples are called mutations.Scientists believe that this is how new animals evolved and became a new species. There is a problem with that. Every time we have seen a mutation in animals, we have seen two things. First, mutations are almost always harmful. The snake with two head, each head would by vying to be fed, and it would starve to death. The cow with five legs kicked itself when it ran and bad to be put down. The bird with three legs couldn't fly well, nor could it walk easily. The other problem is that all the mutations do not carry on to the young, if the mutated animal can reproduce at all, and if it survives it's mutation.

Scientifically, there is one more problem with Macroevolution. According to the definition of science, to truly be science, it must be observable and repeatable. New species through mutation has never been seen, nor has it from any point been repeated from generation to generation.

Macroevolution is unscientific! For a scientist to believe in Macroevolution, he must break the laws that make him a scientist, and the rules that he holds to in studying and preforming science.

In my next post in this two part lesson on, i hope to talk about the philosophical epic failings *cough* shortcomings in the theory of Evolution. I'm gonna go back to bed bow. I'm tired again. Let's hope I actually sleep.

(and at this point, I feel rather obligated to close thusly)

See you next time as we continue with Evolution Isn't Just Pokémon (part 2)!

(can someone explain to me how I could get Rocky and Bullwinkle to do my credits? ;D)