What is the single best argument for Evolution? for Intelligent Design?

Question

If you could make just ONE arguement or give ONE example to support evolution (or Intelligent Design), what would it be?

Regarding the "why are there still apes comment," I think that's been dealt with. But there is an interesting argument that basically says, if life started with bacteria (which are the absolute best organism on earth at reproducing) and evolution basically chooses organisms that have a higher rate of reproducing then why did ANYTHING evolve beyond bacteria?

Any comments on that?

Answer 1

Intelligent design is a fairy tale.
Evolution is fact.

Answer 2

Here is the best possible argument for both of them.

Concerning the debate going on about intelligent design and evolution: is it possible that the final answer about which of these two seemingly opposite ideas is correct could simply be yes?

With one position firmly held by the believers and the other just as fearlessly defended by the non-believers, if you happen to be in a position somewhere near the middle, it does not look all that complex. From this position, you wonder why either-or has to be the answer.

If you believe that some higher being created the universe by intelligent design, what more elegant and intelligent design could there have been than a self-regulating system that continually checks its own errors and makes its own corrections in mid-stream as an integral part of the process.

This all seems quite logical to me although it probably won’t satisfy the believers because they are afraid to see any truth other than the one they have been told to believe in. Inversely it certainly won’t satisfy the non-believers because it leaves them stuck with a god that they are so obviously terrified of.

To sum up this view from the center, it might be most easily be explained by saying perhaps the designer was intelligent. Problem is, the designer was likely so intelligent that those seeking to prove that it is intelligently designed may be incapable of ever understand it well enough to see it for the elegant self regulating design that it has always been.

The nonbelievers will be similarly handicapped due to the internal terror the have about the idea that there may be a God. Neither side being able to leave their entrenched position for fear they may have to admit they were wrong. While the rest of us stand by trying to figure out what all the fuss is about. Personally I don’t think anyone is wrong, I just feel both sides are about half right.

Answer 3

If you look at a car or a house or a watch, you can admit that it was created by intelligent design. Does that mean that the car will always run perfectly, the house will never need repairs, or the watch will always keep time? No. So if you can look at all those things and recognize intelligent design, why is it so hard to recognize in a universe that is much more complex than any watch, house, or car that was ever made? By the way guys, evolution is still a theory. Those of you calling it fact obviously are skipping a few major steps.

Answer 4

Best argument for Evolution? There must be a scientific explanation for how we've come here. The theory of evolution attempts to explain how we have evolved from simple bacteria.

Best argument for Intelligent Design? the inherited complexities of each different species and specialized tools each species has couldn't have been evolved, even through chaotic evolution. Man, animals and plants must have been created to explain. Different animals have different chromosome counts - how can a chaotically evolved animal have more chromosomes than the animal it came from?

It's pretty obvious I'm biased on the issue. Micro evolution is perfectly fine, but when swiming tails sprout legs and scales turn into feathers, that's when I start getting sceptical.

-edit - to those touting the Darwin finches for proof that we evolved from bacteria - the Dawin finches prove MICRO-EVOLUTION, changing species, but staying within the family and genus.

Answer 5

Evolution is back up by over 150 years of painstaking research and proof. Case in point, the Galapagos Finches (also known as the Darwin Finches).

Intelligent Design on the other hand is nothing more than an attempt by the religious right to introduce mythology into the science lab. If it belongs anywhere in school, it must remain in a philosopy class or in a comparative religions course.

Answer 6

Evolution: Hox genes. They're not the only genes like this, but the Hox genes are a window into the past. Millions of years ago, the Hox genes of our ancestors split into four. Since then, those genes have continued to evolve along separate paths. They're like the Beatles. Back in the early 1960s, the Beatles were a group of nearly indistinguishable mop-tops. Now, John is revered, George is tragic, Paul played the Super Bowl, and Ringo went on that show where they track Santa's sleigh at Christmastime. Yet, they're still the Beatles, and we can tell that they are still the Beatles.

Hox genes are like that. (You can do even cooler things by playing with Hox genes than you can playing a Beatles record--you can grow a bug with legs on its head, for instance.) We can tell they were once one gene, and we can tell that they split into four, and then we can trace the separate histories of them since then. These histories span species. Many species.

We can do this only because these species are related.


The best argument for creationism? None, really. Everything from astronomy to cosmology to physics to geology to biology, biochemistry, and history destroy traditional creationist arguments, and more modern creationist arguments (at least the ones that aren't restatements of older stupid creationist arguments) are just reformulations of the Teleological Argument. The Teleological argument, in turn, is argument from ignorance.

(1) Look at that pretty flower! I failed biology class, so I don't know where it came from.
(2) Therefore, God exists.

Answer 7

Evolution: the fossil record.

Intelligent design: (I know a really good site for this--just wait while I look it up.)

Oh well, I can't find it. But it shows at least 6 important facts that led to life coming to be, which seem like they could not have happened without an intelligence at work.

Answer 8

I would explain natural selection, the best evidence of there having to be evolution.

In case you don't know, natural selection refers to the process in which the conditions of the environment weed out individuals who are less capable of surviving. This leaves the stronger individuals alive and breeding more. Eventually, natural selection leads to so much change that the species can be considered a different species, and this is called evolution. Natural selection is observed by scientists and completely logical, and if it exists, evolution must also exist.

Answer 9

Look how much evolution has happened in our own lifetimes. Look how the AIDS virus has evolved in the past generation. Or how much dogs and cats have changed in the past few decades. Look at the wolf, the Great Dane, and the Terrier. Realize that they all had the same ancestors.

Answer 10

With the scientific model of the universe of 15 billion years, the probability that this is a random occurrence with all the factors that are required to not only form galaxies, solar systems, and planets. Not to mention all the elements and life itself. To gamble on such odds is lunacy. But to embrace the idea that it wasn't random, and that their is a higher power directing the development of all things becomes more probable.

No one has all the answers. Atheists believe in their own superiority. Fundamentalist Christian's, Jew's, and Muslim's believe there own view is the only correct view.

Their needs to be a common ground between faith and science. They don't have to be at odds with one another. God wants us to learn and grow.

When the Bible says we are made in his image, that doesn't mean flesh and blood. When it says God is all things, what that means to me is. God is energy, pure energy. Energy as physics tells us is in all matter and can never die. The image we are made in is lower on the evolutionary line. One day I see us becoming pure energy, so that we are truly in God's image. But that is in a future my mind has no ability to fathom.

Answer 11

Evolution and ID are scientific theories. Do not confuse ID with creation. Close, but not the same. The fight over ID is in the scientific community-not in the creationist camp.