wher can i find out EVERYTHING about evolution?

Question

wher can i find out EVERYTHING about evolution?
i have a brother and friend of mine who can not stop trying to convince me that we are created by some higher power and they come up with all sorts of wierd arguements now I am A firm beilver in evolution but i am not very well educated, now my questioon to you is where can i go to find out EVERYTHING i can find out about evolution. thats including darwin everyone before him and after him who have reall evidence that evolution exists.your help would be very appreciated

Answer 1

hey man, glad to see that you're fighting the good fight. i'd be more than happy to help you sharpen your skills on how to argue against your brother and friend.

first though, recognize that evolution does not explain EVERYTHING., just like how chemistry or physics do not explain everything. --- lots of times christians will say stuff like, "well then, how did the earth get made?". this has nothing to do with evolution though. being educated in evolution will not help you to answer this question. science and truth are bulky and layered. there is not a single cure-all answer like what christians are used to. their explanations of highly pre-school, and so they expect that opposing answers will be equally as simple and easy to understand. that's just not the case though. reality has MANY answers.

similarly, if they ask you, "well then, how did life get started?", that is also not a question that can be answered by evolution. that subject is called abiogenesis. it's not backed up well like how evolution is, but there are a great many theories as to how life got started from non-life. it's just,, no one knows which one is the true one. this might sound like a weak argument, but it's not. the christian stance is that life CANNOT start from non-life.,, meaning,, it's impossible. but it's NOT impossible. we might not know HOW exactly it happened, but we do know ways in which it MIGHT have happened. so because we can show a number of POSSIBLE ways that life might've formed from non-life, we're able to show that the stance that it is impossible is a false one.

now,, about evolution:

if you want to learn the nature of evolution, then go ahead and take a look at these websites:

http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/darwin/

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/

if you want to learn the specifics of evolution though, then take a look at these:

this one is a time line:

http://www.soton.ac.uk/~cpd/history.html

here is the phylogenetic tree. it shows which living creatures are more closely related to each other.

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/help/taxaform.html

eventually, you're going to become super curious about DNA and genetics. this is probably the best website i've found on giving a thorough and easy-to-understand overview on this ridiculously complex subject:

http://www.dnaftb.org/dnaftb/

also, go to your local library and get some books by richard dawkins, namely "the blind watchmaker" and "the selfish gene". he's written a bunch of books on the subject though, so the more you can read, the better. he has a really good way of showing how much sense evolution really does make.

while you're at the library, try to find the "walking with" series. it's a 3-part series. these videos will help you to grasp the time involved and also to understand the specific relationships between animals.

"walking with monsters: before the dinosaurs" covers the paleozoic.

"walking with dinosaurs" covers the mesozoic.

and "walking with prehistoric beasts" covers the cenozoic.

oh!! and don't forget "walking with cave men"!! - yeah, so there's actually FOUR series.

another thing you might want to do in order to better understand natural selection, is to read up on "memes". richard dawkins (the genius i was telling you about earlier) realized that natural selection goes beyond biology, and actually goes so far as to apply to ideas.

for example, if someone makes up a joke, and it's funny, then it will replicate (because people will like it so much that they'll tell it). since jokes are usually told orally though, they run the risk of becoming slightly altered over time. this means that the joke might to start to branch into different versions of itself. some of the versions will be less funny than the original, and some will be MORE funny. but it's not as if these "sub-jokes" will all replicate at the same speed. the funnier ones will spread faster because people will be slightly more inclined to tell them. eventually these new funnier versions will replace the original joke, and they will begin to become altered with time too until their "more advanced offspring" pass THEM up.

studying memes really lets you see how natural selection isn't just some biological function that happened to occur, but rather that its a UNIVERSAL function.

also,,, you should listen to http://www.pointofinquiry.org/ . it's like an internet version of NPR designed solely for educating people about the perils of religion and other forms of non-thought. you'll see all of the interviews they've done so far. (at the bottom, it says "previous entries". click there for older interviews.)

richard dawkins, sam harris, and eugenie scott have all done interviews with these guys. it's really good stuff.

it'll probably be a while before you're able to respond to every single little lie that your brother and your friend throw at you. so in the mean time, just write me an email any time you need an answer to something they say that you don't know how to refute.

also, read over all of the "answers" that i got to the question i posted up:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AhTqLHW9j9NzqcTDqQmbLEDsy6IX?qid=20060724192558AA92K4W

try to respond to each "answer". if you can't though, and don't know what to say, then read the response that i gave. that way, in the future, when somebody tries to throw you one of these curveballs, you'll know what to say.

i had another REALLY big question about why blind faith doesn't make any sense because there's no way to discriminate which beliefs you should put faith into and which ones you shouldn't.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=ApKpbJcvvlCu7somq.xoHmjsy6IX?qid=20060707112327AAeOYvA

i hope this helps you.

Answer 2

Greetings;

In a word there is no easy was to access all the evidence for evolution. The best information comes in the form of research journals (Evolution, Science, Nature, Evolutionary Biology ect.). These publications can be accessed through most university libraries, but they require a high degree of knowledge in biology to be able to understand them. Some are available through web services like PubMed. Try searching for Evolution there.

To the creationists who have "answered" answered this question. Do you actually understand evolution? Have you actually compared the evidence for both sides of this question, or are you simply regurgitating what you have been told? In order to understand evolution you NEED to have studies it at a university level. This does not mean that you need to actually go to university and study it (although this will help), but you need to be able to go the primary literature and understand the basics of what the researchers are trying to accomplish.

In order to understand the creation theories, you need to read the source materials, and yes there are multiple materials here as well. Most of the posters here are probably followers of one of the Abrahamic religions, but this is only part of the story. I have studies the Bible, the Torah, the Koran, the Bhagavad-Gita, the Upanishads, the Zend Avesta, the Pahlavi Texts and the Vinaya Texts (among others). Each offers its own opinion on creation. After studying all these elements I have formed my own opinion. I'll let you formulate your own.

Answer 3

Let me be yet a third person to recommend the excellent site www.talkorigins.org
http://www.talkorigins.org/origins/faqs-qa.html
It is designed specifically for answering the false information propagated by creationist sites and books ... but I would stress that this is a *starting* point.

However, to really get a feel for the topic, read any book by Stephen Jay Gould or Richard Dawkins (I just finished Dawkins "The Ancestor's Tale" and it's fantastic). I cannot recommend this enough!

Good luck!

Answer 4

I cannot make you believe something that you don't want to believe, but I urge you to use discernment, reason and logic when thinking aobut evolution- all the things evolutionists accuse us of not using , but really- do the principles of evolution make sense? If this has taken place over the course of millions of years, little by little, then we are being decieved when we are told we are looking for "the missing link" we are looking for millions of missing links- besides that- there are so many common sense, scientific questions that evolution just cannot answer- no matter how you twist it.
If you are really interested in education and not just disproving something that does not fit oyur mold- read this article, it is fun reading but very informative and common sense-
Meet Gaspy: the lungfish:

http://www.reflecthisglory.org/study/didgod2.htm

here is another bit of interesting fact for you to ponder :

Charles Dawson, a British lawyer and amateur geologist announced in 1912 his discovery of pieces of a human skull and an apelike jaw in a gravel pit near the town of Piltdown, England . . . Dawson's announcement stopped the scorn cold. Experts instantly declared Piltdown Man (estimated to be 300,000 to one million years old), the evolutionary find of the century. Darwin's missing link had been identified. Or so it seemed for the next 40 or so years. Then, in the early fifties . . . scientists began to suspect misattribution. In 1953, that suspicion gave way to a full-blown scandal: Piltdown Man was a hoax . . . tests proved that its skull belonged to a 600-year-old woman, and its jaw to a 500-year-old orangutan from the East Indies." Our Times--the Illustrated History of the 20th Century (Turner Publishing, 1995, page 94).

Science Fiction
The Piltdown Man fraud wasn't an isolated incident. The famed "Nebraska Man" was built from one tooth, which was later found to be the tooth of an extinct pig. "Java Man" was found in the early 20th Century, and was nothing more than a piece of skull, a fragment of a thigh bone and three molar teeth. The rest came from the deeply fertile imaginations of plaster of Paris workers. "Heidelberg Man" came from a jawbone, a large chin section and a few teeth. Most scientists reject the jawbone because it's similar to that of modem man. Still, many evolutionists believe that he's 250,000 years old. No doubt they pinpointed his birthday with good old carbon dating. Now there's reliable proof. Not according to Time magazine (June 11, 1990). They published an article in the science section that was subtitled, "Geologists show that carbon dating can be way off." Don't look to "Neanderthal Man" for any evidence of evolution. Recent genetic DNA research indicates the chromosomes do not match those of humans. They do match those of bipedal primates (apes).

What does Science Say?
Here are some wise words from a few respected men of science: "Evolution is a fairy tale for grown-ups. This theory has helped nothing in the progress of science. It is useless." (Professor Louis Bounoure, Director of Research, National Center of Scientific Research). "Evolution is unproved and unprovable." (Sir Arthur Keith--he wrote the foreword to the 100th edition of, Origin of the Species). "Scientists who go about teaching that evolution is a fact of life are great con-men, and the story they are telling may be the greatest hoax ever." (Dr. T. N. Tahmisian, Atomic Energy Commission, USA).

"To suppose that the eye . . . could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree." Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species

A great resource for some education that is logical and common sense is called "The Science or Evolution: expand your mind" You can get this DVD from WayoftheMaster.com

Answer 5

Darwin studied evolution for most of his life. You can read about his studies to educate you on the theory of evolution. Good luck!

Answer 6

The Internet

Answer 7

Genesis chapters 1 and 2

Answer 8

There is really a huge amount of study before you can find out EVERYTHING about evolution. People can, and do spend their entire academic careers studying nothing else.

But a good place to start is http://www.talkorigins.org

There you will find scientific, rational arguments for everything that creationists claim.

Answer 9

There are several books available at the book store on evolution. My husband just bought several. He's more into Intelligent Design though

Answer 10

basically agree that we were created by technique of a larger ability and so some distance as all of us can tell the technique of our advent has taken 4 a million/2 billion years and is ongoing. WOW what a miracle. Checkout the PBS sequence "existence on earth"