How can I recreate evolution?

Question

I am a man of science that is searching for answers. I would like atheists to tell me what experiments they did to prove to themselves that there is no God. I want to do some experiments that follow the scientific method and will result in radical evolution. I'm not talking about a freak fly being born with 3 wings, that's not real evolution. I'm talking about total transformation from one species to another, the way Darwin predicted. How can I recreate this in a lab using the scientific method to prove to myself that the theory is correct? I'm not into books and listening to what Dawkins says, I want to be able to see and feel evolution...which is how real science is done, so please let me know the steps I need to make an evolution experiment work.

Why are you atheists insulting me instead of just telling me what experiments you did that proved God doesn't exist. I want to know how to recreate evolution and prove to myself that it is a fact, that's all. Real evolution, like how do I turn a woodchuck into a beaver. What experiment will do that?

novangelis, no, im not into books about evolution written by people like dawkins...i guess this makes me an uninformed idiot in your eyes? I guess when you have no answers you just resort to childish insults and mockery. so typical of your people.

Answer 1

I hope you're the exception to the rule, since it's been my experience that most people asking this question turn out to be completely uninterested in any honest attempt at an answer.

Unfortunately, some of the respondents here don't help. For better or worse it's unfortunately the case that science education has gotten bad enough that many who nominally subscribe to the theory of natural selection don't really have a good understanding of it themselves, and cling to it so uncomprehendingly and dogmatically that it borders on irrationality.


Before I mention experiments, there's a few details of your question I wish to address:

* Your premise that evolution's validity disproves the existence of God is flat-out wrong. If you truly are a "man of science" as you say you are it would surprise me that you cannot see this yourself since the conclusion that God does not exist does not follow from anything mentioned in the theory of evolution. The most that it does is offend those who believe in the literal truth of the Bible since our current best understanding of the development of the Earth and the origin of and relationships between the species living on it is at variance with the literal text of the Book of Genesis in all the versions of the Bible that I know of. Evolution says nothing whatsoever about any sort of higher power. It merely describes how different species relate to a common ancestor.

* The phrasing of your question suggests a possible conflation of the evolution of a population and the development of individual creatures within that population. On the one part of your question you talk about species but then you mention individuals ("a fly with three wings", "turn a woodchuck into a beaver") Individuals within a population do not change their physical characteristics. If you really are interested in getting answers you at least have to understand the subject enough to ask sensical questions.

Populations evolve because the individuals within them bear offspring slightly different from themselves. The population evolves together while they are a breeding community but if something causes groups within a population to separate those groups can then evolve separately and divergent forces can over time make those groups evolve in widely differing ways. The word is "speciation".

* The principle of natural selection has nothing to do with atheism. In fact, Charles Darwin was a Christian. Many religious folks see no contradiction in both accepting evolutionary theory and believing in God.

If you want a good quick primer on evolution. Link 1 is a U.C. Berkeley website which has an excellent primer on the suject.
If you don't like reading Dawkins then read Darwin himself. Then read a little bit about genetics (Mendel's peas and all that) and a little bit about modern biology, in particular biology from about the 1930's onward and molecular biology.

May I also suggest reading up a little bit on speciation in particular (Link 2) as well as experimental evolution (Link 3), on which there is considerable literature. Both of those have references worth following.

Now to cite some experiments. Here's a couple of options that might be worth looking at. Some involve bacteria, others involve small animal species (fruit flies). They're all published experiments and they describe their materials and methods.

1. Repeat "the Lederberg experiment", first performed by Esther and Joshua Lederberg in 1952. Link 4 is a capsule overview on the Berkeley evolution website and Link 5 is a website at the U.S. National Library of Medicine which profiles Lederberg and also posts copies of his papers as well as other documents like letters and lab notebook pages.

2. Richard Lenski at Michigan State University has been running a long-term speciation experiment in E. Coli since 1988 (link 6 is his project page)

3. Diane Dodd demonstrated allopatric speciation using fruit flies. This one actually looks interesting enough I might do it myself. Link 7 points to the actual paper. If you read the "Speciation" Wikipedia topic you'll also find an overview of the Dodd experiment.

4. If you want still more an article surveying a wide range of evolution experiments by Mark Kirkpatrick and Virginia Ravigné provides citations for those experiments in their reference list. (Link 8)

Precisely what skills and materials you'll need will depend upon the experiment, but at the very least a college-level biology background and some basic biological lab techniques will be valuable. If you're really determined you can pick up what you need. For materials a good starting point is Carolina Biological Supply Company (Link 9).


If you want to do the Dodd experiment you might want to learn how to handle populations of fruit flies, or Drosophila Melanogaster. Cold Spring Harbor Press (Link 10) is a good place to find some very high quality laboratory manuals. They are, however, deeply technical and highly expensive. That said, you might be able to find a university library or someplace which has one available for reference. You might also find someone like a biologist in your area who handles Drosophila for a reference more suited to your needs. Link 11 cites one of the more authoritative Drosophila lab manuals.

As it happens, Cold Spring Harbor also offers an online database of protocols (Link 12) which are usually only paid access but every so often they open up articles for free as a marketing ploy. And quite fortuitously several general overviews on how to set up a lab for handling Drosophila are available for free (Links 13 and 14). I suggest you snag copies them while they're available (I don't know when they'll stop the free access) and pay attention to the references at the bottom, because you might be able to find one of the books or articles they cite either for free or for a reasonable price.

Addendum. I found a free alternative to a lab manual on handling Drosophila. Link 15 is a page from a University of Arizona course for science teachers which describe the basic techniques for raising and handling Drosophila.

Answer 2

Sorry to break it to you, but scientists have yet to prove evolution, so I doubt you will find an experiment to prove it. That's because it's impossible to prove, it doesn't exist!!! Don't you think that if it could be proven that extreme scientists would have been able to prove it by now? Every time you put 2 of the same thing together, it will reproduce after it's own kind. Why are you so eager to prove evolution? Also, believe it or not, atheists believe that God exists, otherwise what would they be against? What would make them atheist? Even the devil himself believes in God! I'm not trying to be insulting of your curiosity, in fact I would love to see any test that anyone has done out there that would prove evolution. Evolution is a religion. A religion that was formed because Darwin himself wanted something other than Christianity. He admitted this himself! You want to do experiments and tests, research all the science and biology books, it's never been proven. Scientists have tried for hundreds of years to test the theory of evolution and they have been unsuccessful. Doesn't that tell you something by now? In the beginning God created... EVERYTHING!

Answer 3

Actually, Darwin just stated that evolution is simply a change. Look at the canary birds of the Galapagos Islands (one of the original and probably most famous of Darwin's subjects), all of the birds of each of the islands has a common ancestor, but as the birds traveled to each subsequent island, they had to manipulate their diet and their behaviours in order to survive. That's evolution. Look at the Americans weight increase over the past 50 years. Americans have generally gained huge amounts of weight in such a relatively short amount of time, that's evolution. I'm not trying to disprove that their is a god. Actually, I believe that there are many gods and goddesses, BUT it is ridiculous and absurd to think that evolution is not real.

Answer 4

Evolution happens all the time. It is pretty slow with most creatures, but you can see bacteria evolve and get resistant to drugs in a short time. You can push this in a bunch of directions in a lab.

You can also look at humans and there are things that have measurably changed since the 1600s.
- Go look at a bed from that time, you are way to big to fit.
- Little toes are measurably smaller
- Jaws are measurably smaller

Finally any breeding program that selects for certain traits is evolution. We do this all the time with plants and animals.

Answer 5

How could you set up a experiment of something that is said to take millions of years. Personally I believe that God uses evolution as a tool for the progression of the things he creates. I do not have an experiment to prove it tho... Is there an experiment that disproves it?

Answer 6

Evolution works. It doesn't disprove God. It does prove that there are many theists who are deceptive or clearly dishonest. The scientific method does not require seeing and feeling. Since you aren't into books, it is very clear that you are not cut out for investigation. Stay uninformed. It works for you.

Answer 7

I find you interesting and informative, my only question is why? What is the end result of this endeavor? To prove to yourself what? Evolution, God, evolution and God? My child, the laboratory is the mind, the self is the scientist, and the heart bears the facts.

Answer 8

I am not an Atheist, and I view evolution as correct. Try not to confuse the two- there are many Theistic scientists that also accept evolution.

Answer 9

I believe in God, but I also believe in evolution of species (I can't say how life came to be to start...). If you get infected with a bacteria, it can morph (evolve) to resist medication.

Answer 10

before we got into complicated things like proving whether gods exist, can you please give me a single convincing proof that you exist?
And you know perfectly well your question is stupid and you just want to rile people up. Do you have also fun phoning in fake fire alarms and plucking wings from flies?