OK I keep seeing on here that there are no current examples of evolution happening. Can I get some help here?

Question

Sickle cell anemia- Evolved to combat malaria.
http://www.gennet.org/facts/metro09.html

Darwin's finches
http://www.rit.edu/~rhrsbi/GalapagosPages/DarwinFinch.html

Anyone got more they want to share?

Answer 1

Ask people who have AIDS or TB or doctor's who are trying desperately to treat patients with AIDS or TB if evolution doesn't happen?

Those two diseases would have probably been cured years ago if it wasn't for the ability of virus's and bacteria to evolve.

Good question!!!

Answer 2

Every critter in the world that is subject to selection pressure is undergoing evolution. To have anything significant happen in a lifetime, though, you need beasties that breed fast.

So geneticists mostly stick to bacteria like e. coli, dosophila fruitflies, or c. elagans nematodes. It's relatively easy to get large populations of these to evolve in specific directions in a short time.

Modern out-of-the-lab examples include the new bacterium that has developed the ability to eat high explosive: the chemical didn't even exist on earth a few decades ago, and now they're infesting old munitions dumps. There's another naturally-occurring one that eats Nylon - another new substance.

Unfortunately this stuff just washes over the antis: they wanna see dogs turn into cats before their eyes or they're not buying it. There's no point in telling them it doesn't work that way.

If evolution didn't take place in minute, imperceptible steps it wouldn't work at all, of course. Who'd mate with a dogcat? Alas, such points are lost.

CD

Answer 3

It's possible, there's a few out there, who don't, but since atheists don't believe in the creation of everything by some god, evolution is the only other major answer on the table. I guess someone could believe, everything was put here, as is by aliens, or something. Also, evolution, and natural selection aren't actually the same thing. The idea of natural selection was replaced by the theory of evolution.

Answer 4

Why is this in religion and spirituality?
Shouldn't it be in biology?

Your example of Darwin's finches is spurious; it is an example of horizontal evolution.

Yes environment can effect changes in bird populations, like the birds with longer beaks can get seeds during time of drought better than Short beaked finches.

Explaining the origin of the beak itself much more difficult.
That is vertical evolution.
There are many different types of dog, different colors, sizes, etc., but that doesn't explain the original creature.

There are numerous examples of horizontal evolution, but none of vertical evolution.

Where are all the in-between evolving species?

Answer 5

One of the big arguments is that you don't see one species evolving into another, but we do; if you look at populations of gulls arond the arctic, for example, you will see that adjacent populations are similar - differentiated enough to be noticeable, but not so much that they can't interbrede. But, as you move along from adjacent population to adjacent population, you get to a point where the down-line populations are so differentiated from the original population that they CAN'T interbreed, and are actually different species. There are other examples available of the same thing (salamanders, for example), here, now observable and unarguable.


SOMEONE PLEASE BE HONORABLE ENOUGH TO EXPLAIN THEIR THUMBS DOWN.

Answer 6

What about the wild banana that was domesticated to the bananas that we are all familiar with?

The bananas we are familiar with were specially "bred" and they evolved through thousands of years to be exactly what we wanted them to be.

The fact that wild bananas look like little turds while the "modern" banana is (as ray & kirk will point out) perfectly designed for humans to eat. It's unfortunate to their argument that the whole process was conducted by humans, not specifically designed by god.

Or how about the fact that there are many animals that have been cross-bred to form better species of animals for domestication & work use? Like the african zebras being crossed with horses/donkeys to create offspring who were strong, easily tamable and were resistant to african diseases that horses alone were not immune to. :-)

The thing that gets me is that christians believe humans just magically appeared on earth & everything appeared exactly as it is today......

Much like it was depicted in an episode of family guy! :-)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=aj1KGZSFmfs

Answer 7

There's infinite proof of micro-evolution; even creationists agree that an animal might adapt in one way or another to fit into its surroundings. What hasn't and can not be proven, is macro-evolution; that a species will evolve into another species over time. (i.e a finch with a beak shorter then another finch, is still a finch). Scientists can still not find or develop proof of this type of evolution. It's entirely theory and speculation.

Answer 8

Zilch! As I tried to delete just one word I had highlighted the whole thing disappeared and I must begin all over again! Who should I blame it on? God or evolution? Neither! As both have their places in the universe and both aren't responsible for my actions!
It's real strange how I have to press a key to delete a phrase or word and how pressing delete simply deletes the whole thing! Anyhow!!! Life's like that sometimes!!! We can't let these tiny annoyances get to us! As discouragement happens to be Satan's favorite tool against God's people... who at times get so depressed over it that all they can see is their two feet... and no longer the wonderful prize of everlasting life awaiting all who endure until the end! of this system...
Okay! here goes that promised paragraph about evolution...
Aids, viruses and such can all be concocted in a lab and undoubtedly were... by men who wanted to rid the planet of the less fortunate ones, the undesirable... as it were... So Africa became the mother of AIDS in particular as those brainy enough to create the monster didn't weren't brainy enough to consider that in this day and age, it would transcend the Africain continent and come back to bite them and their own loved onesin the ***... and cost them and their governments more money than what they thought they would save by not having to help the poor and starving souls in Africa! So... of course... from this sort of point of view, evolution is very much a part of our lives... This has nothing whatsoever with the notion that men came from "monkeys" or that a cock-roach could have been our ancestor...
It's a fact of life as true as the fact that the new head-lice which many kids bring home from school, don't destroy half as easily as they did a quarter of a century ago... that anti-biotics don't help as many viruses to leave our bodies anymore and that super-bugs have evolved because of our abusing what was meant to be a cure in the first place... Einstein himself didn't allow any of these facts deter him from his deep belief in the true God of Abraham, Moses and Jacob, as he totally refused the operation, doctors told him he needed in order to live another quarter of a century or so... as he did like many good men in the bible who chose to pray to go to "Sheol" or "Hades" until the promised resurrection which would bring them back to life in a perfect body and earth (paradise earth!)... and sorry but even though it was only one paragraph the first time, it looks like it will take me more this time... so bare with me, if you will... for a bit more about this subject...
Well about Einstein, who said and I quote: "There are only two ways to live your life _
one is as if everything was a miracle, the other is as though nothing is a miracle."
Now are these the words of a person who never believed in God? Of course not!
For your sake, as I gave you enough to read for one day... I'll stop here and you can feel free to contact me if you wish more elaboration of any kind on the subject! Thanks again!

Answer 9

These are all examples of evolution; NOT Evolution. The first one deals with mutations in DNA that have no NEW information; the second one has mutations in DNA that DO have new info. The first one happens all the time; the second one is just a bedtime story for grown-ups.

Answer 10

In a biology lab you can cause evolution to happen in just a few generations of fruit flies.