Evolution and Creationism: What Everyone Needs to Know

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Evolution and CreationismWhat Everyone Needs to
Know
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• What is science?
• Evolution a quick overview
• -- evidence
• -- mechanisms
• The age of the Earth/how do you know how old it
  is?
• What is creationism
• Evolution answers questions
• 7. Why is evolution important?

www.priweb.org/dev/volunteer
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Science

• -- a Way of knowing
• -- materialistic/naturalistic
• -- hypotheses that are testable and provisional

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Science ?

• -- certainty
• -- ethics
• -- values
• -- religion
• -- politics
• -- the answer for every question
• -- all of human thought

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Organic EvolutionDefinitions The hypothesis
that all organisms on Earth are connected by
bonds of genealogy and have changed through
time.Darwin descent with modification
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The Origin tried to do 2 things

• 1) Convince the reader that evolution has
  occurred and is an adequate explanation for
  observations about life.
• 2) Convince the reader that a particular
  mechanism natural selection is the main cause
  of evolution.

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The occurrence of evolution (the fact of
evolution) mechanism by which evolution
occurs.
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• Evolution is scientifically useful.
• it is testable
• it answers questions
• it stimulates further research

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How did organisms come to be the way they are?

• They have a history.
• They dont. They were created as we see them.
• We can extrapolate from changes we observe today.
• We cannot extrapolate from changes we observe
  today.

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Evidence for Evolution

• 1) Biogeography
• 2) Fossil record
• 3) Classification
• 4) Comparative Anatomy
• 5) Observed small-scale changes
• 6) Genetics

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Some examples(there are thousands)
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Evidence for Evolution Biogeography
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Evidence for Evolution Biogeography
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Evidence for Evolution Biogeography
Toucan (Neotropics)
Hornbill (SE Asia)
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Evidence for Evolution The fossil record
Archaeopteryx and modern pigeon
Archaeopteryx
Compsognathus
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Evidence for Evolution Comparative Anatomy
North Atlantic Right Whale
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No serious practicing geologist or organismal
biologist has seriously questioned whether
evolution has occurred, or whether it is an
adequate explanation for the history and
diversity of life since at least the
1890s. There has been, and continues to be,
debate about the causes and mechanisms of
evolutionary change.
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Mechanisms of Evolution

• Directed evolution/Internal mechanisms -
  orthogenesis etc.
• Inheritance of acquired characteristics
  (Lamarckism)
• Genetic drift
• Neutral theory
• Natural Selection
• Higher level sorting

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Natural SelectionDefinition The non-random and
differential reproduction of different genotypes
acting to preserve favorable variants and
eliminate less favorable variants.
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3 unarguable observations and 2 inescapable
conclusions

• Observations
• 1) There is variation
• 2) At least some of it is inherited
• 3) There is vast overproduction
• Conclusions
• 1) There is a struggle for existence.
• 2) On average, those individual organisms with
  traits that confer some advantage in this
  struggle will leave more offspring.

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The age of the Earth

• aka how do you know how old it is?
• aka arent there problems with carbon
  dating?

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How do you know how old it is?
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Techniques for dating things

• Relative dating X is older than Y
• Numerical dating X is Y years old
• Historically unique events e.g., 1965 Mustang
• Processes of change (observe results) e.g.,
  weathering, deterioration, erosion
• Processes of change (experiments) e.g., moldy
  cheese
• Historically repeating events e.g., Greek
  revival architecture

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Using fossils to tell time biostratigraphy
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Radiometric Dating the basic idea

• A product is detectable
• The rate of production of that product is known
• Product amount is 0 (or known) at age 0 of sample
  
• Product / Rate Time
• example 10g / 0.5g/yr 20 years

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Seneca Stone Quarry
http//www.earth.rochester.edu/ees207/Eastern_Tran
sect/senecastone.html
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Bentonites (ancient volcanic ash layers) in the
Seneca Stone Quarry
http//www.earth.rochester.edu/ees207/Eastern_Tran
sect/senecastone.html
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• What is science?
• Evolution a quick overview
• -- evidence
• -- mechanisms
• The age of the Earth/how do you know how old it
  is?
• What is creationism
• Evolution answers questions
• 7. Why is evolution important?

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Creationism isnt science
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Creationism a definition

• General The Universe, the Earth, and all life
  were created directly by a supernatural creator
  (God).
• Variations
• young Earth vs. old Earth
• one creation (special) vs. many (sequential)
• non-humans vs. humans

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Creationism a taxonomy

• Scientific creationism (no reliance on Biblical
  revelation, utilizing only scientific data)
• Biblical creationism (no reliance on scientific
  data, using only the Bible)
• Scientific Biblical creationism (full reliance on
  Bible, but also using science)
• (from Scott, Evolution vs. Creationism, 2004)

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Creationism and science

• It was cutting-edge science about 500 years
  ago.
• It has been tested, and it failed.
• Current public opinion, however

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U.S. public opinion, 2005

• HALF OF AMERICANS ARE CREATIONISTS
• 54 do not think human beings developed from
  earlier species (up from 46 percent in 1994)
• 49 believe plants and animals have evolved from
  some other species 45 do not believe that.
• 46 believe apes and humans have a common
  ancestry 47 believe we do not.
• 46 agree that "Darwins theory of evolution is
  proven by fossil discoveries 48 disagree.

Source Harris poll, June 2005
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Poll by the Pew Forum on Religion Public Life,
conducted July 2005 among 2,000 U.S. adults

• Life has existed in its present form since the
  beginning of time 42
• Life has evolved over time 48
• Guided by a supreme being 18
• Evolution by natural selection 26
• Dont know how evolved 4
• Dont know 10

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Polls 2001

• BUT
• Evolution should be taught in the public
  schools (70)
• The continents on which we live have been moving
  their location for millions of years.... (79)

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Intelligent Design what is it?

• Holds that where there is a watch, there must be
  a watchmaker.
• Living things are too complex not to have been
  designed by an intelligent designer.
• Claims to accept evolution and an old Earth.

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Intelligent DesignHow to answer a question
about it

• Even if it doesnt mention God, religion, or a
  creator, it assumes there is/was one.
• This is supernatural and non-testable.
• Its not science.

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Why does this matter?

• Science
• Science education

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