[albert_dao]

Originally Posted by TimT

Except when it comes to the holy grail of evolutionary belief in the beginnings of life. This theory can never be challenged or discredited otherwise you get academically bullied. It still all boils down to a basic belief that: some elements got together and created some molecules which created some proteins which then started to replicate and over billions of years we have life on the planet and humanity. Unless you have billions of years to make this even remotely possible the idea is patently absurd.

No, that's abiogenesis and it's completely different and separate from evolution.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abiogenesis

And regardless, it's not a belief. It's a well-founded theory with plenty of evidence and study:

http://scitechdaily.com/new-evidence...life-on-earth/

https://www.quora.com/What-scientifi...or-abiogenesis

And here's what is most probably the most exciting hypothesis to arise in the past little while:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/sc...-10070114.html

https://www.quantamagazine.org/20140...heory-of-life/

TLDR: Life is the most effective agent of entropy.

Originally Posted by TimT

That would be through observable and repeatable science. Such as Gregor Mendel and his pea research.

Relativity is based on hard science and consequently doesn't need lots of revisions.

0___0, Tim, are you trolling me? Einstein himself made several revisions during the course of his research:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histor...ral_relativity

"By 1912, Einstein was actively seeking a theory in which gravitation was explained as a geometric phenomenon. At the urging of Tullio Levi-Civita, Einstein began by exploring the use of general covariance (which is essentially the use of curvature tensors) to create a gravitational theory. However, in 1913 Einstein abandoned that approach, arguing that it is inconsistent based on the "hole argument". In 1914 and much of 1915, Einstein was trying to create field equations based on another approach. When that approach was proven to be inconsistent, Einstein revisited the concept of general covariance and discovered that the hole argument was flawed.[15]"

Originally Posted by TimT

You totally missed my point and accused me of intellectual dishonesty. I'm not arguing about relativity, I'm using it as proof that good science doesn't need billions of revisions.

Notwithstanding, should better data become available to discredit or partition our previous understanding or relativity, it WILL be ensconced into the body of knowledge. And, as it turns out, we are adding to relativity. Again, science is both additive and revisionist. What separates so-called "good" from "bad" science is the adhesion to truth without flaws in methodology or personal dogma.

Originally Posted by TimT

Are you sure.

"The scientific journal literature also uses the terms "macroevolution" or "microevolution." In 1980, Roger Lewin reported in Science on a major meeting at the University of Chicago that sought to reconcile biologists' understandings of evolution with the findings of paleontology. Lewin reported, "The central question of the Chicago conference was whether the mechanisms underlying microevolution can be extrapolated to explain the phenomena of macroevolution. At the risk of doing violence to the positions of some of the people at the meeting, the answer can be given as a clear, No." (Roger Lewin, "Evolutionary Theory Under Fire," Science, Vol. 210:883-887, Nov. 1980.) "

http://www.evolutionnews.org/2007/09...h_2004215.html

That's a load of poppycock. That entire website is a proponent of ID... AND We have seen speciation happen before our eyes:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eviden...ved_speciation

So any detractors can f-ck right off.

Originally Posted by TimT

Regardless, I'm sorry, I missed the definition change... Micro Evolution has become Epigenetics while Macro Evolution has become Punctuated Equilibrium and Speciation. Punctuated Equilibrium is just Gould's attempt to reconcile the fact that there is no fossil evidence to support macroevolution. From Nature magazine,
"The punctuated equilibrium model has been widely accepted, not because it has a compelling theoretical basis but because it appears to resolve a dilemma. ... apart from its intrinsic circularity (one could argue that speciation can occur only when phyletic change is rapid, not vice versa), the model is more ad hoc explanation than theory, and it rests on shaky ground.

(Science, Vol. 199:58-60, Jan. 6, 1978.)

Speciation is just inbreeding on a large scale. We all know how good inbreeding is for weird genetics. ;-D

Please link source (the fact that it's from 1978, virtual bygones when it comes to the current field of evolutionary study).

Originally Posted by TimT

Comparing aging(something known to be true) to PE and Speciation(something that is not true) is commonly known as Bait and Switch and is a logical fallacy. Much worse than a strawman. LoL

This is not a bait and switch, it is analogous and perfectly valid layman's terms to describe the fallacy of equating micro/macroevolution as some sort of candid 'gotcha!' If you want, I can retract his and provide a perfectly list of studies:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...evolution.html
http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.o...2010.0923.full
http://www.biology.ucr.edu/people/fa...rimonabant.pdf
http://www.americanscientist.org/iss...x-experiment/2
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/180301.stm
http://www.livescience.com/7655-liza...adly-ants.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/11/science/11evolve.html
http://mbe.oxfordjournals.org/content/24/3/710.abstract
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/08/sc...pagewanted=all

Some creationists respond to the studies. " But once again, this rapid adaptation (which can lead to speciation) fits well within the creation model." Apparently, only one "kind" of thing changing into another "kind" of thing is evolution, whatever that means.

To preemptively rebut this type of thing, I'm going to include this summary of observed examples of speciation. But really, if up to this point, these examples don't lend you pause, nothing going to change no matter what evidence I provide :P

http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/speciation.html - yes, a talkorigins.org link, LOL

Originally Posted by TimT

Get ready for it...
http://www.toriah.org/articles/Davies-1987.PDF

Here's the juicy bits. From the last paragraph on page 198.

"The bones, catalogued as TMM 42475-1, apparently represent a quick surface collec-
tion by Liscomb, and consist of fragments of limb bones, ribs, and vertebrae. The quality
of preservation is remarkable. The bones are stained a dark red brown but otherwise dis-
play little permineralization, crushing, or distortion."

Dude, surface collection ≠ recent and I already provided a mechanism to explain the remarkable, non-fossilized preservation. The lack of crushing or distortion is a matter of lucky geology, and has little, if anything to do with evolution. Bet you those fossils can be carbon dated to, oh, I dunno, 85-67 MYA, should anyone decide it was worth their time.

I mean, hell, from that article:

The site occurs in what is mapped as undifferentiated Upper Colville Group of Late Cretaceous age, which is overlain by the Plio(?)-Pleistocene Gubik Formation (Brosgk and Whittington, 1966). Recent studies, however, have indicated Paleogene rocks in this region (Carter et al., 1977; Nelson, 198 1; Marincovich et al., 1983). Pending resolution of the stratigraphy, beds underlying the Gubik Formation in the region are being referred to simply as "pre-Gubik" (Carter et al., 1977; R. V. Emmons, personal commun.). Hadrosaurs are exclusively Late Cretaceous and their presence limits the age of the pre-Gubik rocks. "This datum has allowed H. J. Clippinger to interpret somewhat contaminated pollen samples and establish a Maastrichtian or possibly Campanian age for the strata 28 feet above and 12 feet below the dinosaur bed. Foraminifera 2 feet below the bone bed indicate a shallow marine environment" (Shell Oil Company memorandum, with permission of R. V. Emmons and H. J. Clippinger)

Originally Posted by TimT

Straw manning semantics here Albert. How about responding to the argument.

I don't understand the argument. We have never extracted DNA from dinosaur-era fossiles. I mean... it says so right in the title of the article you linked...

Originally Posted by TimT

Wow, another Bait and Switch. What does Epigentics have to do with Macroevolution/punctuated equilibrium/speciation.

0___0 c'mon man, at least read my links, I read yours.

Originally Posted by TimT

Speciation relies on random genetic mutation that must be "Beneficial" to the organism. This violates the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics that states that everything decays(and does not get better).

Gosh darnit. No, this is not how it works and no, it does not violate the 2nd law of Thermodynamics. Speciation is the separation of allele frequencies between two previously nested hierarchies producing traits which make them observably different and/or genetically incompatible.

Originally Posted by TimT

Well, this is what Richard Dawkins said based on the written transcript.

"Prof Dawkins: Well it could come about in the following way. It could be that, eh, at some earlier time somewhere in the universe a civilization evolved by probably some kind of Darwinian means to a very, very, high level of technology and designed a form of life that they seeded onto perhaps this planet. Ehm, now, that is a possibility and an intriguing possibility and I suppose it’s possible that you might find evidence for that if you look at the um detail, details, of biochemistry, molecular biology, you might find a signature of some sort of designer. "


Prof Dawkins is smart enough to know what he believes and how to properly express it.

Anyways, after being accused of setting up a Strawman argument and then having you try a few Bait and Switch and your own Strawman. I don't think this debate is going to go anywhere positive so it's not worth continuing. I think we can agree to disagree and still be good reefers. :-)

... I don't even know how to respond to that. I provided a video of him explaining the situation. Literally, out of his mouth, he elaborated how Ben Stein mislead him and then used the interview to further his agenda.

And no, I haven't resorted to any bait/switch strawman arguments. The closest approximation you can make to that is when I used analogies to help illustrate a point in layman's terms.

C'mon Tim, I'm not attacking you. We're having a debate. It is a back and forth. This is not meant to be an attack on your beliefs. But if you're going to take it as such, then I guess I'll duck out of this one also :P