SoSick, why don't you reply to some of the specific points that Jill brought up? Like insects developing reistance to pesticides, bacteria developing resistance to antibiotics? How about what I mentioned a long time back -- variations in humans? How come people living at high altitudes in Kenya and Tibet, for example, have developed greater lung capacity and can cope with the rarified air much better than the rest of us? How come people seem to have developed white skin over time as they shifted north -- handy for soaking up some extra sun, weaker here, so that we can make our vitamin D. Or the bodies of people like the Inuit, tending toward stocky with wider nostrils, just perfect for existence in a colder climate? You can look all around at other animals, too, and see them adapting beautifully to all kinds of different climates and conditions. How can you call this a false theory when you can see it with your own eyes?
Because all of these, in the presence of those circumstances, may cause insects/animals/humans/whatever to acclimate to their habitats and climates. But, take any one of them out of that environment and a couple generations later the tolerance is gone. That even goes for fair skinned people whose children and grandchildren are not as fair skinned in different climates.
If we stopped using antibuiotics tioday chances are excellent that in 50 years the superviruses that have resulted would be non-existent too. When dentists stop using amalgam, our children will be smarter and healthier. Not evolution, a reversion to the norm.
If you move to Tibet your lung capacity will change as the years go by also. you might suffer at first from living in London pretty much at sea level, but you would acclimate. It's not genetic, it's tolerance and your body's amazing ability to acclimate to new enviironments. If you moved back to London after 20 years in Tibet you would lose that capacity. It''s not even something your children would inherit if they were born in London after you lived in Tibet.
I used to do a lot of swimming, could hold my breath for an amazing long time under water. I've lost that capacity over the years because I don't swim as much anymore.
None of the things you mention involve changes to DNA that could be considered a forward step in some evolutionary process. Pesticides may cause defect mutations however, actually detrimental to DNA, like frogs with 3 legs. Leaves turn red in autumn also as they adjust to less sunlight per day, does that mean that the trees are evolving? Bears fail to go into hibernation in warm winters, does that mean that they are evolving? If you take an inuit family and send them to Florida their grandkids would mix into the rest of the general population without a hitch, moostly due to the fact that they are now breeding outside of their previous rather small gene pool, otherwise known as marrying your cousin.. There are lots of short and stocky people in New Hampshire too. They climb lots of hills. Even where I live in the mountains, lots of really short people. There grandparents were not like that. But the ones who grew up here often are. Something to do with less oxygen perhaps, gravity, who knows. But chances are excellent they all carry varied genes that will revert back to tall children in a different environment. Short people have been known to have really tall children, and vice versa. So, no evidence of evolution of any kind there, sorry.
I think a lot of the strange skeletons they find, there really aren't that many, probably just inbred tribes, mutations, detrimental environment or otherwise, whatever. Given a population of 6 billion, if there were any evidence available of true important DNA changes in a given population, surely they would have found it by now. But we still only have different races to look at... any of which can interbreed, mix up the gene pool awith something far off instead of something nearby, and come out with a quite normal human being that fits into their current environment quite well and grows up there acclimating to survive in it.
When monkeys lose their tails, we might be able to seriously discuss this.
I found this really weird video here a while back:
Super creepy beast in cage I doubt it's evolution, but sure is one heck of a mutation. Don't know if it's real or not. I wonder what mommy looked like.
