Well Jeanie,

Stupid, ignorant, deluded, insane or wicked. Can you think of any other reasons for not understanding the truth? 1 + 1 = 2. If someone disagrees, what do you think? On what basis could they disagree and not be included in those classification? I keep asking for others, just to keep the book open.

Evolution - the change in hereditary traits in populations from generation to generation - occurs every day in every living species, and it is an observed fact. Do you disagree? On what basis do you disagree with the observed facts?

Speciation - the division of populations into genetically isolated sub-populations - also occurs and is an observed fact. Do you disagree? On what basis do you disagree with the observed facts?

Yes, I have no respect for anyone whose first resort is to insults and mockery instead of dealing with the issues. I have started a thread to deal with him.

Yes, they mean several things: to the general public they can mean hypothetical guesses, such as the ad hoc claim that the decay rates have changed in the past, guesses founded on an absence of evidence and a preponderance of wishful thinking.

To science though, theory means conclusions based on evidence that explain the evidence, conclusions that say "if this is true then this happens", so they make predictions that can test the theories for validity.

There are no pieces of evidence that contradict the theory that evolution/speciation can explain the diversity of life as we know it, from history, from prehistory, from the fossil record, from genetics, not one.

In addition the theory of evolution is massively validated by thousands of experiments and observations, testing over the last 150 years that has yet to show a weak link anywhere in the theory.

Absolutely false. What it means is that you have concepts that you can test for validity to see if they do in fact reflect reality. Every theory can be falsified by new information, and thus they are always treated as tentative statements: IF this is true then that happens.

Can the change in hereditary traits in populations from generation to generation and the diversification that follows the division of populations into genetically isolated subpopulations explain the full diversity of life we know from life today, from history, from prehistory, from the fossil record and from genetics?

Let's find out.

That's not belief, it is curiosity and a desire to find the truth.

Wrong. It does not rule out faith nor religion: Millions of people demonstrate that this is false.

It is curious that you seem to be unable to discuss facts of objective reality without casting some mystic aura onto it. Reality exists. There is nothing mystical about a rock.

Now.

The issue of this thread is transitions - say the transition from ape to human as shown by the several intermediate fossils of hominids that we have discovered, with the thousands of fossils that show (a) evolution within species and (b) speciation, and where the difference from one to the next is less than the difference we see in dogs, dogs that we know have evolved from wolves by (a) evolution within populations and (b) genetic isolation of subpopulations.

Can you show that the variations you see here:



is less than the variation from wolf to dogs:



We can start with Lucy:



She correlates with skull B above, two of many fossils for Australopiticus afarensis.

Enjoy.