[jimmydean]

so it seems to me a species (as we categorize it) has 3 options: extinction, stasis, or evolution. so do anti-evolutionists purport there are imaginary boundaries beyond which a species may not venture genetically?

seems a bit silly to me, but i'm just a man

God hates teh gheys, if that's what you're asking.

 

[BurlyShirley]

so if classification is arbitrary, doesn't is also hold true our interpretation is as well? not trying to be a dick, but i'm trying to understand if we're going to point to exhibit B as the transitional species 'tween exhibits A & C, then we can dismiss the terms macro- and micro-evolution, as their thresholds are irrelevant.

I don't mean that our entire concept of classification is arbitrary, as I had tried to point out to Vadgebiker, using cladistics gives us a rational understanding of the lineage of species through the fossil record, using the appearance of derived traits as a point to define where speciation occurs. So since we have an understanding of which kinds of traits are more primitive and which are more derived, there's sound reasoning behind classifying things as they are. What is often arbitrary is the point at which it's decided something is derived enough that it needs to be considered a new species. For instance, those little "hobbit" skeletons they found in Indonesia... morphologically they are different enough that if they weren't "hominids" ... if they were birds or something, science would have no problem describing them as a new species, but becuase of the cultural ramifications of doing such a thing in this day and age (describing anew species of human), there is a hesitance to describe them as enthusiasically as they would some other organism. There isn't a standardization across science to determine these things, but things generally become accepted through majority consensus over time which Im sure you know.

 

[kidwoo]

Bottom-line, science is not a democratic process. What is the specific proof of evolution?

You might want to read a little of Michael Behe. The guy has had a few more Bio classes than me. Maybe even more than you.

Behe's kind of a nutjob. I don't doubt he's had some schooling but I get the impression that it was all the while with him smirking in the background, knowing he was just arming himself for a career in opposition.

What do you think of antibiotic-resistant strains of staph that didn't exist 20 years ago?

 

[Defenestrated]

If it isn't evidence of some sort of evolutionary process, then what is this evidence of? Perhaps god has a sense of humor?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feathered_dinosaurs

 

[DirtyDog]

 

[Stray_cat]

Platypus is no laughing matter sir.

Edit: Been posted before, but I can't resist...