Macroevolution

[Gawdzilla]

I love hearing about the "theory" of evolution. I find the argument is over before it even has begun when someone says that. Evolution is not a theory. Evolution is a fact, like gravity. Evolution has happened, evolution is happening now, evolution will continue to happen. The same penicillin that once would have killed any disease on the planet 100 years ago is now all but useless and many people are developing an allergy to it. That is evolution in action. The only theory relating to evolution is the theory of evolution by natural selection. Evolution is a fact, the mechanic by which it operates is theoretical. People who refer to evolution as a theory have a fundamental misunderstanding of scientific theory and what evolution actually is.

It depends on what you're talking about really. Evolution is a fact, no doubt. How is works, that's a theory. A well-ground, thoroughly tested theory, but it's not yet a law, so "theory of evolution" is perfectly okay to say. The fundies may jump on the term, but that just makes them look more ignorant. They can keep up with the old "I told Orville, I told Wilbur, and now I'm tell YOU, that thing will never fly!" for as long as they wish. The more often they say that kind of shit, the more chances we have to laugh at them. And laughter, in the end, will destroy them.

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Jerry Coyne had a column in SciAm last year about macroevolution. He pointed out that Great Danes and Chihuahuas were now effectively separate species, because they could no longer successfully interbreed. So we now have at least two subspecies of dogs. And this in recorded history, a few hundred years at most. (I don't have the history of either breed at hand.)