Need help with evolution

[Won2blv]

Hello, I am trying to understand evolution better. I have been raised my whole life as one of Jehovah's Witnesses. We believe the earth is billions of years old. We believe that animals do evolve, but we do not believe in evolution in a macro way. Please help me in my quest to understand scientific consensus more soundly. I need links, articles, facts, or whatever that can help me to understand evolution better. And why I can trust the facts. Thanks

[Exian]

That question is so common, Jerry decided to do something about it. Find this book. It's pretty awesome.

[SteelCurtain]

http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/list.html

This is a really good resource. It is indexed by the claims that creationists make, and reinforced with citations for each response.

Also, if you had a specific question, we could answer that for you. "Evolution" is a pretty large umbrella. Is there a specific are you don't understand?

[vorlon13]

Am I to understand the JWs are 'cherry picking' evolution?

OK, germs evolve, so we can get a flu shot and not be inconvenienced, but put a horse in Africa and come back in a million years and it ain't gonna mutate into a zebra ??

Or did I miss something ?

[Mudhammam]

Hello, I am trying to understand evolution better. I have been raised my whole life as one of Jehovah's Witnesses. We believe the earth is billions of years old. We believe that animals do evolve, but we do not believe in evolution in a macro way. Please help me in my quest to understand scientific consensus more soundly. I need links, articles, facts, or whatever that can help me to understand evolution better. And why I can trust the facts. Thanks

Small changes (which you say JWs find acceptable) over long increments of time (which you also say JWs find acceptable) result in very noticeable divergences but that share common features. What part of it don't they accept? Macro-evolution is largely just adding the pieces of the puzzle, that no one denies, together. (Of course some mutations can affect so many other chains in the development process that macro-changes can occur relatively quickly and not gradually as commonly observed, but that doesn't really matter here).

[robvalue]

You could check out talkorigins.org

The main point is that macro and micro evolution are exactly the same thing, just over different timescales. The theists who don't want evolution to be true invent barriers stopping one family of animals eventually evolving into another. There are no such barriers. The more you learn about evolution, the more obvious this will become. I've never heard anyone who actually understands it deny that it is true. Evolution isn't like a monopoly board where you move in discrete jumps, it's about tiny changes adding up over many generations.

But that's for you to decide, go read everything you can about it and let us know if you have specific questions. My advice is be wary of apologist websites because they either don't understand evolution or pretend not to so they can strawman it. By all means check them out, but be sure to look at actual scientific information as well.

[nihilistcat]

Hello, I am trying to understand evolution better. I have been raised my whole life as one of Jehovah's Witnesses. We believe the earth is billions of years old. We believe that animals do evolve, but we do not believe in evolution in a macro way. Please help me in my quest to understand scientific consensus more soundly. I need links, articles, facts, or whatever that can help me to understand evolution better. And why I can trust the facts. Thanks

If you have specific questions, I'd be glad to offer my input (I'm a biologist). 

As I'm sure you're aware, we have millions of pieces of fossil evidence, spanning back over 3 billion years, including the skeletal remains of at least 14 or 15 different species of hominid (our direct ancestors). 

But the questions I usually get from non-scientists tend to center on ... how precisely does a species evolve over time? 

The simple answer is, mutations in our genome. Mutations occur constantly. Each time our cells divide, there's a small number of mutations (even though we have very good DNA repair mechanisms, they're not perfect, and so mutations happen somewhat randomly in most cases). 

In some rare instances, these mutations become heritable. In some cases, these mutations can actually cause a physical alteration in the organism. For instance, a mutation created light skin complexion, which conferred a selective advantage (improved chances of survival) in cold climates. Lighter skin is less prone to frost bite. Moreover, in darker skinned people, eumelonin is prevalent, which acts as a natural sunscreen, while in lighter skinned people, pheomelanin (which produces vitamin D more efficiently) is prevalent. 

This very minor variation produced an immense selective advantage when it comes to survivability in cold, northern climates; and the colder the climate, the more of an advantage fair skin produced. Since those with fairer skin (in cold climates) were more likely to survive, they were of course also more likely to reproduce and pass their genes to the next generation.

After several generations, eventually the genotype that produces a phenotype (physical characteristic) which confers a selective advantage, dominates over other genotypes. 

Another big point of confusion I often run into concerns the cambrian explosion. However, it's thought that the appearance of the ozone layer (which appeared around the time of the cambrian explosion) and increases in atmospheric oxygen, allowed for an increase in diversity and complexity among eukaryotes. Another factor was an increase in calcium levels (caused by volcanic activity), which allowed marine organisms to build skeletons and hard body parts (and horizontal gene transfer was another possible contributor). 

Okay, small example of how evolution works ... again, feel free to ask questions. 

[robvalue]

Lots and lots and lots of small changes make a big change! But over a timescale of thousands of generations or such.

Staring at a badger and asking why it hasn't evolved into anything while you've been watching it means too much Ken Ham.

[Aoi Magi]

THERE IS NO MACRO EVOLUTION.

Take a picture of a face, and start drawing minute changes on it. Continue doing this for an hour or so, and then try to match it to the original face, it will look almost entirely different. Small changes build up over time, and that's evolution. Aron Ra has a great series on this on youtube, take a look.

[Alex K]

I have little to add to-these recommendations, how about some Richard Dawkins classics, such as climbing mount improbable? But Jerry Coyne is the speciation expert.