Monday Meme Madness - more misunderstandings

There is no shortage of dumb creationist garbage on the World Wide Web. It's like Ken Ham's brain exploded and left little bits of idiotic musings for some of us to chuckle at, shake our heads a little, and unleash the snark.

So today two of the goofier ones that struck my fancy as I went on my webspedition. Hang on to your brains, 'cause we're going in!

Meme #1: "Lemme see if I got this correct I survived, humans survived, but every form in between died off."

First, good on this meme maker for attempting the down-to-earth approach and making this all chit-chatty. Lemme see... I got this correct... This kind of language can really make a meme snap. Just too bad it's in the service here of a major misunderstanding.

So, no, little guy, you don't got this correct. Yeah, that should be you haven't got this right, but I'm in the spirit of the meme, infused with its spirit of whimsy. No, little primate, this is not how evolution works. Like at all.

First of all, there is no "I" that survived. You are descended from a line of primates. We shared a common ancestor and our lines diverged into different species something like 5 million years ago. Yes, all those apes between that split and you died, like all the primates that became hominids between then and now died. That was a speciation event. It is not like there was some event that caused all the chimps to suddenly change into humans leaving no chimps. It's not like *poof* some magic caused life to shift. Groups drifted off, got cut off, and after a certain number of generations, they could no longer mate with members of what had been that same group. We can witness this today in ring species.

This meme is a more clever variation on the "if we all evolved from monkeys, why iz there still monkeys?" gambit. Even with a cute picture, it's still grade A stupid.

I've also heard asked why monkeys are not still evolving into humans or why didn't all the monkeys throughout the world evolve into humans. I can't even with such stupidity.

First you have to grasp that evolution is not magic. It is about changes in allele frequency in a population across time. Individuals are not "evolving" and just because a drift in genes occurs in one population of a specific animal does not imply that that change is everywhere or simultaneous. I am oversimplifying to the extreme, but the essence is groups of species drift apart and as they reproduce their genes change. They stop resembling the group of origin. At the same time, other groups of that species are doing their own evolution dance, and their genes are shifting.

Meme #2: "Believe evolution without fossil evidence and no one bats an eye Show them that the fossil record supports creation, then everybody loses their minds!"

Ah, the joker meme, a beloved image for all sorts of madness - of both the good and bad kind. I think it's obvious which side of that split this meme falls.

So, okay, (sigh) we're really doing this? We're really going to say there is no fossil evidence for evolution? Can we ever just put this piece of idiocy to rest? There are actually transitional fossils. Like for realsies. And there's genetic evidence... One of my favorite pieces is chromosome 2.  There are experiments showing speciation as well as the prediction of ring species (linked above). There is all kinds of evidence for evolution. We understand the mechanisms pretty well.

Oh, but maybe this meme really wants a missing link, which this Wikipedia page says is not a real scientific term.

It may be that a lot of us haven't seen the real fossils because they are not on display or the museum is far away. That doesn't mean that we couldn't see them or that they don't exist.

Onto the second line about the fossil record supporting creation. Citation seriously fucking needed. I've heard some creationist claims about this or that fossil, but I also notice that they cherry pick things they like, misunderstand the mechanisms of natural selection, and often fail to consistently apply their ideas to all species. They often simply assert their beliefs for why something is the way it is and throw out "what good is half an eye?" or "look at the flagellum..." RationalWiki has a nice list of creationist claims for those who want to wander into that swamp. God speed! Er, I mean, good luck.

I don't know what this meme maker means, so I can only really speculate, but I have yet too see creationism supported. I also have yet to hear a mechanism for how the creator operates, how he poofs it all into existence, and how and why he chooses the time for said poofing.

The thing is evolution offers a mechanism for how the variety of life got here. We can test that mechanism, make predictions based on the model, and run experiments or examine rock layers out in the field. Please, creationists, tell us how your deity or intelligent designer or whatever operates. Give us tests and predictions. Don't just pretend like evolution is flawed and call it a win.

Actually, this meme makes no real argument. It just insinuates that evolution has got nothin' while creation has got it goin' on. And, no, just no, so much no. The internet is full of knowledge, my friend. Learn what sources are credible and which aren't.

That's it for the memes! Have a great week!