Meme Madness Monday - Evidence for Evolution Edition

I often wonder exactly what creationists or intelligent design proponents or whatever moniker they employ imagine "evolution" to be. I'm no biologist, so I can't say I know every intricate detail about the theory of natural selection and common descent, but I do get that the mechanisms occur in a population through time as a response to environmental pressure. Some organisms have changed significantly through time and others are relatively stable because they are well-adapted to their environment.

One common piece of idiocy that is spouted is why doesn't an individual animal change because of a given situation. I've heard this asked about a cat sitting on a fence with a wolf chasing it. Why doesn't it sprout wings and fly away? It is a puzzling question for many reasons, but mainly it's because EVOLUTION DOESN'T SAY THAT'S WHAT HAPPENS.

I've heard the question did a monkey one day give birth to a human being. THAT'S NOT WHAT EVOLUTION SAYS.

In response to pieces of evidence that show natural selection in action, you hear "but they're still bacteria" or "they're still finches" or "they're still the same kind." This notion of gradual change over a population over time really stymies creationists.

So cue the above meme "So we can't see evolution occurring because it takes a really long time? Well isn't that convenient!"

Well, I'm guessing this meme-maker wants to see a dog turn into a rhino or a plant become a fish or some nonsense. I'm guessing they would reject what they call micro-evolution thinking it is significantly different from what they think of as macro-evolution, although the theory itself makes no such distinction. And I'm guessing they need to see one animal magically poof into a completely different animal to believe it. But here's the thing: that might be some evidence for magic. Evolution does not say that one species will give birth to a radically different kind of animal.

I talk about evidence below the next meme, but I'd like to finish by saying that it is especially funny that this meme uses the old SNL skit of church lady. A meme that poked fun at a certain segment of the Christian population's satanic panic is highly amusing to me.

There is a lot of evidence for evolution if people actually go look at what the theory says. We see transitional forms in the fossil record. We see our relationship to other animals in our genetic code. We know what is going on with genes that cause changes to organisms. We see vestigial organs in ourselves and other animals. And there's so much more.  Wikipedia has a page on natural selection and another on evidence for common descent. It's not definitive but it's a start.

Really the main problem creationists have is they've been indoctrinated into believing there's a creator. When they look at the world, they see him in all things. And for Christians, with no Adam and Eve, there's no fall and therefore no original sin and therefore no need for Jesus to redeem them and therefore no theology.

The interesting thing is, while creationists like to say there is no observable evidence for evolution even thought there is (just not their straw man version), where is their evidence for creation? Sure, they point to the Bible, but that is a collection of stories not the infallible word of a deity. And yes, there's evidence for how the Bible was put together and different groups accept different books into their Bible and everyone rejected some books. We also know that several of the stories come from different groups. We even know why in the case of the New Testament some of the rationale of early church fathers' selections. For people curious, there are biblical scholars who have studied these topics.

What there isn't evidence for is an intelligent creator poofing something into existence. Will the intelligent designer poof another creature into existence? Was all the poofing only in the distant past? 

I realize today's post wasn't very funny. The memes weren't the worst of the worst. They are just ignorant really. We'll try to be funny again next week.