God exists and Creationism Vs. Evolution

To begin, I would like to set a definition that we will use throughout this debate. 1)The Oxford English Dictionary definition of theory, Sense 1. A Scheme or system of ideas or statements held as an explanation or account of a group of facts or phenomena; a hypothesis that has been confirmed or established by observation or experiment, and is propounded or accepted as accounting for the known facts; a statement of what are held to be general laws, principles, or causes of something to be observed. Now that we have that straight, I will continue to make my argument in support of Evolution. General overview Evolution is the idea that we all evolved from one common species. It states that all life evolves according to natural selection, sexual selection, and genetic mutation. The evidence for evolution is found in the fossil record, lab experiments,and much more. The Evidence The Fossil Record As stated earlier, fossils are in layers according to the geological time scale. Each layer shows a period in earths history. And you will not find a fossil outside its layer, or time. These fossils show a general path upward, from the simplest to the most complicated organisms. So what do we see in these fossils? In fossils, we see how things evolved to what they are today. We see the evolution of vertebrates in the sea, their first steps on the land, the extinction of animals. It showed the transition from gills to lungs, that all species were and are transmutable (4). Radiometric Dating Radiometric dating is one of the most accurate ways to date fossils with isotopes that go back to 49 Billion years, older than the estimated age of the universe. It works by taking an isotope and its decay product and measuring the decay rates (2). I had two images to show Radio metric dating, but am having trouble showing them here. They should the process of half lives and a list of the useful Parent and Daughter Isotopes. The "Missing Links" Some very important transitional fossils have been found that show very important leaps. One of which showed the rise of animals from the water to land. In Richard Dawkins' book "The greatest show on Earth", he quotes J.L.B. Smith, a South African Biologist as he describes the fossil of a Coelacanth. I will Give the Paragraph before the description as well "Lobefins today have dwindled to the lungfishes and the Coelacanths ('dwindled' as 'fish', that is, but mightily expanded on land: we land vertebrates are aberrant lungfish).... Smith movingly wrote of the moment when he first cast eyes on this astonishing find, to which he had been summoned by its discoverer, Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer (He later named it Latimeria), to give his expert opionion: We went straight to the Museum. Miss Latimer was out for the moment, the caretaker ushered us into the inner room and there was the " Coelacanth, yes, God! Although I had come prepared, that first sight hit me like a white-hot blast and made me feel shaky and queer, my body tingled. I stood as if stricken to stone. Yes, there was not a shadow of doubt, scale by scale, bone by bone, fin by fin, it was a true Coelacanth. It could have been one of those creatures of 200 Million years ago come alive again. I forgot everything else and and just looked and looked, and then almost fearfully went close up and touched and stroked while my wife watched in silence...(2, pg. 163)" The reason this fossil was so important is that it was the missing link between land vertebrates and aquatic 'fish'. Richard goes on to say that "Coelacanths are closer cousins to us than they are to most fish.. they, and lungfish, are definitely closer cousins to us than to a trout, tuna and the majority of fish (2, Pg. 163-164). Our ancestors sprang from the ranks of lobefins and other land vertebrates as their species made the slow trek from water to land. Lab Experiments The Lenski Experiment This is one of my favorite experiments regarding Evolution. Not only does it show evolution in action, but it shows that genetic mutation causes change in an organism. For this experiment, I would like to note that all information will be coming form source 2, "The Greatest Show On Earth" where Richard Dawkins devotes an entire chunk of a chapter to this very interesting and revealing experiment. The Experiment A biologist and his team at an American University decided to take 12 "tribes" of E. Coli Bacteria and put them into 12 bottles filled with even amounts of Citrate and Glucose, with glucose being the Bacteria's main food source. The original 'generation' had samples removed from the various tribes and frozen, as the E. Coli. Bacteria has the very unique ability to 'come back to life' once it defrosts. Here is the procedure of the experiment. Every day, the team would take samples of each of the 12 "tribes" and freeze one, evaluate another, and fill the bottles back up with citrate and glucose exactly the same amounts as the day before, then insert a small sample of the bacteria into each of their new habitats (which were precisely the same as before) and they would grow and populate each time. This process was repeated for almost 20 years. The Observations Each generation, the Bacteria would multiply to a maximum amount where all Glucose was consumed and the habitat could no longer support the population anymore. At this point, each of the tribes (usually reaching the same state at relatively the same times) would have samples taken, frozen, and evaluated. Then a small sample would be put back into a new jug with the same levels of citrate and glucose. With each successive generation being frozen, they were each tracked, so that they could be defrosted and evaluated if a question ever arose. This process was repeated over and over for a few years. The Results The experiment went on for twenty years, and, as Darwinian Evolution predicts, they all were able to more efficiently use the glucose in their environment as time went on. But, each population of the same bacteria were able to develop the increased efficiency by different methods! They knew this by being able to look at the difference between Generation 0 and each successive generation and the current generation. This proved that not only does genetic mutation makes beneficial modifications to the organism, but that natural selection favored the reproduction of the more efficient bacteria. This proves two of the key processes of Evolution. But wait, it gets better. In the tribe known as Ara-3, its population plateau suddenly increased six fold compared to all other populations of the past! What happened? Why did its body size increase and its population plateau increase? The baffled biologists began to investigate. E. Coli Bacteria cannot use citrate as a food source. It was a surprise, then, when Ara-3 suddenly acquired this ability and increased its population size per generation by 6 times the amount as it had before! After discovering "what was special about the Ara-3 tribe, Lenski and his colleagues went on to ask an even more interesting question. Was this sudden improvement in the ability to draw nourishment all due to a single dramatic mutation, one so rare that only one of the twelve lineages was fortunate enough to undergo it? (2, pg. 128)." Or was it due to slow, cumulative change that could be shown on the same graph that the Glucose efficiency increase had? It was shown that genetic mutation A along with Genetic mutation B were able to produce Genetic mutation C, the one that gave the Bacteria the ability to consume nitrate! This Cumulative selection [where multiple adaptions and genetic mutations are able to build upon each other, giving rise to complicated organisms (1)] was able to mutate the organism in such a way that it outmatched all of its fellow tribes. This was an amazing find by Lenksi's student Zachary Blount (2, pg. 130). It showed that through genetic mutations over time, the probability for the Citrate mutation seemed to be ever increasing in Ara-3. When it finally happened, the results were so that the new genetically mutated bacteria were able to outproduce and out match its fellow bacteria. Natural selection had made its choice. Darwinian evolution had been observed through our own eyes. For lack of more space, I think it is time that I ended this phase of the argument and wished my opponent the best of luck. I look forward to his arguments! These are the sources I will and have used through this debate. 1)Dawkins, Richard."The Blind Watchmaker. London: W. W. Norton & Company, 1986. Print. 2)Dawkins, Richard."The Greatest Show On Earth. New York City: Free Press, 2010. Print. 3)Montgomery, David."The Rocks Don't Lie: A Geologist Investigates Noah's Flood. New York City: W. W. Norton & Company, 2013. Print. 4)Switek, Brian."Written in Stone: Evolution, the Fossil Record, and Our Place in Nature. New York City: Bellevue Literary Press, 2010. Print. 5)FairBanks, Daniel."Evolving: The Human Effect and Why it Matters. New York City: Prometheus Books, 2012. Print.