Evolution occurs

"No Sir, I am correcting YOU. Piggy-backing a lie (macro evolution) onto a truth (micro evolution) and then calling it one theory will not hold water without an example..." Very well. Chickens are descendants of T-Rex's. "You have NOT provided a known example!" Actually I did. Chimpanzees and Humans have a common ancestor. "Similarities between species suggest a common designer NOT common ancestry" Designer...? I don't understand, who would design the animals? I don't know of any sort of thing which could intelligently design them. Science has not identified any evidence for such a thing. But please explain further, as this is a new concept to me. "If your seriously suggesting that we started out as amoeba then something somewhere had to change species.. a lot!" You misunderstand. Yes, new species arise, but the species from which they evolved to not vanish. MAcroevolution is the branching of lineages, not the replacement of lineages necessarily. "Again, the misunderstanding is yours Sir. Because you start from the belief that everything is improving and becoming more complex etc then you naturally assume that mutation is beneficial. BUT everything is certainly not improving, everything is winding down, becoming weaker, smaller, more disease prone. In this sense mutations and variations (that are ALREADY within the gene pool) while not improving the species may help it adapt to new conditions etc." I am not advocating that no malign mutations take place. In fact, a vast majority of mutations are detrimental. There are some beneficial mutations though, and those are the ones which are passed on the most, since it helps the carrier live. Give me one reason why, out of all the accidental little changes in genetic code, there would never be a mutation that helps. Accidents do not discriminate. "There has been NO increase in genetic complexity. An increase in genetic complexity is absolutely CRUCIAL for macro evolution to occur." Why? "Mutations DO get them killed! do you know HOW many species have become extinct?" Actually, mutations kill individuals, but generally speaking, it does not affect the species as a whole, and here is why. The animals which have harmful mutations tend to die off before they can reproduce, so malign mutations usually phase out of the gene pool. And also, way to completely dodge my question. You have changed the subject. I pointed out that you contradicted yourself by suggesting that species adapt beneficially but never have beneficial mutations. Please address this in your next post. You have made a very clear contradiction of yourself which makes your entire argument moot. Please note: my opponent has advocated that microevolution does in fact occur, and so therefore he must be of the belief that beneficial mutations occur. "They were created perfect.. since then things have deteriorated.. Fossil records clearly show that everything was much bigger and better back in the day!" Here again you have implied that some thing created everything perfectly and instantaneously. This idea seems rather absurd to me or at the very least far out there. Can you provide some sort of evidence for this? You have made a pretty bold assertion (that some sort of entity created everything perfectly), with absolutely no backing. I'm afraid I can't consider your point valid without some sort of evidence. "This debate is entitled (YOUR title) 'Evolution occurs' which means that it is STILL your burden to prove that it does indeed occur.. I STRONGLY suggest you begin!" Well, I guess we ought to recap, since my opponent seems to not get any of my points. I have proved time after time logically that evolution occurs. Once more, evolution (both parts of evolution, microevolution and macroevolution) will inevitably occur if you have these 2 things. -reproduction -mutations These things are present in the life-forms on earth, and therefore evolution inevitably occurs. My opponent has advocated that microevolution takes place, and therefore he must believe that both positive and negative mutations take place (because after all, this is the only reason microevolution can happen), and I think it goes without saying that he believes in reproduction... so with my opponents very assertions, we can conclude that evolution does, in fact, take place on the planet Earth. NOTE: I would like to mention that even though my opponent has turned this debate into one about macroevolution, he conceded the debate in round 1, when he decided to define microevolution as evolution, and then went on to assert that microevolution occurs. The title of this debate is "evolution occurs". It does not discriminate between macroevolution and microevolution at all. Me and my opponent agree that some form of evolution takes place, and so I have obviously won.