Evolution is Unsound

Thanks Pro for supplying this particular topic.Evolution is a sound explanation for the biodiversity of life on earth, because:1. genetic characteristics that allow an organism to live long enough to reproduce are more likely to be passed on than genetic characteristics that don't allow an organism to live long enough to reproduce.http://evolution.berkeley.edu...2. speciation has been directly observed in hawthorn-->apple maggot flyhttp://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov...3. human chromosome 2 is a fusion of two ape chromosomes, which is definitive evidence that humans descended from apes.http://genome.cshlp.org...4. early hominid fossils explain our bipedal-ism and ancestryhttp://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov...All of this seems sound to me however, my opponent has many contentions:Pro's Contentions:1. What's evolution?Parents pass on their genes to their offspring, but organisms that don't make it long enough to reproduce or can't reproduce never become parents, and their genes do not get passed on.The characteristics that lead to more reproductive success and survival begin to genetically dominate, because a major part of genetically dominating is being alive and reproducing.So, as environmental constraints dictate, different genetic characteristics become more or less helpful in living long enough and having the ability and opportunity to reproduce.As the earth goes through environmental changes, so do its inhabitants.2. There's more than one way to trap a mouse.The university of Delaware put together a detailed reduction of a mousetrap that shows how it can be reduced and maintain its principle function.I provided the link in case the images don't work.http://udel.edu... A five-part mousetrap. This is a snap mousetrap, shown ready to catch a mouse. It has five main parts: a hammer, which kills the mouse; a spring, which snaps the hammer down on to the mouse; a hold-down bar, which holds the hammer in the cocked position; a catch, which holds the end of the hold-down bar and releases it when the mouse jiggles the catch; and a platform, to which everything else is attached. (The bait is not one of the "irreducible" parts of the mousetrap, since an unbaited trap will catch the occasional mouse that stumbles into the catch.) A four-part mousetrap. The first step in reducing the complexity of a mousetrap is to remove the catch. The hold-down bar is then bent a little so that it will catch on the end of the hammer that protrudes out from the spring; this end of the hammer might need a little filing to make the action nice and delicate. I've made one of these by modifying a regular mousetrap, and just like the five-part mousetrap, it snaps with mouse-killing force when I jiggle the bait with a pencil. A three-part mousetrap. The next step is to remove the hold-down bar and bend the hammer so that one end is resting right at the edge of the platform, holding the hammer up in the cocked position. This is not as good a mousetrap as the four-part mousetrap. It is difficult to put the hammer exactly on the edge of the base, so a mouse-sized jiggle will cause it to snap. When it does snap the hammer hits the floor and sends the trap flying, possibly tossing the mouse to safety. But I've made one by modifying a regular mousetrap, and it snaps just as hard as a five-part trap. A two-part mousetrap. The next step is to remove the hammer and bend the straight part of the spring to resemble the hammer of the three-part mousetrap. When I made one of these, I didn't straighten any coils, so the gap is just big enough for a mouse's paw or tail. A mouse would have to be pretty unlucky to get caught by this trap. If you could straighten out a few coils of the spring (which is easier said than done--mousetrap springs are pretty tough), you could make a two-part trap that was basically the same as the three-part trap. A one-part mousetrap. I can think of at least a couple ways to make a one-part mousetrap from the two-part mousetrap. One would be to remove the spring and spread glue on the platform; you'd then have one of those barbaric glue traps that holds the mouse in place until it dies of thirst. The other way would be to straighten out a few coils of each end of the spring. One straight piece of the wire would then be bent so the end points up; the other piece of wire would come across and rest delicately on the upraised point. I don't have the wire-bending skills to make one of these, but if I did, I think the unlucky mouse that was standing under the top wire when it jiggled the trap would be just as dead as if it were killed by the much more complex five-part mousetrap.http://udel.edu... 3. Cilia me, I assumed evolution.Cilia, like all parts of any organism evolved because of the constraints put forth by natural selection, thus the emergence of the cilia proved helpful for organisms to live long enough to reproduce given the constraints."Proteins that contribute additional regulatory steps, upstream or downstream of [cilia] assembly...have been added in a stepwise, taxon-specific manner throughout evolution. For example, SPD2/CEP192 is a centrosomal protein involved in PCM recruitment, which is only present in Amoebozoa and Animals...SPD2/CEP192 is required for the duplication of the naked PCM-less sperm centriole in animals, suggesting a specific role at this developmental stage two centriolarproteins that have been proposed to coordinate ciliogenesis with the cell cycle, are confined to the Metazoans"http://jcb.rupress.org...4. Flagellum, damn near killed 'um.Well, like all things organic, the bacterium's flagellum is determined by genes.The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) along with the NIH deleted genes from the flagellar apparatus, the very tool used to propel the flagellum on a cellular level, and found that, though it was reduced, the motility (propelling on a cellular level) remained.Directly from the NCBI:"[We] tested an Escherichia coli gene deletion array for motility defects (using swarming assays) and found 159 gene deletion strains to have reduced...motility."https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov...So even with deleted genes, the necessary components of the complex flagellum, the flagellum can still function as a motility tool.Reducible.5. Evolution, I've got my eye on you.Here's how the NIH explains the evolution of the vertebrate eye:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov...A. Basal chordate possessed simple paired photoreceptive organs that were broadly similar to the unpaired organs of extant Amphioxus and C. intestinalisB. These photoreceptive organs expanded laterally, and each had developed into a two-layered ‘retina’, with ciliary photoreceptors contacting projection neuronsC. This rudimentary eye acquired a lens, an increase in retinal processing power (through the insertion of retinal bipolar cells), projection of the ganglion cell axons to thalamic regions, and extraocular muscles.D. The scotopic rod pathway evolves, with a new subset of amacrine cells (AII) providing input into the pre-existing cone pathway.E. The lens develops an elliptical shape to compensate for the added refractive power that is provided by the cornea in airHere's a cool animation from the NIH on the evolution of the eye:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov...6. I'll try not to bombard you with too much information about this beetle.According to the Journal of Experimental Biology:Studies have "shown [bombardier beetles'] glands to be two-chambered and their discharged secretion, in common with that of other paussoids, to be quinonoid and hot.""This indicated that the discharged secretion is a two-phase system, in which the quinones are being formed in the aqueous phase, while at the same time being partitioned (in part at least) into the hydrocarbon phase."http://jeb.biologists.org...So this two-phased system allows the beetle to store such volatile chemicals while maintaining viability. The poison was able to be safely stored in one of its reservoirs during evolution, step by step.7. Giraffected by evolution.Giraffe's evolution occurred step by step, and actually speaks to why there is such an inefficiency with nerves and blood circulation to the brain. Giraffe's ancestors had much shorter necks, so the path of blood to the brain and some nerve pathways start at the tops of the head,go down the neck, and return up the neck to the head again. "Our analysis suggests that the evolution of modern giraffes from their forest-dwelling, okapi-like ancestors, has depended on and been stimulated by the emergence of a woodland scrub."https://tsjok45.files.wordpress.com...The woodland scrub had much shorter necks, and lead to giraffe's evolution.8. Coagulation makes me feel a clot better.The vitamin K clotting mechanism is determined by genes, thus our coagulation mechanism evolved step by step.A PNAS published study indicates:"Orthologous genes were identified for each of the five vitamin K-dependent serine proteases"http://www.pnas.org...Orthologues are ancestral genes, directly related to vertebrate coagulation.