It is reasonable to accept the theory of evolution

Despite my opponent's beginning promise, he has done everything to waste time. Aside from one major contradiction, he has also made a great deal of totally irrelevant and mostly incoherent statements. I will address what I can. Let me summarize what my opponent has and hasn't done. CONTRADICTION My opponent has spent the better part of two rounds stating that I haven't provided evidence, that I couldn't possibly (for reasons I will address later). Yet he has also spent this time arguing that evidence is irrelevant due to his redefined version. NO SUPPORT I asked my opponent to back up several of his assertions, and he hasn't attempted to back up any of them. If he finally backs them up in the final round, when I will be unable respond, this will have been a cheap tactic indeed. I am waiting for evidence of psychological manipulation (my opponent changed it last round from ‘evolutionists psychologically manipulate us' to ‘they are manipulated'), support for creationism, why geologists are wrong about the age of the earth, that scientists are all biased, or why moralistic arguments have anything to do with what is true. UNEDUCATED My opponent appears to be uneducated on this subject. He claims he can look at the fossil record and see design. Yet he did not give any indication after being asked to that he knows anything about bones. Indeed, he admitted he hasn't taken a class or seen a significant part of the fossil record. Yet he thinks he is more qualified to interpret fossils than experts? REGARDING EVIDENCE My opponent makes an almost totally incoherent argument that evidence cannot possibly support evolution. He even makes the absurd statement that "facts do not count as evidence". He has provided no reason for why: a.) evolution demands that there be no god b.) objective reality would not exist without a god c.) objective facts would be "universal", ie undeniable. My opponent admits in the Comments that even with "universal evidence" (a meaningless term he has made up), people would still either be ignorant of it's meaning or deny it's meaning. Yet he claims evidence is only evidence if it convinces everyone and is thus "universal"! This is a clear contradiction in my opponent's already incoherent argument. Someone educated in the features and types of bones and how they relate to the organism's life can look at a bone and learn about the creature it belonged to. Someone ignorant of this knowledge would see something different. Someone in denial would see something different. The only reasonable course of action (which is what this debate is about) is to rely on the least biased and most relevantly educated individuals to interpret the evidence. Evidence is physical information which can support a conclusion, despite my opponent's attempts at redefining it. SPECIATION My opponent asks why we can't see speciation occurring. I pre-empted this, he can refer to the end of my second round argument for observed instances of speciation, or "macroevolution". He also misunderstands how evolution works: evolution happens with each generation, not between them. Because each change is small, we ARE seeing evolution occuring with each generation, we may just not be paying attention or seeing the small differences. This is why we observe it in the lab short-generation species. BACTERIA EVOLUTION My opponent links a news article, claiming that it says scientists don't know how bacteria evolve. Even if scientists didn't know HOW, it would prove nothing. Unfortunately, my opponent misrepresented the link. It says nothing of the sort. In fact, evolution of bacteria is probably the best understood type of evolution. [1] Bacteria reproduce asexually, however, so no line can be easily drawn between species. The link I provided in Round 2 of observed speciation lists examples of what should be considered speciation: bacteria completely changing genetic form in response to new environmental pressures, even obtaining multicellularity. SPECIFIC RESPONSES "But in this case you are saying the evidence is the fossils, the fact that they exist is evidence of evolution." My opponent either misunderstands or misrepresents. I am saying the evidence is the fossils, experts who look at them can trace changes from one type of creature to another. They can trace, for example, the changes in fossils through the years up until one that is identical to a modern type, in the horse for example. [2][3] While we cannot tell exactly where speciation occurred in the fossil record, the transitions are between ends that are obviously different species. We can get a good idea of when speciation occurred, however, based on how closely related modern organisms in the process of speciation are able to interbreed. For example, you would expect that organisms as different from each other as the horse and donkey would be almost completely speciated. SOCIETY & MORALITY My opponent's arguments that morality and society disprove evolution are meaningless. His statement that humans are the only creatures with morals and societies is false. Love for family, allegiance to friends, punishment of cheaters, etc, is a normal aspect of primate societies. Many primate species innately form social groups, a trait which defends from predators and provides mutual non-zero-sum benefits. Within these societies, individuals will work together and share. [4] Indeed, scientists have observed monkeys forming interspecies alliances to watch for predators. The bonobo is an example of an exemplary moral animal, one being observed nursing a bird back to health. [5] According to The Moral Animal, emotions have likely evolved (and this seems to be the case based on the evidence) to lead people to take advantage of the TIT FOR TAT system. CONCLUSION My opponent makes a series of totally irrelevant statements, like the absurdity of a science fiction movie. I have not bothered with these. He has made contradictions, failed to back up statement, and has not attacked the bulk of my argument. Resolution affirmed: it is reasonable to accept evolution. SOURCES 1. http://goo.gl... 2. http://goo.gl... 3. http://goo.gl... 4. http://goo.gl... 5. http://goo.gl...