What "verifiable results based on proper scientific method" prooves Evolution?
My dog.
I'm always flabbergasted when intelligent people say they don't believe in evolution. It usually makes me think that there's a semantic failure somewhere. I can only assume people are thinking the word "evolution" means something incredibly specific and arguable -- like Mr. Tweedy's specific example about breasts, or random arguments about the development of the eye. All of that is totally beside the point. It's arguing that trees don't exist because you can't explain some minor mechanism of chlorophyll.
Evolution simply means that species change and diversify based on reproductive pressures. That's all. It's not an atheist buzzword. It doesn't imply absolute understanding of the complete history of life on earth. It isn't even as specific as natural selection. It just means that species change based on how they reproduce. Shit, you can
watch species change. Someone crosses a Labrador and a poodle and calls it a Labradoodle? They've just practiced limited evolution. On a much longer timescale, most of our cultivated livestock and food crops came from wild ancestors that were totally different species. People made cows out of aurochs, dogs out of wolves, corn out of wild maize because cows and dogs and corn are much more convenient for people. Selective breeding created new species. That dogs came from wolves, etc., is overwhelmingly evident from genetic analysis -- as is the fact that we share 96% of our DNA with chimpanzees.
Species change based on reproductive pressures. That's observable. Any
gardener knows this. To me this is such a "Duh!" statement that anyone who denies the existence and efficacy of evolution
must either:
A.) be talking about something else, and confusing the meaning of the word (deliberately or not); or
B.) have blinders on -- again, deliberately or not.
I am so baffled that people waste time arguing about this that my brain genuinely cannot process it. Have they never looked at fossils? Botanical gardens? The Westminster Dog Show?
Am I missing something here? Why does this discussion happen?