update: I'm not asking for opinions about evolution, I'm asking where did you get your education about evolution from. I've seen a lot of statements about evolution being made, and I'm curious where people obtained this information.
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Well there are many issues with evolution, not so much the evolution in the minor, again MINOR change in animals (appearance, size, etc..) but the idea that evolution is the natural method by which live sprung.
Here is one example to mull over. The evolution of a whale. Evolution happens progressively and not in leaps and bounds since the amount of change in the genetic material to create an entirely new species in one generations or even 10 isn't possible or seen with base pair mutations. The whale is said to have gone from fish to land animal and then they returned back to the water and somehow the limbs became flipper like and their noses moved to the back and they some how evolved to hold their breaths for half an hour at a time. Now imagine that in stages through generations. Yes, scientists scratch their heads over this still.
You commented on my answer post on another question that irreducible complexity doesn't refute evolution. It does if you consider reality vs. theory. The reality is that if you take a single component away from a complex functional protein in a cell, it doesn't work. "Debunking" this was said that cells engulfed other cells or external proteins, yes but replication for the next generation is dependent not on the presence of new proteins consumed, but it has to be written into the helix; it doesn't work. Power levels refers to the ATP amount necessary to power these functional proteins, this goes hand in hand with the size of these proteins as well; it's far more complex that the "debunkers" are ever able to address.
Also, DNA is a language. It has structure, it has syntax, it has organization. The formation of the planets and lifeforms and definitely this goes against the law of entropy.
There's a lot more but perhaps for another day.
Questioner
I simply went through the public school system and have watched a bunch of PBS programs on it. I also enjoy watching public debates about evolution (so I can get both sides).
Why don't you ask these people:
http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/filesDB-download.php?command=download&id=660
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Darwinian Evolution - An undirected process in which natural selection (survival of the fittest) acts upon mutations (copying errors in the genetic code) over millions of years; all living things are modified descendants of a common ancestor that lived in the distant past (common descent). The concept of evolution dates back to the ancient Greeks, but was repopularized in modern times by naturalists such as Alfred Wallace and Charles Darwin who provided the biological aspect with a mechanism (natural selection). Neo-Darwinism (or "modern evolutionary synthesis") tries to add the current understanding of genetics to Darwin’s ideas. Also, “Evo Devo” dealing with gene switches is becoming more popular.
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Only the slightest in public high school. Instead, about 99% of what I've learned is from book and articles, especially science news articles which discuss new evidence as supporting or obviating a current hypothesis. For instance, at one time the phrasing "punctuated equilibria" was current (was that from Stephen Jay Gould? probably...), and now I know this is only the effect of sudden environmental changes causing accumulated mutations in a population to suddenly be selected for if they help the species adapt to the new environment. As long as the environment is stable, there is little change, and non-fatal mutations slowly accumulate. When the environment is suddenly different, then all those mutations are tested by the natural selection. Etc. Just a slow accumulation of information and ideas over years.
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(note: my science knowledge is from my profound curiosity over more than 30 years of reading in the sciences. I haven't had any trouble being scientifically minded, skeptical, evidence based, etc., and believing in God. They fit together effortlessly for me (but, admittedly, I have unusual resources). As it happened when I truly allow God to possibly exist, and then logically pray directly to Him to then show me a path to Him, if He existed, He obliged, I think mainly because I was *not* prejudiced -- I was truly allowing that He could exist, and not presuming He did not. Presumptions are arrogant, in my view. Arrogance is surely a block not only between someone and God, but also between someone and most good things in life.
Anonymous
School text books and X-men comics. Personally I have been hoping that my super powers get triggered soon. And no I havent asked 'Is evolution real', I only ever wonder if super powers are possible through evolution.
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All of my undergraduate studies were in pubic colleges... My post graduate and doctoral studies were completed in a mixture of public and private universities but they were in sciences that are not related to evolution (medicine and pathophysiology).
Of course I don't ask "Is evolution real".. I recognize evolution as defined by the Scientific Community (US National Academy of Sciences" is a reality. But after examination of the evidence I also recognize that the extrapolation based upon evolution called Common Descent does not work.