Carmen Posted March 27, 2010 Share Posted March 27, 2010 All my life I've grown up hearing that evolution is a very faulty theory with very little proof. All my science textbooks were Christian and they never gave an objective portrayal of evolution without trying to poke holes in it and show why it's invalid. But now that I'm not a Christian anymore, I'm really eager to learn about evolution! Can anyone recommend some good books or websites for someone like me who knows next to nothing about evolution? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Valkyrie0010 Posted March 27, 2010 Share Posted March 27, 2010 All my life I've grown up hearing that evolution is a very faulty theory with very little proof. All my science textbooks were Christian and they never gave an objective portrayal of evolution without trying to poke holes in it and show why it's invalid. But now that I'm not a Christian anymore, I'm really eager to learn about evolution! Can anyone recommend some good books or websites for someone like me who knows next to nothing about evolution? the greatest show on earth by Richard Dawkins why evolution is true by jerry coyne I would also to help deal with family recommend you read the language of god by francis collins, gives a good was to help your family along, to what is called theistic evolutionism, or biologos as he called it. If you have a iphone or itouch, there is a app, that is supposed to be a encyclopedia, of debunking creationism info, that would help Search creationist and you should find it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skepticalme Posted March 27, 2010 Share Posted March 27, 2010 I recommend starting with Dr. Zachary Moore's excellent podcast on iTunes called "Evolution 101". In fact, his podcasts are how I found this forum(he used to be a moderator here). He does an outstanding job of putting the more complex concepts of evolution into plain language that is easy for people new to the subject to understand. After that, Richard Dawkins has many great books on evolution, "The Greatest Show on Earth" is his latest. You may even find it interesting to check out "On the Origin of Species" by Darwin himself. I have to warn you that it is not an easy read but it gives a lot of insight into the man that pioneered the field. Keep in mind that the theory has come a long way since Darwin and there is a fair bit that he got wrong, so you may want to save this one for last. If you have any questions on the subject feel free to post them here and we'll do our best to answer them or at least point you to resources that do. Its a subject I enjoy talking about. And welcome to the forums. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bird28 Posted March 27, 2010 Share Posted March 27, 2010 I have the book "Why Evolution is True" by Jerry A. Coyne. It's a nice book about what evolution is and all the evidence for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kuroikaze Posted March 27, 2010 Share Posted March 27, 2010 There is a biologist who publishes videos on Youtube AronRa He looks like he belongs in a death metal band, but he really knows his stuff. I suggest checking him out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scitsofreaky Posted March 28, 2010 Share Posted March 28, 2010 What Evolution Is by Ernst Mayr and Darwin's Dangerous Idea by Dan Dennett are both good books that aren't as popular for some reason. You might read one of the other books from above first, but both are excellent IMO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Midnight-mindwanderings Posted March 28, 2010 Share Posted March 28, 2010 I second the suggestion to watch AronRa. He is awesome I love his videos. Richard Dawkins has a lot of good videos on his youtube site as well. I started with these since they are free and its easier to watch/ listen while taking care of my kids than it was to read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carmen Posted March 28, 2010 Author Share Posted March 28, 2010 Thanks for all the suggestions. Does anyone know of any podcasts about evolution that I could download? I've got a few questions. I've always heard that there was proof for micro evolution, but not for macro. How would you respond to that? Also, are there really missing links in the fossil record? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bird28 Posted March 28, 2010 Share Posted March 28, 2010 Thanks for all the suggestions. Does anyone know of any podcasts about evolution that I could download? I've got a few questions. I've always heard that there was proof for micro evolution, but not for macro. How would you respond to that? Also, are there really missing links in the fossil record? Listen to the Evolution 101 podcasts and it explains both these thing really well. Micro and Macro Evolution were coined by Creationists, they are both the same thing really, but on different time scales. Larger changes require larger periods of time, simple. As Why Evolution is True explains, fossilization is a rare process, so it would be hard to find perfect lines of transitional forms, but we can find creatures that were similar to the transitional forms and we have many examples of mammal-like reptiles and bird-like reptiles with feathers to provide good evidence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skepticalme Posted March 28, 2010 Share Posted March 28, 2010 As bird28 pointed out, there is really no difference between micro and macro. These are not scientific terms and are used by creationist to carve out chunks of evolutionary theory they can't outright deny. They describe micro-evolution as changes within a "kind"(which is also NOT a scientific term). This is how they account for things like dog breeds, virus and bacteria mutating, plants and animals being domesticated, etc. What they don't except is new species forming, which is what evolutionary biologist call speciation. Missing link is also not a scientific term. It is part of a conceptual strawman that people use to argue against evolution. Proponents of this strawman characterize a missing link as a hybrid between two (often unrelated) species, i.e Kirk Cameron's Crocoduck. In evolution there are no missing links but there are transitional species. This ties in very heavily to, "What is a species?" They is no clear cut definition. As a species evolves, there is no clear boundary, no termination point, where a species stops being one thing and starts being another. To visualize this lets use an analogy. Lets say you are looking at a photo-album and you see a picture of someone when they were a baby and a few pages later you see a photo of that same person as an adult. Now, over the coarse of that persons life there was no point at which they stopped being a baby and started being an adult. Likewise there was no point were they suddenly sprouted an adult body and still had a babies head (a missing link). There is a smooth transition over time from one form to another where day to day changes are imperceivable. It is only when you look across gaps of time that you can see changes. Creationist will tell you that, "Because there are gaps, there can't be evolution." But the gaps are the very reason we CAN SEE evolution. In effect, every day is a transition between the day before and the day after. Every organism is a transition between its parents and its offspring, so all fossils are transitional fossils when viewed in this context. Hope this cleared up some of your questions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hereticzero Posted March 28, 2010 Share Posted March 28, 2010 I like to use Darwin's Origin of Species, graphic illustrated version, by Michael Keller, because it has more pictures than endless pages of gray text. It is quite good but lacks a bit on artistic quality. It does a good job of explaining origins of species. You can also Google Ken Miller, who proved in front of a court that evolution was real and intelligent design was not that intelligent. Ken Miller is also a Christian, which I found ironic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kuroikaze Posted March 28, 2010 Share Posted March 28, 2010 Thanks for all the suggestions. Does anyone know of any podcasts about evolution that I could download? I've got a few questions. I've always heard that there was proof for micro evolution, but not for macro. How would you respond to that? Also, are there really missing links in the fossil record? AronRa talks a bit about that in some of his videos. As far as podcasts I suggested The skeptics guide to the universe It covers science in general, not just evolution, but I always learn something interesting from it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Valkyrie0010 Posted March 28, 2010 Share Posted March 28, 2010 http://fora.tv/2009/10/07/Richard_Dawkins_The_Greatest_Show_on_Earth may have to register if you have a facebook it is not that hard carmen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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