A Bit of Orange

“Evolution is when things change, or Evolve, over time.”

This definition is actually in a textbook I own. But didn’t they just say that Evolution is when things Evolve? There’s not enough substance in that definition to cast a shadow! In Ch 4 the boys at Danny’s talk about the many different definitions for “Darwinian Evolution” which have been proposed by textbooks and web sites, and they will see why they fail.

In this video, your Rent-A-Friend (Bryan) will examine some popular definitions, and spend some time explaining why “a change in allele frequency” fails as a definition. First, he explains the concept: Population Genetics explained with Rubber Ducks!

Read Thursday Night Nachos (Defining Evolution) Ch 4 HERE.

It was the kind of Thursday which had been so long that it felt like it was the following Thursday before all was said and done. The weather had chosen to exasperate the fact by doing what polite people call “misting.” This is when it’s not really raining, on account of there not being rain drops falling together in an organized fashion. Instead, there is a dense cloud all around, like fog and soup had a baby, and the baby won’t stop crying. An umbrella makes no difference, and the longer you are out in it, umbrella or not, everything you have on just gets progressively wetter, like your attire is fitted with a dial marked “Wet” which some wicked sprite keeps slowly turning toward eleven.

Due to the weather, Carl, Tom, Bill and myself had all run to get to Danny’s Bar, Grill and House of Rabblerousing and were thus more winded while we said our hellos than normal. Blue Beard showed up a bit later and smelled like wet dog, which he kind of does anyway.

We shook the mist off of ourselves and gathered around the table to our customary tall, frosty mugs of root beer, brought to us by our friendly and fashionable waitress Wendy, and since he was the only member of this soggy party not winded by a run from bus or train, Blue Beard opened the evening’s scientific discussions.

“Last time we was here, our little friend for the renting,” he said gesturing to me with his root beer, “had given us a few points which I think we all agreed was acceptable for a definition of Darwinian Evolution. Now I don’t wanna seem daft, but I was trying to share this with Mr. Stevens, my first mate, and I’m not sure I got it all right. Can you recap those for me, lad?” Continue reading →

Is Evolution just ANY kind of Change? Like, if you could take every worm on earth and toss them into a volcano, would THAT be evolution?

Welcome again to Thursday Night Nachos (Defining Evolution)! In this week’s chapter the boys use the Darwinian Tree of life to discover what KIND of changes are called for, and what Evolution is and is not. After all, a lot of things can happen to living things, whether they be individuals or populations or entire species. But not all of those things are Darwinian evolution. Not all of them will create new kinds of plants and animals and grow the Darwinian Tree of life. In order to make clear what Evolution isn’t, they also contrast it with Biblical Creation. Then they eat a huge pile of Nachos.

In this week’s video, your Rent-A-Friend (Bryan) explains the four things which Evolution HAS to be in order to BE Darwinian Evolution, and grow that Tree of Life, and contrasts it with a description of Biblical Creation.

Read Thursday Night Nachos (Defining Evolution) Ch 3 HERE.

Another Thursday had flowed into our temporary “now” though a week of paper jams, low toner, canceled and rescheduled meetings and paperwork filled out in triplicate. As per usual my friends and I were greeted by a chipper Wendy, our dependable waitress at Danny’s Bar, Grill, and House of Rabblerousing, her arms full of tall mugs of frosty root beer and a plate of the Buffalo Wings which were on special due to some sports event of which I had failed to take notice. Some local team won something and to celebrate, wings were half off. I don’t have to know the reason to appreciate half price wings.

Just as Wendy headed off to put in the order for our usual mountain of Nachos, Bill joined us at the old round table near the dart board to continue our ongoing discussion on the true meaning of Darwinian evolution. We had decided that, before we could argue about IF evolution is a fact, we had to know WHAT Darwinian Evolution was. You can’t begin to look for evidence for or against something if you can’t define the something. Try it some time and you will see what I mean.

Post our usual pleasantries where in Tom exhumed the dread of a thrice cancelled and yet mandatory meeting, and Carl gripped about the third quarter projection analysis spreadsheets, and Blue Beard hinted at having to leave the country for legal reasons, Bill got right to it as he reminded us of an analogy our sea faring friend had displayed at our last Nacho roundabout. Continue reading →

Where did we come from? How did we- and wolves and cabbages and everything else living on Earth today- come to be?

Welcome again to Thursday Night Nachos (Defining Evolution)! In Chapter 2, the guys down at Danny’s talk about the Darwinian Tree of Life, which is a map of the History of Life on Earth, as told by Charles “Chuck D” Darwin. By studying these pictures, one gets a good idea of what it is Evolution is intending to say happened. Even though you may have suffered through nearly two decades of public school, the facts may surprise you. The key idea is this: Not EVERY kind of change will cause the Tree to grow. Some changes are a metaphorical chainsaw.

In this week’s video, your Rent-A-Friend (Bryan) will explain the tree and help you differentiate between the kinds of changes which make the tree grow and the kinds that hack limbs off. I already know that some people will argue with me about this, but I shall stand my ground in saying that growing a tree and hacking it’s limbs off are NOT the same action.

Read Thursday Night Nachos (Defining Evolution) Ch 2 HERE.

It was another beautiful Thursday night at Danny’s Bar, Grill, and House of Rabblerousing, and by “beautiful” I mean “spent consuming mass quantities of root beer, nachos, and various other foods which are pictured on those posters warning one of the threat of heart failure.” With me at the round table in the corner by the dart board were my friends Bill, Carl, Tom, and Captain Blue Beard. We meet regularly as a sort of support group for men with jobs and whatnot. Giving each other a leg up dealing with the acquisition of the old American Dream. We usually banter about the week’s adventures, counting the death toll as sales clashed with marketing, or recounting the destruction done to one’s stain resistant carpet by one’s own pint sized flesh and blood, and of course we often have lengthy discussions about any movie which was based on a comic book or graphic novel. However, this week we have a prearranged topic of discussion for the enlightenment and education of all the western world.

Just last week I was all set to begin another row with my friend Carl over the historicity of Darwinian Evolution, when our friend Bill made a very wise suggestion that we first endeavor to define the term. After all, how can Carl say that Evolution is, or I say evolution is not true if neither of us can define what it is? We might not even be talking about the same thing, like that time we argued for two hours about the quality and entertainment value of the Batman movie, when it turns out I was talking about the one starring Adam West (“Some days you just can’t get rid of a bomb!”) and Carl was talking about the Christian Bale one (“Swear to me!”) and Tom was talking about the Michael Keaton movie (“Did you ever dance with the devil in the pale moonlight?”) and Captain Bluer Beard was talking about the Tic animated series, which really shows how little he was paying attention during that particular conversation. Continue reading →

Ask yourself this: How can you argue about something if no one knows what that something is?!??

Welcome to the “Thursday Night Nachos (Defining Evolution)” Series! Part of the reason there is such debate about Evolution is because almost NO ONE knows what it is. In this series, we will examine the story Darwinian Evolution intends to tell, look at the things it has to accomplish to tell that story, and then see if any known mechanisms in nature accomplish those goals. (Spoiler Alert!) We will see, when all is said and done, that the many definitions given to Evolution are paper thin and meaningless, or simply false, calling for addition to be done by subtracting, or for new species to be done by counting the species which already exist. Don’t believe me? Read on, my friends!
Read Thursday Night Nachos (Defining Evolution) Ch 1 HERE.

In this week’s video, your Rent-A-Friend (Bryan) will introduce the series and explain the importance of defining your terms.

A Bit of Orange will be bringing you the same fun, Biblical Apologetics that we’ve brought you for almost a decade on RentAFriend2000, and Creation Soapbox.

Come back in a few days for the new and improved (and hopefully more streamlined) Apologetics Ministry: A Bit of Orange.

Thanks!

Bryan