For some reason, many religions (Christianity in particular) seem to have a problem with Evolution. When I talk to my parents about religion, they always try to shoot me down by ridiculing evolution and using other terrible arguments. Unfortunately, they only show their own ignorance in their attempts to do so.
Most of their arguments fail because you need to understand how evolution works in order to adequately talk about it. In order to understand how evolution works, you need to understand how science works. Because of that, I’m going to start with a basic overview of how to do science followed by a few explanations of how evolution works. Then, and only then, will I address the problems in the arguments.
Definitions
I’m including a definitions section here so there will be less confusion when these words are encountered later.
Evolution: change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes that are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction
Heritable: (of a characteristic) transmissible from parent to offspring.
Heritability: Capable of being transmitted from parent to offspring. The quality or state of being heritable.
Hypothesis: a supposition or proposed explanation made on the basis of limited evidence as a starting point for further investigation.
Law: Scientific laws or laws of science are statements, based on repeated experiments or observations, that describe or predict a range of natural phenomena.
Theory: A scientific theory is an explanation of an aspect of the natural world that can be repeatedly tested and verified in accordance with the scientific method, using accepted protocols of observation, measurement, and evaluation of results. Where possible, theories are tested under controlled conditions in an experiment