

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Evolution and Allele Frequencies

When someone points out that evolution has not, and cannot, be observed, you run into problems with definitions. Sometimes there are multiple meanings to words and people can"talk past" each other, so it's best to nail down the definitions for potentially hazardous terms. Like evolution, which has several definitions.

"Evolution" has several meanings. Watch out for equivocation when people assert that it's "just a change in allele frequencies".

You can encounter someone asserting, "What's the problem? Evolution is just a change in allele frequencies, and has been frequently observed. Therefore, evolution is true". (This is occasionally accompanied with an abusive ad hominem like, "...you ignorant creationist fool, you".) Problem is, that owlhoot is being sneaky by changing up the meanings of the word evolution. It's a logical fallacy called equivocation. 

Image by Why?Outreach
 Sure, creationists know full well that there are variations (such as eye color). But that's not evolution in the amoeba-to-atheopath sense, no new information is added, and so on. If we're talking about evolution where something changes into something completely different, let's start and finish with that, Theodore, and don't be switching definitions on us, you savvy?
Creationists should learn to spot the fallacy of equivocation—where someone illegitimately switches the definition of a word in the middle an argument—because evolutionists often trade on this error. S.U. from the US needed assistance answering one such evolutionist.

He first quotes the critic and then follows with his request for help:
To read the quote (which I reckon is a question-begging epithet), the question, and the response, click on "Evolution: just a change in allele frequencies?"

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