I'm in the mood to teach about evolution! What questions or criticisms do you have for the Theory of Evolution?

@Axeroberts asks [quote] is there any DNA evidence showing the steps from one specie to another[/quote]
Short answer: Yes, a ton.

Longer answer below copied from postings by newjaninev2

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Humans and chimpanzees both carry inactive genes acquired from viruses.
This occurs because some viruses insert a copy of their genome into the DNA of whichever species they infect. These are called retro-viruses... HIV is one such.

Where such viruses infect the cells that produce sperm and eggs, they can be passed on across generations.

The human genome contains thousands of these remnants of long-past infections... now rendered harmless... and so does the chimpanzee genome.

Most of them are in exactly the same place on both genomes.
That’s astonishing, so I’ll repeat it: most of them are on [/\b]exactly the same place[/b] on both genomes.

Let’s choose an explanation from a few (non-exhaustive) options:

1. astonishing coincidence

2. when the gods created humans they decided to sprinkle around several thousand retro-viruses, and they put the preponderance of retroviruses at matching sites on both species because... umm... because... well... because... stop questioning the gods!

3. The majority of retroviruses match because [b]both species inherited them from a common ancestor,[/b] who had itself accumulated them from the line of its own descent.

The small number which do not match are the remnants of infections that each species has warded off independently since divergence from the common ancestor... as predicted by the Theory of Evolution.

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All species carry ‘silenced’ genes… these are genes that once caused certain proteins to be produced, but now no longer function in the original manner. Such genes are called pseudogenes.

Nearly all mammals have functional genes for expressing an enzyme [i](L-guluno-?-lactone oxidase)[/i] that allows the production of vitamin C, which is essential for proper metabolism.

I say ‘nearly all mammals’ because primates cannot produce their own vitamin C. In humans, there is a set of four genes that code for vitamin C production. As you may know, these genes are composed of many, many smaller units called nucleotides, so these four genes contain a very large number of such nucleotides (the human genome has 64 billion nucleotides}. The first three genes are fully functional, but the final gene in the sequence has a mutation in a single nucleotide, and this mutation prevents the sequence from completing. That’s why humans need to obtain vitamin C from their food… because the mechanism for producing it has become a pseudogene.

Across all primates (chimpanzees, bononbo, humans, and apes) not only is it the final gene in the sequence that is silenced, but within that gene the [b]same nucleotide[/b] carries the mutation that is responsible.

Now, why would this be?

1. astonishing coincidence

2. when the gods created all the species they put genetic pathways for vitamin C production into all mammals, but then inactivated a single nucleotide from among the four genes necessary for that production, inactivated the same nucleotide in all cases, and did that only in primates. They obviously thought this to be a tremendous joke to play, because we carry around 2,000 such pseudogenes.

3. All mammals developed the ability to produce vitamin C, but around 40 million years ago, in the ancestor common to all primates, that ability was removed by a mutation in a single nucleotide, and the deficit was passed to all primates due to [b]common descent during evolution.[/b]

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Why restrict ourselves to our common ancestry with all other apes?

We can easily go much further back and and see that humans have common ancestry with fish and with reptiles

In a female mammal there is a pair of tubes along which eggs travel from the ovaries to the uterus. These are called the Fallopian Tubes (salpinges). Sometimes when a human egg is ejected from an ovary it does not make it into the fallopian tube. This is because, quite oddly, the fallopian tube is not actually connected to the ovary. Rather, the opening of the fallopian tube envelops the ovary, like a too-large garden hose resting on a too-small spigot. The two are not actually attached, and sometimes an egg gets squirted out of the ovary and into the abdominal cavity instead of into the fallopian tube.

When this happens, it is usually of no consequence. The egg simply loses viability after a few days and is resorbed by the peritoneum - the thin wall of highly vascular tissue surrounding the abdominal cavity. No problem.

However, if an egg falls into the abdominal cavity and sperm arrives within a day or so, it might find this egg and fertilise it. The resulting embryo, completely unaware of how far it is from home, begins the process of growth, division, and tunnelling into whatever nearby tissue that it can find, usually the peritoneum but occasionally the outer covering of the large or small intestine, liver, or spleen. This is called an abdominal pregnancy

Abdominal pregnancies pose serious risks. In developing countries, they usually result in the death of the mother. In developed countries, they are easily spotted with ultrasounds and treated with surgical intervention to remove the doomed embryo and repair any damaged tissue or bleeding.

Despite creationists’ laughable claims of an ‘intelligent designer’, abdominal pregnancies are 100% the result of unintelligent design. Any reasonable plumber would have attached the fallopian tube to the ovary, thereby preventing tragic and often fatal mishaps. An ‘intelligent designer’ would never have created the small gap between the human ovary and Fallopian tube, so that an egg must cross this gap before it can travel through the tube and implant in the uterus.

In reality, the gap is a remnant of our fish and reptilian ancestors, who [b]shed eggs directly from the ovary to the outside of their bodies.[/b] The Fallopian tube is an imperfect connection because it evolved later as an add-on in mammals.

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Unlike other primates, humans walk on two legs (bipedalism). Gorillas, chimps, bonobos and orang-utans amble about using their feet and their knuckles (quadrupedalism). However, moving around on four limbs can be inefficient. On open ground, bipedalism bestows an evolutionary advantage by allowing humans to move much faster than other primates, but that comes at a cost (with evolution, there are no free lunches)

The intestines and other visceral organs are held together with thin sheets of connective tissue called mesenteries. Mesenteries are elastic and act to keep the gut loosely in place. Because we are bipedal, with an upright posture, these thin sheets should be suspended from the top of the abdominal cavity. Instead, they are attached to the back of the abdominal cavity. That makes sense for the other quadrupedal primates, because their gut is then well-supported when they walk on all fours. However, it makes no sense for us... [b]unless we have common ancestry with the quadrupedal primates.[/b]

Because of the stress of supporting our internal organs from the back, the mesenteries can easily tear, causing internal haemorrhaging and damage to our gut, requiring surgical intervention (this is a common injury in traffic accidents… mainly affecting those stupid enough not to wear a seatbelt). It can also happen to people who sit for long periods of time (drivers, office workers, etc) simply because of the stress and strain of the gut being attached to the back, rather than the top, of the abdominal cavity.