Uhmmm...hate to burst your bubble, but evolution is adaptation. Adaptation is what causes organisms to evolve.
I don’t understand the resistance some conservatives have toward evolution. After all, we humans evolved from primitive cave dewllers into the advanced civilization we have today. Human history is a story of evolution.
I hate to burst your bubble, but even the most die hard creationist does not deny evolution within a species - it is the supposed evolution between species (macro-evolution) that is the true controversy. The fact that there is variations within a species is no proof that it occurs between species.
I don’t understand the resistance some conservatives have toward evolution. After all, we humans evolved from primitive cave dewllers into the advanced civilization we have today. Human history is a story of evolution.
Adaptation is not Evolution. Adaptation includes the loss of genetic information which just happens to include some aspect that yields greater survivability in a given environment. Sickle-Cell Anemia is an adaptation, it is not Evolution. Ditto frogs in the cave losing eyes and pigmentation.
If you start at a certain place on the evolutionary scale and for a half billion years keep subtracting genetic information, that is not Evolution (more accurate to call it. Evolution requires the amassing of new and advantageous information. Shredding a book is not the same thing as writing a book, whatever its short-term advantageous "adaptation" may be (chinking holes in the cabin or paper-mache making).
Thought Question: "Do you believe in Devolution? Or are 'evolution' and 'devolution' synonyms in your vocabulary?"
As to why conservatives are often "Evolution-o-phobic", it's because Evolution claims to be all-encompassing, yet it begins by postulating that anything outside nature could not possibly occur. It's a philosophical and theological problem. I am aware that there are smart people who somehow believe in evolution and in the existence of God, but frankly I have never heard a compelling argument for that inherently contradictory viewpoint. Please direct me to a couple of your favorite arguments on this score.