MUST READ: Evolution is plain common sense BY Thomas Freeman

Many people believe ridiculous things, especially when at an impressionable age, but most will eventually, shuffle off such beliefs as time goes on and they become wise with age. However some remain and in the case of Christianity, this is the belief in creationism or its nefarious cousin Intelligent Design and hence they willingly deny biological and galactic evolution.
As this quote “There is probably no other notion in any field of science that has been as extensively tested and as thoroughly corroborated as the evolutionary origin of living organisms” from the Encyclopaedia Britannica explains to us, no rational person doubts; the Theory of Evolution because it has been examined and tested and the evidence has declared it as fact.

Yet most evangelical religious people who worship the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob do not accept evolution but believe in the Genesis’ creation account. Therefore evolution is only thought to be false by the very religious. No serious scientist doubts evolution and in the one hundred and fifty three years since Charles Darwin’s book “On the Origin of Species”, (published in 1859) no convincing argument (scientific peer reviewed paper) against evolution has EVER appeared.
Rather it has been established and confirmed with tangible evidence and demonstrable facts by hundreds of peer reviewed papers and is the foundation and cornerstone of biology. No one has proved evolution wrong. You can believe it is wrong but that does not make it so. That tells us something about your thoughts. If you think so, to you it is real, even if it is not. In other words it is your opinion and opinions that cannot be substantiated should be kept to yourself and your own inner circle of religious followers - otherwise you open yourself up to ridicule by the rational thinkers of society. Is it, worth it, to deny science? 
It seems that one of the biggest stumbling blocks for most in doubt of evolution (evolution deniers) is their source material. Access to proper science books and excellent books written by biologists like Charles Darwin, Richard Dawkins, Jerry Coyne etc (see below)  are anathema to Christians and are taboo. Talk about ‘free will” and thinking for yourself - no sir Christians are not allowed those luxuries as they are in bondage to Christ and this ignorance is perpetuated as they only talk to and submit to each other.
They would rather rely on non-scientific sources for their material produced by church propagandists and pseudo-science Intelligent Design Web sites that lack any scientific credibility. They also like to ‘quote mine’ from Darwin whose knowledge is 150 years out of date.
This biased and corrupt data input results in confusion as to what exactly the theory of evolution is and what it explains. i.e. it isn't the creation of life or the universe and no; evolution does not predict that there were ever half humans and half monkeys running around.
Creationists harp on the "gaps in evolution”, reference the fossil record, irreducible complexity and such like whereas in reality we would expect to find gaps in the fossil record, and the bits of the record that aren't gaps match what evolution predicts, and we have no example of anything that is irreducibly complex. No, the eye and the bacterial flagellum are not – that myth has been debunked by experts.
They are also confused with elementary scientific terms; such as the meaning behind the words Hypothesis, Theory, Fact, Evolution, Abiogenesis, etc. However at the same time, an explanation that stretches credulity is perfectly acceptable for them, as they have become like children with immature analytical abilities. (Jesus told them to become like little children who just believe and never question).
In fact, faith survives best in people who don't think too deeply about their Holy Scriptures and/or scientific discoveries. Most people prefer and are quite happy with a religious explanation but for less gullible people, faith falls by the wayside somewhere along the path to rational thought and thus becomes ship wrecked.
That there are some who in the face of rigorous science hold onto their psychotic delusional beliefs lends credence to the concept that a creationist mind set is not only delusional but could be diagnosed as a mental illness in the thought process or logic centre of the brain.
Even if millions of people follow a particular belief or in the case of Christianity billions follow it, does not make it any less delusional. Just like bipolar disorder and schizophrenia are mental illnesses, the denial of evolution because of strict religious beliefs can also be placed in that category.
Nothing seems to dissuade the faithful from clinging to a discredited, fallible and errant “Holy Bible”. This can only be as a result of psychotic delusion. Can they not accept the bible as allegorical tales and myths?
No they cannot and in the complete absence of irrefutable proof they will continue till ‘dooms day” or “hell freezes over” or “Jesus returns” to argue for the merits of their faith (emotion) based delusions. To the fundamentalists, everything is dogmatically ascribed to "purpose", or "agency", because most won't even consider the alternatives to their God-soaked worldview as these are too ghastly to contemplate.
No God, means; no heaven or hell, no imaginary friend to help in time of trouble (placebo, blankie) etc. You can keep your science they say; reality is too harsh and Christianity works for me so it must be right (Dopamine feel good Jesus Drug addiction).
That is why experts like Richard Dawkins will not debate creationists; who ask stupid questions like ‘how can a fish breathe out of water or get legs to walk onto land”. Its like; debating creationist on mynews 24, which is an exercise in futility and is “casting your pearls before swine” to borrow a Biblical phrase attributed to Jesus.
Ignorance is not bliss and it should not be displayed with pride as if it was a medal or badge of honour for all to see. For many people who are prepared to listen to him, Darwin and his discoveries has killed the need for a creator God in the minds of the unbiased, and the Bible has been relegated to the background where it belongs.
We are no longer in the intellectual dark ages where scientists were persecuted because of discoveries that made the Bible out to be wrong and the adherents to be deceived. Great scientist like Sir Isaac Newton had no choice other than to believe in a God as he lived in a pre Darwin world. The fact that the indisputable scientific evidence proves we evolved naturally and were not created supernaturally has removed God from the equation.
Like Newton, the apostle Paul had no choice in his pre-science, pre Darwin world but to believe in a creator God. In his day creation testified to the fact that there must be a creator God; if you see creation you see God and therefore you have no defence case at judgement day. However, today that is not our reality, as we have thankfully moved on from those mystical times two thousand years ago.
Our knowledge has increased to the extent that a God is not needed anymore to explain the vast universe. In fact only galactic evolution can explain why there are billions of galaxies and cluster galaxies each with trillions of stars, solar systems and planets. It also explains why there are seven million identified and one hundred million unidentified species on earth and the numerous extinct and dead end species.
It is obvious to all, who are not emotionally involved in an imaginary relationship and there by blinded that the vast universe does not exist with humankind in mind and in need of a saviour. We are just a dust spec in the universe and if, earth was destroyed tomorrow, it would carry on regardless.
If the Apostle Paul could come to the future in a time machine to our age and: go to school from grade 1 to 10, graduate from University, look and comprehend what he is observing through an electron microscope and the Hubble Space Telescope, he would revise his (understandably for that mystical age) ignorant doctrines in Romans and rather state the following: “Who changed the truth of science into a lie, and worshipped and served a God, who they had created in their own minds, because they did not want to accept evolution”
I am not an expert on evolution but I will give it a shot at explaining it briefly with what I have gleaned about evolution so far from sources referenced below. People, who are actually interested in understanding evolution, get their knowledge from scientists (not the Bible, or church, or daddy and mommy).
Evolution: is a process that takes millions, even billions, of years and is difficult to observe over a short timescale. Basically, there are billions of different organisms on earth of varying similarity, and we label them in our own human way. This means that when people argue against evolution from one species to another they are making all sorts of errors. Evolution is more complex than most people realise, and many fail to properly appreciate the various mechanisms involved.
Those factors are: Adaptation, Genetic drift, Gene flow, Mutation, Natural selection, Speciation.
The human common decent fossil evidence shows a gradual move from the chimpanzee-like Australopithecus, through Homo Habilis, Homo Erectus (and various others) to Homo Sapiens, over millions of years.
There are millions of other fossils, there are archaeological findings that reveal the migration of man out of Africa, there is the cross-breeding of animals and plants that we do to day, and there is DNA, amongst many other things.
 Evolution is simple common sense.
We share over 98% of our DNA with chimpanzees. Why? Only primates need to take in vitamin C with their food as there bodies cannot make vitamin C. This proves a shared ancestor. Gout proves evolution as well because we eat too much protein and battle to get rid of uric acid unlike our ancestors from long ago who ate mainly fruit.
We are genetically closer to chimpanzees than mice are to rats. Life is more connected than anything bible writers knew about. DNA proves this and we use DNA in paternity testing, breeding of dogs, to solve crimes, to understand disease, etc.
Humans not only share a common ancestor with apes (and, technically, are apes), but we share a common ancestor with our pets, and our food, and the trees, plants etc .  We have coded the genome, we have mapped out the tree of life, we have lots of fossils, and we utilise artificial natural selection by; breeding cows, tomatoes, crops to be larger, stronger and higher yielding etc.
I challenge any evolution denier, when offered gene therapy to proactively cure a terminal disease they will get later in their life, to turn down the therapy on account of genes and evolution being against what the Bible says.
Remember that nature is competitive. It's a struggle to survive, so any advantage an organism can get is likely to be passed on. To use a recent example, there are now bacteria that can digest nylon. This is significant because nylon is a recent human invention.
So the bacteria in question are exploiting a resource that helps it survive. Not all bacteria do this, as they're adapted to their own ecological niches. But nylon-eating bacteria exist for the same reason; they're exploiting a new niche thanks to a mutation that exploits a food resource which in turn allows for more of those organisms to propagate. It took a mutation in bacteria to begin to utilize this material as a food source.
No one ever suspected that chemical polymers could provide ecological niches capable of exploitation by mutant bacteria, but the evidence shows not only that it is possible but that it is a fact. The reason that bacteria show us so much about evolution is because their reproductive rate is so much faster than ours. In the last 2,000 years, humans have gone through approximately 100 generations. Bacteria accomplish that in hours.
Motor cars have evolved from what worked before just like the human genome evolved. The first cars were not today's cars even though all the main parts that make up today's cars existed a hundred years ago. Nobody set car design in motion with the idea of today's cars, roads, highways, toll roads etc. These just happened or evolved as the requirements changed. There is no single designer of your car today. Cars of the future will evolve from today's designs and so will the technology. Products once used by your parents; videos, Sony Walkman, Kodak film, LP records, tapes, etc have become obsolete.
So long as humans find use in the design, they'll pass them on and modify them. Nature is doing the same over time with our genomes. However nature is rather slow, cruel, and wasteful and it is obvious there is no intelligent designer behind it.
Our scientific knowledge evolves as well. We know things today that we did not even know twenty years ago. (Hubble telescope, Human Genome Mapping, etc)
If you would prefer to read about evolution from Christians , Ken Miller, Simon Conway Morris, and Francis Collins all experts in evolution, then there's the Biologos institute: Science and Faith in dialogue: http://www.biologos.org/ these Christian scientists accept evolution. It was founded by the Head of the Human Genome Project and current National Institute of Health director, Francis Collins in the USA.
* References:
Lawrence M. Krauss's-  A Universe from Nothing, Steven Hawkins, The Grand Design
 Richard Dawkins -         The Selfish Gene
 Richard Dawkins -         The Blind Watchmaker
 Richard Dawkins -         The Greatest Show on Earth
Jerry Coyne       -          Why Evolution Is True
Wikipedia isn't considered an authoritative source, but it does contain links in the footnotes leading back to the source materials and is an easy read for lay people. Evolution cannot be denied once you understand it. Knowledge is power, so empower yourself and the truth will set you free.
Wikipedia the following:
Evidence of common descent, Introduction to evolution, evolution, Timeline of evolution, Timeline of human evolution, Human evolution, Age of the earth, Age of the universe, E. coli long-term evolution experiment, ring species, Italian wall lizard, geology, palaeontology, stratigraphy,  Archaeological stratigraphy, biogeography, biodiversity, cladistics, endogenous retroviruses, Common descent,  HIV, (look at section 7, "Genetic Variability"). Pseudogenes, vitamin C (evolution), Human evolutionary genetics,  Fossil record, Radiometric dating , Mendelian genetics, Chromosomes, Continental drift, plate tectonics, Population biology, Genetic recombination, Modern evolutionary synthesis, Specialization, DNA, Quantum evolution, DNA structure, Social biology, Genes , Human genome, Species, List of transitional fossils (missing links), Transitional fossil, evolutionary creation, embryology, developmental biology, Abiogenesis, Miller–Urey experiment, Homosexual behaviour in animals, Biology and sexual orientation, Jesus myth theory, resurrection deity, Christian mythology, creation myths, etc