Free Evolution Education Links

I asked the following question in the Y/A biology section (Y/A automatically classified it there):
"What's the best free online resource for learning the basics of evolutionary biology?"

From Y/A member "Steven" answering in the biology section:
This is an introductory course that discusses the principles of evolution, ecology, and behavior. 
http://www.infocobuild.com/education/audio-video-courses/biology/eeb122-spring2009-yale.html

From Y/A member "Mark S, JPAA" answering in the biology section:
Start at the link below.
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-intro-to-biology.html

From DrJ
http://www.eoearth.org/view/article/152700/

Hypothesis for the origin of life based on thermodynamics from Jeremy England:
http://www.businessinsider.com/groundbreaking-idea-of-lifes-origin-2014-12 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e91D5UAz-f4

More on abiogenesis here:
http://stuffconcerningstuff.blogspot.com/p/abiogenesis.html 

Shane Killian addresses the six points brought up by Answers in Genesis about Evolution being scientific:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjEVpkJu_5k&index=1&list=PL7C90EE51FA96E8CE

Thunderf00t on creationism vs science and evolution:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BS5vid4GkEY&list=PLAC3481305829426D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uephBmkupvQ&list=PL1907790C538A907A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnJX68ELbAY&list=PL258CAE2F4546AA95
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ex4O5z_ig2g&list=PL1C02204EA30556E1

Explanatory and predictive power of the theory of evolution:
http://statedclearly.com/videos/does-the-theory-of-evolution-really-matter

Chickens have a repressed gene for teeth (which mutant birds can grow):
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/mutant-chicken-grows-alli/ 

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Information theory used to explain a number of natural processes:
http://arxiv.org/abs/0905.0610v1

Information theory used to explain quantum mechanics:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEaecUuEqfc

Self organizing systems:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-organization

Emergence (weak and strong):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergence

Entropic forces:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entropic_force

Statistical mechanics:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistical_mechanics

Genetic algortihms:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_algorithm

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"Zach" brings out a lot of good responses on evolution from various people 3/4/2015:

https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20150303195351AAZKeyC

https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20150303180529AAGuoAk

https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20150303092401AAffJOW

https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20150303071642AAEeik2

https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20150218085108AAri7P9

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What became humans split from what became cats and dogs about 30 million years ago.
What became humans split from what became apes about 10 million years ago.
What became humans split from what became chimpanzees about 7 - 8 million years ago

So why are there cats and dogs?
Because they fit into their special place in the web of life.
In their place, they need to walk on all four extremities, they need a tail, they do not need a complicated language, they do not need full color vision, and they need fur on their bodies

Over the last 5 million years a group of primates developed into modern humans. WE have the skills and abilities that we need to live. WE fit in our place of the web of life.


From here: (Sandy):
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20150304033146AAT4v8v&page=2 

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A good response (about intelligent design):

There is no design. AND THERE IS NO DESIGNER. Any designer would be embarassed at the poor job they did with humans.

I guess you didn't get the memo though... INTELLIGENT DESIGN IS DEAD.

Intelligent Design Is Dead: A Christian Perspective
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-wallace/intelligent-design-is-dea_b_1175049.html

Twenty Years After Darwin on Trial, ID is Dead
http://scienceblogs.com/evolutionblog/2011/11/29/twenty-years-after-darwin-on-t/

The New Rallying Cry: "Intelligent Design Is Dead!"
http://www.evolutionnews.org/2011/12/help_some_leadi053731.html

Jason Rosenhouse pronounces intelligent design dead
http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2011/11/30/jason-rosenhouse-pronounces-intelligent-design-dead/

Intelligent Design is Dead! Long Live Creationism?
http://vq.vassar.edu/issues/2007/03/features/intelligent-design-is-dead.html

Intelligent Design on Trial
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/evolution/intelligent-design-trial.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreducible_complexity#Response_of_the_scientific_community


But thanks for playing.


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 Lighting the Way to Reality posts and excellent rebuttal to David@YourService's creationist argument that Darwin himself (as well as Stephen Gould) acknowledged that there are no pre-Cambrian fossils "leading to" the Cambrian:
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20150325195107AAq0Chx

Creationists can't explain squat. All they do is to copy and paste crap from LSoS creationist web sites.

@David@YourService is a good example, with his nonsense about the Cambrian.

Though fossils are rare in the pre-Cambrian because hard body parts had not yet evolved, fossils are there. In the earliest part of the pre-Cambrian they were single-celled, and in the latter part of that time primitive, simple multi-celled organisms appeared.

The Cambrian "explosion" actually encompassed several tens of millions of years. During the Cambrian, most likely because of improvements in genetic expression, those early multi-cellular life forms radiated into several new body plans and quickly took advantage of the wide-open, empty ecological niches that were available. That is what brought about the formation of the many types of phyla. The first appearance of hard body parts also resulted in a great increase of fossils. No holes or mysteries in the theory of evolution there, just the evidence of the fossils.

But all of the representatives of the phyla that existed in the Cambrian were very primitive forms, most of which were quite unlike anything existing today. There were no mammals, reptiles, insects, birds, amphibians, or teleost fish, nor any other advanced life forms anywhere to be found then. No holes there, because it all fits quite well in the theory of evolution.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambrian

Here is an animation of Cambrian fauna.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=v...

Furthermore, the oldest strata are found to contain only very simple life forms, and as one progresses through the strata more advanced life forms appear in a specific order that fully conforms to evolutionary theory. So again, no holes in the theory of evolution there.

The fact is that evolutionary theory would be falsified if any of the 5,000 present-day species of mammals, including human, or the 10,000 present-day species of birds were found in the fossil strata where they should not be found (for example, in the same strata with dinosaur fossils). No such finds have been made. And the same could be said for any other appearance of a later species in geological strata that was formed before that species could have evolved. But, according to the creationist flood "model" all species (or even the creationist "kinds") should be found together in the same strata. So the holes are in the creationist "model" and not in the theory of evolution.
  


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Analogy for evolution in print:
http://imgur.com/oAnfA 
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