Well let me try to begin this on the right foot, I am an anthroplogist and my wife is an evolutionary archeologist. Reading this whole forum has been at times quite impressive and other times a bit tedious. I am very impressed with how civil this has stayed. (most discussions that I have seen or gotten into abtou this topic can get quite heated). Anyway I'll cut to the chase and put my 2 cents in.
1. Radio carbon dating may be wrong sometimes. It is not as exact as other methods of dating like Potasium Argon, Thermoluminesence, electron spin resonance, and numerous others. Imagine using a really cheap scale. Usually you'll get the right weight but it's not going to be exact and sometimes the scale will be completely off. Most archeoligists will use carbon dating to get a rough first estimate because it the cheapest and fastest ways to do it. (After getting an initial date and doign further research ie getting more money a more complex and accurate test will be done.) Potasium Argon dating is extremely accurate. Potasium has a half life of 1.3 billion and slowly decays into argon. This can be calculated and calibrated to get an extremely accurate date of up to 1.3 billion years +or- a about 500 years. Now while this doesn't prove that evolution exists we can get dates from objects from the past (unless you don't believe in chemistry)
2. The footprints in the riverbed subject is true (though I haven't heard of the ones over the dinosaur footprint) They were found by the Leakeys and they are abotu 4 million years old. They weren't made by human but by an hominid called Austrolopithecus afarensis. This upright walking hominid was about the size of an 8 year old (3ft tall) it woudl have had a similar footprint match as a human because it walked quite like we do. I have held an actual afrensis skull in my hand its quite amazing (it is a fossil most "bones" found archeologists/paleontologists are fossils.)
3. DNA It has been proven that DNA evolves over time (microbiology) Actually we evolve through changes in our genetic material. African american females have the most mutation in their mitochondria, compared to all other human races (little furnaces in your cells, it is also the only structure in the human body that is passed down linearly and it happens to be through the mother only.) Scientists have been able to deduce (but not yet prove) that all human beings came from a single to a small band of women from africa about 200,000 years ago (which is about how old the modern homo sapiens line is) Now while this also doesn't "prove" evolution, it does make the earth older than 6000 years, it also kinda proves that all humans come from africa.
4. Adaptation is fundamental to evolution, sickle cell anemia is a very good example. In the area of africa that anemia comes from an area in africa that has a very high rate of malaria. Sickle Cell Anemia helps prevent malaria. Now while the disease is dibilitating and can hinder the quality of life it doesn't end life nor does it hinder reproduction (any more than malaria does) as a result sickle cell anemia makes the chances of reproduction greater in that area. Eventually the people with sickle cell anemia could develop into an entirely different species as they evolved to cope with the sickle cell anemia. Another example of evolution and adaptation would be Neanderthal Most people know what neanderthal was. Neanderthal had very stout bodies, broad noses and barrel like torsos. Inuit people (eskimos) have very similar bodies as these type of bodies are very efficient in dealing with the cold. Now for neanderthals when the main ice ages were over, their adaption was too specialized, modern human bodies (including Inuit) are much more able to throw objects, run, and produce more specialized tools that worked better in the climate, hence about 40,000 years ago modern human began to take over.
Well There's four, can't think of a 5th at the moment (it's nearly midnight) I'll try to think of a couple more tomorrow. Just a few more rants though, the thing abotu bones and fossils: all bones over a period of time and given the right circumstances will turn into stone ie fossils. a true archeologist (unless they are looking at very recent finds) will call a bone a fossil as it has become "fossilized" The great flood: Almost all cultures have myths and legends about the great flood. Some have stories abotu saving the animals and other some don't In archeology recently a great number of settlements have been found under the black sea. Evidently thousands of years ago the balck sea was a smaller lake, or river. Either because of melting glaciers, earthquake or other event, the the mediteranean suddenly poured thorouhg and created the black sea. Now to people living 10 or 20 thousand years ago, this must have been extremely catastrophic and awe inspiring imagine suddenly the whole world has become surrounded by water. THat would make a big story in anybodies book and most likely one that would travel around the world. Even though similar events most likely happen, and they still happen today. As for the seashells on mountains, that can be proven by plate tetonics and by the fact especially with the himalays (which are really young in geologic terms) there will be more fossils because they have less of a chance of being destroyed by erosion and other environmental factors.
Now while all of these can prove that the earth is over 6,000 years old and that evolution does exist. Let's talk about the fact that science isn't getting rid of evolution. In fact it's actually embracing it more and more and developing more hypothesis and finding more facts to prove it. Evolution is slowly becoming a stayed theory much like gravity or relativity. But in remembering true science, one must not forget that it is only a theory (based on fact) but only a theory. One must always remember even in creationism (to be truly scientific) that not everything is really real. We coudl all be just a figment of someone's imagination for all we really no. That's were faith comes in. Faith in science, faith in religion etc. Neither theory can really disprove one another (one maybe right both maybe right, etc.) The only true way anyone will really know is if we can go back in time and look it all over. (time being relative also) or when one meets the maker, they can ask how the hell did this all start. Anyway that is the end of my loooonng rant.
