Which of these examples is a good, or at least fair, comparison to evolution?
Business... a person or persons gets an 'idea' (mutation) on how to create something or refine some process to a new or more efficient way. They develop the concept further through trial and error, then put the product or process to work, and if it really has a substantial advantage (adaption) over the "old," it will be successful, expand and branch out (speciate) and may dominate the old products or methods and put many out of business (extinct). Most new ideas, though, do not work out and do not last long.
Sports... new rules, new ideas, or new equipment (mutations) are added to some type of activity to make it more enjoyable, skillful, or "spectator-friendly" (adaptation) and the sport becomes interesting and popular and grows, perhaps spawning new variations (speciation), and the original activity becomes lessened and perhaps dies out (extinct). Example: since ancient times it has been a game to throw an object and hit it with something like a club. In early America many versions of this game were brought by colonists, and "townball" became the most popular variation. Then Alexander Cartwright organized a club and set down new rules which advanced the game as more skillful and likable by players and spectators. Baseball almost completely replaced any other prior variations.
Languages... a tribe of people communicate with the sounds they come by naturally, then take this further by becoming aware of the complex variety of sound possible and begin to assign particular sound to objects, actions, and ideas as words (mutations). If this tribe expands in numbers and territory it needs more and more words assigned to more object, actions, and ideas(adaptions), as the tribe branches off into new territories in isolation from other branches. They keep the core words, but they become more varied with new generations, and new words to describe more new features and concepts (dialects), and then their languages become more different and it takes from new tribes and nations it encounters (speciation). The original tribal language is lost (extinction) to where there is no one left who would understand it. This, of course, is the description of how the English language developed from the root languages of the Angles and Saxons, which earlier developed as limbs of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family. Though it's not language that usually would cause a tribe (and its language or dialect) to die out, either the tribe will die or its dialect probably will.
In each of these examples, we can also see how, as many generations come, the original concept can be so completely lost that fables and legends may be concocted to tell about its history, and it may have no real connection with reality. Indeed, in the baseball example, a "creationist' tale was put forth about Abner Doubleday "inventing" the sport one day (promulgated by league president A.G. Spalding to futher combine baseball with Americana to keep it growing and expanding, and for him to continue to increase his sporting goods business). This story has long been discredited, even though a few people still believe it because they want it to be true.
Business... a person or persons gets an 'idea' (mutation) on how to create something or refine some process to a new or more efficient way. They develop the concept further through trial and error, then put the product or process to work, and if it really has a substantial advantage (adaption) over the "old," it will be successful, expand and branch out (speciate) and may dominate the old products or methods and put many out of business (extinct). Most new ideas, though, do not work out and do not last long.
Sports... new rules, new ideas, or new equipment (mutations) are added to some type of activity to make it more enjoyable, skillful, or "spectator-friendly" (adaptation) and the sport becomes interesting and popular and grows, perhaps spawning new variations (speciation), and the original activity becomes lessened and perhaps dies out (extinct). Example: since ancient times it has been a game to throw an object and hit it with something like a club. In early America many versions of this game were brought by colonists, and "townball" became the most popular variation. Then Alexander Cartwright organized a club and set down new rules which advanced the game as more skillful and likable by players and spectators. Baseball almost completely replaced any other prior variations.
Languages... a tribe of people communicate with the sounds they come by naturally, then take this further by becoming aware of the complex variety of sound possible and begin to assign particular sound to objects, actions, and ideas as words (mutations). If this tribe expands in numbers and territory it needs more and more words assigned to more object, actions, and ideas(adaptions), as the tribe branches off into new territories in isolation from other branches. They keep the core words, but they become more varied with new generations, and new words to describe more new features and concepts (dialects), and then their languages become more different and it takes from new tribes and nations it encounters (speciation). The original tribal language is lost (extinction) to where there is no one left who would understand it. This, of course, is the description of how the English language developed from the root languages of the Angles and Saxons, which earlier developed as limbs of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family. Though it's not language that usually would cause a tribe (and its language or dialect) to die out, either the tribe will die or its dialect probably will.
In each of these examples, we can also see how, as many generations come, the original concept can be so completely lost that fables and legends may be concocted to tell about its history, and it may have no real connection with reality. Indeed, in the baseball example, a "creationist' tale was put forth about Abner Doubleday "inventing" the sport one day (promulgated by league president A.G. Spalding to futher combine baseball with Americana to keep it growing and expanding, and for him to continue to increase his sporting goods business). This story has long been discredited, even though a few people still believe it because they want it to be true.
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