Defining The Theory of Evolution and Darwinism

In the Christian Alert's Statement of Faith, we have item #18 that says "No to evolution" -- but that was more of a conversation teaser than sound scientific thought.

What is pure scientific thought however is the following definition of evolution:

Prof. Francisco Ayala, Renaissance Man of Evolutionary Biology, defines evolution as follows:

There are three different Aspects of Evolutionary Theory:

1. Descent with Modification: Living Organisms are descended with changes from earlier organisms. It is in this sense that evolution is an incontrovertible fact.
2. Evolutionary History: Tracing the lineage of biological organisms back in time to reconstruct a universal tree of life that goes back to a primordial ancestor.
3. Mechanisms of Evolution is what explains evolution. In our common era these are: Genetic mutation and natural selection. This is what Ayala calls Darwinism. What Darwin discovered.

Source: Reasonable Faith Podcast November 30 2009. And the William Lane Craig vs. Francisco Ayala Debate MP3

This definition is what we will use here at the Alert going forward.

p.s. - below is another definition of evolution (aka Darwinism).

Jerry A.Coyne, whose book Why Evolution is True I'm reading, defines evolution as:

The modern theory of evolution can be summarized in a single sentence: Life on earth evolved gradually beginning with one primitive species - perhaps a self-replicating molecule - that lived more than 3.5 billion years ago; it then branched out over time, throwing off many new and diversed species; and the mechanism for most (but not all) of evolutionary change is natural selection. Six components in all: evolution, gradualism, speciation, common ancestry, natural selection and nonselective mechanisms of evolutionary change (source).