Conservapedia vs Evolution: Vol 1

Authors for the website Conservapedia tried to disprove Evolution, and it's just hilarious. 

Claim: Evolution cannot explain artistic beauty, such as brilliant autumn foliage and the staggering array of beautiful marine fish, both of which originated before any human to view them; this lacks any plausible evolutionary explanation.

Before we even begin, notice two reasons why this way of thinking is malformed.

1) There may be no evolutionary explanation for many things, but the lack of an explanation doesn't automatically disprove the scientific theory. At best, the lack of an explanation makes the theory less valuable than competing theories. What disproves something is evidence to the contrary. Therefore, citing something that evolution doesn't account for as a counter-example doesn't affect it's state of correctness. In other words: Even if these counter-examples were correct, the theory of Evolution could still be true. If this was a debate, the scientist could literally not present a case, and these counterexamples would still be laughable for that reason.

2) Also, if no scientist could understand how evolution accounts for something at this specific point in time, that still doesn't suggest that evolution does not account for it. There was a time when scientists couldn't account for magnets or lightning. Their inability to understand how lightning worked didn't make lightning any less real. In other words, Even if these counter-examples seem correct, evolution may still account for them; scientists might not have the proper explanation yet.

So, who would be silly enough to list counterexamples that, even if true, don't actually counter anything? 

Onto the counterexamples..
Conservapedia provides two specific examples of beautifully colorful things that disprove counter(?) evolution.

1) Evolution is false because colorful Autumn leaves lack any evolutionary explanation.

The link between evolution and colorful leaf variation is already well-established. The claim that evolution cannot explain this is laughable, and demonstrably false. For example, we know that variations in leaf color are caused by lice [1] in the silver birch tree. Trends in Ecology & Evolution goes into more detail about how both animals and non-biological factors affect variation in leaf color. [2]

2) Evolution is false because colorful marine fish lack any evolutionary explanation.

Some animals are so bright and vibrant that predators can spot them easily. Think peacocks. People who don't understand evolution may think this pokes a big hole in the theory, but that's a massive misunderstanding of the many different pressures evolution explains, such as sexual selection.

The vibrant colors in marine fish are often due to the colorful habitat, full of bright coral reefs. In these instances, vibrant colors act as camouflage. Also, only fish who are noticed by mates are successful at consistently passing on their genetic coding. In some cases, fish with 'colorful' gene variations are simply noticed more, and out-breed the less colorful fish [3], even when vibrant colors seem disadvantageous to survival.

Evolution also accounts for instances when these colors are due to other factors, such as variances in colorful egg patterns. [4] [5]

Seriously though, even if I didn't write anything at all, these counterexamples to evolution are too malformed to be taken seriously. Ignoring the other flaws the argument presents (research 'argument from beauty' criticism), beauty is just a physiological perception of something. Is it really far-fetched to think that Evolution can't account for something like our eyes adapting to find pleasure in nature or symmetry?

The same guy who wants scientists to "stop wasting so much money" on investigating fish-mating habits (How much money actually goes into this?) can turn around and claim that evolution is false, citing these very products of fish-mating as an example. He can then rally enough people to try to ban the teaching of evolution in schools.  Good game, science!

Next: Can Evolution account for decreasing human intelligence? (Same window)

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I made a twitter. Talk to me and junk. @RationalJesse
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[1]
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22548444
[2]
Archetti, Marco; Döring, Thomas F.; Hagen, Snorre B.; Hughes, Nicole M.; Leather, Simon R.; Lee, David W.; Lev-Yadun, Simcha; Manetas, Yiannis; Ougham, Helen J. (2011). "Unravelling the evolution of autumn colours: an interdisciplinary approach". Trends in Ecology & Evolution 24 (3): 166–73. doi:10.1016/j.tree.2008.10.006. PMID 19178979. 
[3]
'Evolution of Visual Communication in Neotropical Reef Fishes''; Gil Rosenthal; 2007
[4]
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3778878/ 

[5]http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20333216 

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