I see a lot of Christians criticizing evolution, both on this board and elsewhere, but very seldom do they offer their reasons for it. There are a few standard criticisms of evolution, but very few of them hold any weight. I'll go over them here.Evolution is just a theory.This criticism confuses the scientific use of the word "theory" with the colloquial use. The colloquial use of theory is something that is a mere conjecture that has not yet been proven. But in science, a theory is a testable model for describing what goes on in the world. Scientific theory and fact, therefore, are not mutually exclusive. Gravity is also a scientific theory, but no one disputes gravity claiming that it is "just a theory."Evolution can't explain how life could emerge from non-life/Evolution can't explain how the universe began.These objections are strawmen. Evolution does not claim to explain either of these things. It is like objecting to evolution because it cannot explain why the sky is blue. Theories about abiogenesis or the origin of the universe cannot be conflated with evolutionary theory.There are no transitional fossils.This is completely false. Technically, every fossil that exists is a transitional fossil, as the current categories we call "species" are not set in stone. Today's species could be tomorrow's transitional form. However, if we are looking for very clear-cut examples of transitional forms between today's conventional categorizations, these are easy to produce too. The tiktaalik is a transitional phase between fish and amphibians. The ambulocetus is a transitional phase between mammals and whales. The archaeopteryx is a transitional phase between dinosaurs and birds. These are just a few of the many examples of transitional fossils.Evolution can't explain how complex structures, such as the eye, could come about, because half an eye confers no evolutionary advantage.This is the argument from irreducible complexity. Indeed, each successive step in evolution must confer some benefit. But, with eyes, and bacterial flagellum, and every other purported instance of irreducible complexity, we find that this is exactly the case. In the instance of the eye, it probably began as simple photoreceptor cells which could detect the presence of light. Later, they developed a depression which would allow it to detect the direction of light as well. The aperture of the eye then shrank to allow the structure to dimly make out visible shapes based on this information (some modern animals, such as the nautilus, actually have this partially-formed version of the eye, which supports the theory immensely). Lastly, the layer of cells over the aperture became a crude lens, which further assisted in focusing images.How could all the complexity of life have arisen by chance?It didn't. Evolution is a highly non-random process. Genetic mutations are random, but the process by which they are selected for is not.Evolution violates the laws of thermodynamics, because a system will tend towards disorder (increased entropy) rather than order over time, and evolution creates increased order.This demonstrates a misunderstanding of the laws of thermodynamics. A closed system (such as the entire universe) will tend towards entropy over time - this is why our stars gradually die out. But the earth is not a closed system. It receives huge amounts of energy from the sun. So, evolution does not violate the laws of thermodynamics.Evolution lead to Social Darwinism, the source of many atrocities such as the Holocaust.To boil the source of the Holocaust down to Social Darwinism alone demonstrates a huge misunderstanding of the myriad causes that led to the atrocity. However, even if Social Darwinism were the sole cause of the Holocaust, this would not be a valid criticism against evolution. This is because we do not judge a claim based on the worst perversions of that claim. Social Darwinists who distort evolutionary theory to support their belief system do not show evolution to be wrong; they simply show themselves to be wrong. Similarly, the Christians who distorted Christian theology to support the Crusades, inquisitions or witch hunting did not show Christianity to be wrong. Any theory can be distorted if someone tries hard enough.Darwin recanted on his deathbed.This is an urban legend. Also, even if he had, this says nothing about the validity of his theory, since it has been so consistently supported by scientific evidence since then.Hope this helps!