//”In your experience, what are common misconceptions? What are common objections?”//

Anti-evolutionists rely on misconceptions. In other posts I routinely point out what I refer to as the ubiquitous anti-evolutionist toolbox: 1) misrepresent Evolutionary Theory, Abiogenesis, and science in general, 2) make unsubstantiated claims of “can’t” (i.e., evolution can’t do this, or mutation and selection can’t do that), and 3) appeal to the absence of evidence for evolution while ignoring the presence of evidence for evolution.

The single-most common misconception I see is that evolution is somehow anti-God/anti-Christian (indeed, that was how I used to see it). Anti-evolutionism is all about that, and it is only about that. Ironically, this misconception is propagated by both anti-evolution creationists and by some non-theists in almost identical manner. My book “Creation and the Origin of Species” was written in direct response to it and addresses a plethora of other such misconceptions.

Another major misconception is that Evolution is represented by a sequential ladder or scale, i.e., Aristotle’s scala naturae, which dominated Western intellectual thought for centuries prior to Darwin and Aristotle’s influence persists to this day. I see this misconception almost everywhere, but outgrowths of this utilized by anti-evolutionists include “if humans came from apes then why are apes still here?” and claims made by anti-evolutionists (even well-educated ones) that the fossil record refutes evolution because some intermediate fossil forms overlap in time.

Another misconception is claims of a human-ape dichotomy when no such dichotomy exists on the genetic/genomic level. Not only are chimps & bonobos our closest genetic cousins, but we are theirs as well, being genomically more similar to them than they are to gorillas or orangutans. This misconception used to be formalized taxonomically with humans in the Family Hominidae and other great apes within the Family Pongidae (this has since been revised, with humans, chimps, gorillas, and orangutans within the Hominidae). This misconception also persists in the ‘Planet of the Apes’ movies.

In addition, Anti-evolutionists also have their own menagerie of pet misconceptions, such as:

1. “Micro but not macro” evolution, not realizing that macroevolution is caused by microevolution, also purposely misrepresenting the terms microevolution and macroevolution (FYI, in biology microevolution is a change in a population’s gene pool and macroevolution is the cumulative effects of microevolution that lead to changes above the species level).
2. Evolution is “random”, when the processes of gene flow, non-random mating, and natural selection are not random.
3. The claim that evolution is a religious or metaphysical theory instead of a biological theory. Ironically, Cell Theory is just as “naturalistic” as Evolutionary Theory and likewise has everything to do with the origin of a physical human body, and yet you will never find a statement of faith in opposition to Cell Theory. (There are also misconceptions as to what “Theory” means, but I’m sure somebody else here already has gotten to that).
4. Scientism, which is to say that science can potentially answer every question, even the question of God’s existence and of divine action. This relates to the common misconceptions that spiritual matters (e.g., the Image of God, accountability for sin, etc.,) necessarily have scientific/biological answers.

There are many more, but don’t have time to continue right now.