A lot of time & space gets wasted hereabouts, denying that the term 'evolution' has been watered down.

Here one can find documentation of the retreat, provided by Pwcca2fle
Originally Posted by "Russell2"
"[E]volution can be precisely defined as any change in the frequency of alleles within a gene pool from one generation to the next."
- Helena Curtis and N. Sue Barnes, Biology, 5th ed. 1989 Worth Publishers, p.974

OK that’s a bit short but it is accurate. Here’s a slightly longer version that fleshes out some of the detail. A full description could take pages with all the nuances that must be included to cover the full range of possibilities.

"Biological evolution ... is change in the properties of populations of organisms that transcend the lifetime of a single individual. The ontogeny of an individual is not considered evolution; individual organisms do not evolve. The changes in populations that are considered evolutionary are those that are inheritable via the genetic material from one generation to the next. Biological evolution may be slight or substantial; it embraces everything from slight changes in the proportion of different alleles within a population (such as those determining blood types) to the successive alterations that led from the earliest protoorganism to snails, bees, giraffes, and dandelions."
- Douglas J. Futuyma in Evolutionary Biology, Sinauer Associates 1986
(Bold supplied by your humble servant.)

Sort of resolves that issue. Perhaps in the future, less time can be wasted on feeble attempts to dodge issues. Or at the very least, we should hope to see a little variety in such attempts.

For those who enjoy researching history, or just happen to stumble across a fact or two, this thread would be a good place to list more of the old definitions of 'evolution'.

Dark Matter + Dark Energy = Dark Truth

"We find that such evidence demonstrates that the ID argument is dependent upon setting a scientifically unreasonable burden of proof for the theory of evolution." - Judge Jones Kitzmiller case
http://www.talkreason.org/articles/Falsify.cfm

"To Compel A Man To Furnish Funds For The Propagation Of Ideas He Disbelieves And Abhors Is Sinful And Tyrannical." - Thomas Jefferson

"And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath?" - Thomas Jefferson