How can you prove evolution?

The short answer: No one has proved it wrong, otherwise it wouldn't still be the model used in science. You can read all kinds of different arguments against it, but you will find most of those arguments are founded upon a gross misunderstanding of evolution and/or a deep distrust of basic science.


There are various ways in which evolutionary theory could be proven wrong:

• Find a statistically significant violation of the pattern of nested hierarchies observed in all life, that cannot be explained by various modes of lateral gene transfer. For example, find a primate older than its basal mammalian form, or a mammal predating a basal tetrapod form, or a bird with nipples, or mammals with feathers. This would conclusively disprove common descent.
  
  
• Observe spontaneous generation of new, modern lifeforms. While this would not directly disprove common descent, it would suggest that there are other mechanisms at work by which new species emerge.
  
  
• Observe speciation generating lifeforms outside the clade from which they emerge. For instance, if it were ever observed that cats were born from dogs, or birds from cats, then that would cast serious doubt on the validity of common descent.

There are numerous more specific and detailed predictions that follow logically from evolutionary theory, and that could, if observations were found to be inconsistent with them, lead to the falsification of evolutionary theory.