Evolution question.

[Woodznutz]

Indeed they did. As we became better at manipulating our environment, our brains evolved right alongside our bodies, as one would expect. Parts of our ancestors' brains were repurposed to manipulating our digits, to social interactions, and to forming abstract concepts that are key to language and planning. Language formed right alongside that process, as did what we call our "sentience": Our introspective self-awareness.

I have a question about evolution for you, now. Do you have an explanation for these snapshots in time that you think is better than the Theory of Evolution? (Notice, in the images, how it appears that the "mind evolved along with our body", as you might say):

View attachment 868763

Modern man was created to have a relationship with God thus expanded mental (and spiritual) capacity. The others were not and were more or less brutish imitations.

 

[Woodznutz]

And now stop for a moment to think. Compare only two ... hmm let me call it "facts". Compare 2 facts: God - the creator - made himselve with the help and totally free will of mother Mary to a human child (creation) in Jesus. ... imagine a painter who entered the own picture. And the second fact you said on your own. ...

Have I to ask you now something? God chose a woman and not a man to bear his truth into our world, isn't it? So I expect from you to respect all women and every woman without to have any need to ask her "Are you a virgin so god allows me to respect you?"! Such forms of sexisms are totally superfluous.

God's truths were revealed to and recorded by men. Jesus was a man. Mary didn't teach us anything. There is no 'Book of Mary'. It is notable that the first woman rejected God's revelation, and caused the first man to reject it as well.

 

[Fort Fun Indiana]

Disagree. With a single gene pool small changes will be swamped and disappear. Speciation requires isolation.

First: the human population is isolated. There are no other human populations. What you are alluding to is separate populations that speciate away from each other. But that isn't the only mechanism of speciation.

Second: small changes will more often be "swamped", in a larger breeding population. However, some small changes will spread. Given enough time, via this mechanism and others (like genetic drift), the human genome WILL change. It is not something that can be stopped.

 

[Fort Fun Indiana]

Modern man was created to have a relationship with God thus expanded mental (and spiritual) capacity. The others were not and were more or less brutish imitations.

More unevidenced and unargued claims. I can just say "nu uh!", and this can all be dismissed.

 

[Woodznutz]

More unevidenced and unargued claims. I can just say "nu uh!", and this can all be dismissed.

As long as our beliefs serve us well, no problem.

 

[Fort Fun Indiana]

As long as our beliefs serve us well, no problem.

Unless you happen to get in a discussion about a topic like evolution. Then they don't serve you so well.

 

[Woodznutz]

Unless you happen to get in a discussion about a topic like evolution. Then they don't serve you so well.

These arguments don't affect my beliefs.

 

[Fort Fun Indiana]

These arguments don't affect my beliefs.

Oh we know. I am just saying that your beliefs don't serve you well in these discussions.

 

[Woodznutz]

Oh we know. I am just saying that your beliefs don't serve you well in these discussions.

You are correct to the extent that no one comes forward in support of my position, but I've been down that road before.

 

[Fort Fun Indiana]

You are correct to the extent that no one comes forward in support of my position, but I've been down that road before.

No I am correct in that your beliefs cause you to say things that are ridiculously wrong. And they cause you to remain aggressively ignorant of evolution.

 

[LeroyDumonde]

Let me rephrase my position then. We are the last species of homo sapiens ever to inhabit the Earth. Since there are no selection pressures moving us in a specific direction and we are essentially becoming a single, global gene pool, we are it. Anything that follows us will be either non-human (if we suffer extinction), non-biological (AI/robotic), or a product of intelligent design, our intelligence.

There are always selection pressures. Survival is never a given. New diseases arise that kill off a segment of the population. Environmental disasters happen. Populations migrate and intermix with other populations. Standards of beauty change and are culture dependent. Wars happen. Climate changes over long periods of time. Mutations happen. A new species of human most likely won't appear tomorrow, but in 200,000 years you can bet there'll be different species of humans.

 

[LeroyDumonde]

Why were you a YEC, ever hear of Gap Theory?

I didn't find Gap Theory compatible with the Bible. Fortunately I gave up on the Bible as any kind of guide to science, history, or morality so I no longer felt the need to force fit the Bible and reality together.

 

[alang1216]

There are always selection pressures. Survival is never a given. New diseases arise that kill off a segment of the population. Environmental disasters happen. Populations migrate and intermix with other populations. Standards of beauty change and are culture dependent. Wars happen. Climate changes over long periods of time. Mutations happen.

Whatever selection pressures nature throws at us we'll deal with at the cultural level, not the biological one. Our cultures continue to evolve, not our biology.

A new species of human most likely won't appear tomorrow, but in 200,000 years you can bet there'll be different species of humans.

Not tomorrow but very soon we'll genetically engineer ourselves a whole new biology. We may get tails or gills but it won't be from evolution, it will be by design, ours.

 

[Fort Fun Indiana]

There are always selection pressures. Survival is never a given. New diseases arise that kill off a segment of the population. Environmental disasters happen. Populations migrate and intermix with other populations. Standards of beauty change and are culture dependent. Wars happen. Climate changes over long periods of time. Mutations happen. A new species of human most likely won't appear tomorrow, but in 200,000 years you can bet there'll be different species of humans.

Probably quite a bit longer than that.

 

[alang1216]

First: the human population is isolated. There are no other human populations. What you are alluding to is separate populations that speciate away from each other. But that isn't the only mechanism of speciation.

Second: small changes will more often be "swamped", in a larger breeding population. However, some small changes will spread. Given enough time, via this mechanism and others (like genetic drift), the human genome WILL change. It is not something that can be stopped.

Our genome will change but the only direction of that change will be what we choose it to be. We will remove natural evolutionary mechanisms and design our own using technologies like CRISPR.

 

[Fort Fun Indiana]

Whatever selection pressures nature throws at us we'll deal with at the cultural level, not the biological one.

Not always true. Not all diseases are curable. Also, the selective pressures that cause early pregnancies to terminate will often go unaffected by our medicine or technology. I'm sure you can come up with more examples.

 

[Fort Fun Indiana]

Our genome will change but the only direction of that change will be what we choose it to be.

We know this is false, due to other evolutionary mechanisms besides natural selection, like gene flow and genetic drift.

Genetic drift, for example, cannot be stopped. Read up on it. It's fascinating, really. It's a mathematical certainty, and there isn't a damn thing we can do about it.

 

[alang1216]

We know this is false, due to other evolutionary mechanisms besides natural selection, like gene flow and genetic drift.

Genetic drift, for example, cannot be stopped. Read up on it. It's fascinating, really. It's a mathematical certainty, and there isn't a damn thing we can do about it.

We'll have to agree to differ. Let's meet back here in 500 years and, if you're right, I'll buy you a beer.

 

[Fort Fun Indiana]

We'll have to agree to differ. Let's meet back here in 500 years and, if you're right, I'll buy you a beer.

It will take longer than that. Don't be so short sighted! Think five hundred thousand years. Or more.

And it doesn't much matter if you disagree with mathematical certainty. That just means you're wrong.

 

[otto105]

If the cornerstone of evolution is the extinction of species with 'undesirable traits' why do we go out of our way to save people who have these traits? Kinda makes the ToE irrelevant doesn't it? Don't we need the "Darwin Effect" to improve our species?

My (science/ToE oriented) dentist wanted to pull my wisdom teeth, which no doubt took evolution some time to 'select for'. He said it would prevent any dental problems later on. I was 45 at the time and had never had any problems with my wisdom teeth. I'm now 83 and except for having one crowned have never had a problem with them. Why would a strong believer in evolution want to thwart one of its successful accomplishments?

Wisdom teeth?

Have you looked at the opposite view?

The history of dental practice. Prefer to live now.