Hmmmm macro evolution eh?

[Paratus]

 

[Aikouka]

"An amphibian evolving into a reptile or a reptile evolving into a bird would be examples of macroevolution."

You notice that anti-evolution debates love to pull out about as awkward of examples that you can get in regard to macro-evolution. While these are much less extreme than I've seen before, both examples sound like they would actually be comprised of more than one macro-evolutionary jump.

I don't know why, but those religious loons (not all religious people... just the loons) seem to think that according to "evolutionists", a monkey gave birth to a human baby.

EDIT:

Logically, I'd probably have to disagree with that assessment. If I were going to create some subservient creatures, I'd make them fucking stupid enough to not question me even if I never presented a logically sound piece of evidence.

 

[Jeff7]

"An amphibian evolving into a reptile or a reptile evolving into a bird would be examples of macroevolution."

You notice that anti-evolution debates love to pull out about as awkward of examples that you can get in regard to macro-evolution. While these are much less extreme than I've seen before, both examples sound like they would actually be comprised of more than one macro-evolutionary jump.

I don't know why, but those religious loons (not all religious people... just the loons) seem to think that according to "evolutionists", a monkey gave birth to a human baby.

Indeed so.

Like the question of "where are the transitional species?" Everywhere. It's a continuous process of change. It's a long process, and very gradual. So no, you won't see those monkeys birthing humans. And why aren't monkeys turning into humans? If there's no ecological niche available, or the environmental pressures don't exist, any mutations may not be beneficial, so they won't get naturally selected.
And of course, apes -> humans assumes that we are the "better" direction for evolution. Based on the fossil record, I'd say that crocodiles are a much more successful form than us. They've been around for a few hundred times longer than we have, and haven't changed a whole heck of a lot. Natural selection has apparently found something that's quite effective at surviving.
Sure, they're certainly not terribly intelligent, but then that's also not what evolution does. Things that can continue to survive are what continue to survive, simple as that. We and our freakishly oversized brains seem to be good at surviving exposure to the environment, at least over the very short period we've been around.

Logically, I'd probably have to disagree with that assessment. If I were going to create some subservient creatures, I'd make them fucking stupid enough to not question me even if I never presented a logically sound piece of evidence.

Or if you are going to create some creatures, and give them the capacity for some level of self-determination and sentience, don't assign insanely archaic, contradictory, and bafflingly stupid rules to them, with eternal torture as the punishment for a "wrong" answer because it upsets your own mighty ego.

 

[sandorski]

Indeed so.

Like the question of "where are the transitional species?" Everywhere. It's a continuous process of change. It's a long process, and very gradual. So no, you won't see those monkeys birthing humans. And why aren't monkeys turning into humans? If there's no ecological niche available, or the environmental pressures don't exist, any mutations may not be beneficial, so they won't get naturally selected.
And of course, apes -> humans assumes that we are the "better" direction for evolution. Based on the fossil record, I'd say that crocodiles are a much more successful form than us. They've been around for a few hundred times longer than we have, and haven't changed a whole heck of a lot. Natural selection has apparently found something that's quite effective at surviving.
Sure, they're certainly not terribly intelligent, but then that's also not what evolution does. Things that can continue to survive are what continue to survive, simple as that. We and our freakishly oversized brains seem to be good at surviving exposure to the environment, at least over the very short period we've been around.






Or if you are going to create some creatures, and give them the capacity for some level of self-determination and sentience, don't assign insanely archaic, contradictory, and bafflingly stupid rules to them, with eternal torture as the punishment for a "wrong" answer because it upsets your own mighty ego.

I was recently baffled by a question: If Evolution is real, why isn't everything Human?

After attempting to answer, I was then asked: What's the Purpose of Evolution then? Apparently, responding that Evolution "has no Purpose", left the inquisitor baffled.

 

[mugs]

None of those captions are accurate.

Nebraska Man is accurate

 

[Slew Foot]

Haha. Religious people are so stupid.

 

[Jeff7]

I was recently baffled by a question: If Evolution is real, why isn't everything Human?

After attempting to answer, I was then asked: What's the Purpose of Evolution then? Apparently, responding that Evolution "has no Purpose", left the inquisitor baffled.

🙂

Nothing says "arrogance" like the notion that we're the best that the Universe can put together. Ok, so we've got big brains. Yay. I guess that's ok. The Universe still doesn't care one way or the other.
Or I hear stuff about the human race eventually going extinct and I can only think, "I sure as hell hope our species will eventually cease to exist. To do otherwise would be stagnation." If we are the best that life can be, well, that's a pretty damned low bar to set. A lot of our behavior is still driven by ancient practices that are purely to ensure that our fragile little pockets of reduced entropy stay intact day-to-day in an environment that constantly erodes us away. We look at bacteria as simple "stimulus/response" organisms. Now evolve humanity ahead 200 million years. Now homo sapiens is the simple stimulus/response organism.

And of course, bacteria are another form of life that's been even more successful than crocodiles in terms of enduring exposure to Earth's environment. Even us mighty humans are entirely dependent on them for survival.

 

[BudAshes]

Dinosaurs /thread