I HIGHLY RECOMMEND EVERYONE READ THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE -- IF YOU BELIEVE IN EVOLUTION OR NOT. (i am not the author) "Evolution. Many people seem to think it is quite ridiculous. This is understandable, if you don't understand it, that is. Many teachers teach it in a horrible way, especially if they do not "believe" in evolution themselves. It's not a matter of believing evolution, but understanding evolution. Many skeptics of evolution ask questions like, "If things evolve to their needs, how to their bodies know they need to evolve for that? It's impossible and ridiculous..." and, "Everything apparently evolved so much. Why haven't alligators changed?" I will answer these questions and more. Read on... First with the basics. Evolution is based on the concept of genetic mutation. Genetic mutation happens all the time. In fact, it happens most of the time. You are mostly likely mutated in some form or fashion, whether you know it or not. It may be noticeable, or it may not be. This is where evolution comes in. Animals do not change to survive, they survive because they change. How? Genetic mutations, of course. Most of the time, genetic mutations are not helpful to an organism, therefore the organism usually dies before it can reproduce, not passing on the gene. Sometimes, though, genetic mutations are helpful to that organism. This enables the organism to reproduce and pass on this gene. Soon, this gene is passed on throughout generations, so now many of the organisms have this mutation. The ones without the mutations die off more quickly, because they do not have the advantage as does the "mutated" organisms. After years and years, practically all of that species will have that mutation, which would not really be considered a mutation anymore. If so, then we humans would be just a load of mutated genes, along with almost every other creature on this earth... which is basically true. As this continues, things begin to change more and more, until they are no longer the same species as the original. Many times, you may find a species of animal which seemed to evolve from an original, which still exists. But why would the original and the greatly evolved species both be living? Why didn't they all evolve like that? Well, I believe it is called geographical isolation. This happens when a species gets broken apart, living in separate environments never to meet eachother for hundreds, thousands, or millions of years. Maybe even never. The organisms evolve by genetic mutation to adapt to their new environment. As time passes, the species that has been separated now have become so different, that they would not be able to mate, therefore making them two different and new species. Of course, one of the two new species could have stayed quite similar to how they once were, while the other just shoots off like a rocket, completely changing. I'll give an example. Humans and apes. Here is a huge and common mistake. Many people think that humans evolved from apes. WE DID NOT. Us and apes just have a common ancestor. All primates evolved from a common ancestor years and years ago. Geographic isolation has created many species of primates. Some people think it is complete lunacy that giraffes used to have short necks. They think, "Okay... giraffes got long necks because they needed them to reach up high on trees. Ha! Right..." You've got to take a close look. Here is the explanation of how they evolved with longer necks. At one time, giraffes had short necks. Of course, their necks varied. Some might have had 5-inch necks, while others had 6 or 7-inch necks. Just like some humans are taller or shorter than others. The giraffes with the slightly longer necks had an advantage of the short-necked ones; they could get more food from the trees. The giraffes with the shorter necks were unable to feed themselves as well and over time began dying off, leaving their slightly longer necked friends behind. The taller necked giraffes reproduced, passing on their genes. Soon, the neck lengths varies from 7 inches to 9 and 10 inches, simply just genetic mutations, as I've discussed. This goes on until we have the giraffes that exist today. Makes perfect sense. In fact, I have a real life proven example of simple evolution. Elephants. Most elephants have tusks, correct? Of course. Over the past few hundred years or so, many elephants have been spotted without tusks. Why? Here's why: Hunters. Hunters almost always hunt elephants for their tusks. Every long once in a while, a major but normal genetic mutation would occur, leaving an elephant without its tusks. The hunters did not want elephants without tusks, obviously, so they were left. These elephants were able to mate, passing on their tuskless gene. Soon, many elephants had no tusks. They did not lose them to survive, they survived because they lost them, completely by accident. Make sense? Another example of current evolution is us, humans. We have showed small changes within the past few changes. One thing is the decreasing size of appendixes and spleens. We don't need them that much. What they do is filter out toxins and such, which was once very useful to the more primitive human beings. No, though, we don't need them as we used to, as we live in a much cleaner lifestyle. Because of our new lifestyle, these organs, although helpful at times, are not needed as much. Back to another question, which you may know the answer to now. Why have alligators stayed the same? First off, they didn't stay the same. Ancient alligators and crocodiles used to be hundreds of feet long. Now the longest they can get is around 20-30 feet. Quite a change, although they are still like miniature ancient alligators and crocodiles. The reason they stayed so similar is because they had no selective pressures to change. They were already adapted to their environment quite well. Since alligators and crocodiles are a MUCH older species than dinosaurs, they did their major evolving much further in the past. I'd like to conclude by saying to all you skeptics out there, I hope you've read this and learned something from it. Evolution is not ridiculous, it is very much possible, and probably it, whether you like it or not. Many aspects of it have been proven, not to mention the overwhelming evidence existing today. To everyone else, hopefully you've learned something new anyway."
You can rise above that easily. I may not have "faith" in the bible, but I most definitely have faith in you Darkhorse! And this got pretty dull without you. Certainly you raise the bar. rs7
WHAT?!!!!!! please find a post where i made fun of retarded people. if you want to save some time, don't bother looking..because there isn't one. darkhorse, i still have much respect for you, but you seem to be starting to play dirty. i may be wrong, but you actually seem angry -- you even said it yourself. we can clearly see from your example why there is so much hatred amongst religious people in the world, even today. you are trying so hard to defend your religion and it is angering you that your core beliefs can be so easily torn apart. i don't expect you to admit it.
go back to the superstition/voodoo thread. remember the picture of the special olympics kid you posted? with the caption that says 'arguing on the internet is like the special olympics? even if you win, you're still retarded?' a photographic memory comes in handy sometimes. but that's a side point anyway. and i admit i laughed, albeit against my will (rs7 did too). the comment was point scoring. just like all of this crap is mostly point scoring. i am the stupid one for letting myself get dragged into it, but i guess i did. debating is debating. disagreeing is disagreeing. but intentionally cutting people is another. don't tell me you are all of a sudden completely objective and interested in friendly pursuit of truth now. doesn't feel good to have someone stick you with a needle, does it? p.s. the whole evolution question is irrelevant because there are christians who accept evolution. again, it is a question of interpreting the opening of genesis as literal or as poetic- a legitimate divide given that the first chapter was written in poetic language and not meant to be a scientific treatise. i do not have a definitive stance either way here, but i can say and HAVE said that if being made in the image of God depends on divine recognition rather than a specific bloodline or gene pool, then doors are left open. so once again this is a side argument. like just about ALL OF IT is!
oh come on, that is a technicality. you admitted you laughed too. it's not like i posted a message with paragraph after paragraph making fun of retarded people. it was simply a picture that is humorous in a bad way. i can admit it isn't nice. i laughed just like you did. i've said this before, but i guess i need to say it again. it is very easy to take people the wrong way on the internet. i'm pretty sure we're all aware of this, but sometimes it is forgotten in the heat of discussion. i may even be taking you the wrong way! anyway, i would like everyone to know that none of this makes me mad and i'm fully aware that i've made some jerky posts. i like to exaggerate how i feel to get responses. i am fully aware i do not know everything! all i do is post my honest beliefs and opinions, take them for what they are. but honestly, imo my beliefs are actually more logical than most. there is nothing wrong at all about any of this. discussion/debating is a good thing. i hate no one here.
LOL come on man, that doesn't make any sense. Do you really think any of these objections are new to me? I have said it many times and will say it again- I have old friends who are atheists. Guys from back in college days who I have known for years and still keep in touch with. Guys who I have had debates into the wee hours of the morning with. Guys who disagree with me just as much as you do, and yet we are still amigos because they never felt the need to insult or belittle. Do you have any Christian friends? The difference is NOT the dry mechanics of the debate! It has nothing to do with facts at all. It has to do with ripping people instead of challenging their arguments, with making fun of them instead of confronting them reasonably. It is not the reasoning I have a problem with, it's the ripping and the insults and the belittlements that are so unnecessary. That is what I was trying to point out. Stuff like "I think religion is such a joke that I want to have a satanist at my funeral" and a hundred other lines like it, how are people supposed to respond to that? If you told me an old friend of yours had aids and I said "he was probably a fag right" how would you respond? Words mean things, bitterness and cruelty has a cost, that is my point here. It's the harshness.
As far as I can see the article is essentially on adaptation which is scientifically accepted and "proven", and not on evolution, though the author makes it seem like they are one and the same thing. There is a big difference between comparing the development of two groups on monkeys on separate islands that adapted differently, and jumping to the conclusion that a bird can turn into a dolphin, or a monkey can turn into a man.
okay, this is good. i've lost my cool as much as anyone else, i can't deny that. i just felt a little chapped this afternoon and blew off some steam because of it. maybe we can all learn to be a little more mellow and a little less caustic. peace.
lolol that was a total outrageous, flamboyant, exaggeration on my part. that is just my way of expressing how much i don't believe religion. i'm not really going to do that..lol
yeah i know, just a throwaway comment. kind of like if you introduced me to your mom and i said "hiya sweet tits, wanna hit it?" just an exaggeration of thinking your mom is hot, not like it actually means anything right?