The Science of Biological Evolution (no politics or religion)

Consider this pawnkeeper.

There are a finite number of differences between the DNA of a human and the DNA of a chimpanzee.

Hence there is a sequence of minimal steps between the two, where only the smallest change in the DNA occurs at each stage.

Now suppose you consider the sequence of organisms with each of these sets of DNA. Please explain how your argument applies that a chimpanzee could not turn into a human? Which one of the organisms does it apply to? How do you cope with the fact that all the changes are small and valid?

[Of course real evolution of a sexually reproducing species involves many organisms with slightly different DNA combining it at each generation, but this only offers vastly more possibilities]

Yeah I think so.

Example: The Myth of the Flat Earth. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myth_of_the_flat_Earth

Lots of people think that in the Middle Ages people in Europe believed the Earth was flat. It's often used as an example of "how stupid can you be".

Turns out nobody ever thought the world was flat, the Middle Age people knew from Greek science it was round, and anyway you can figure it out quite easily because ships disappear in the horizon.

The story was invented in late 1870ies and sort of spread and has hung on ever since then.

So yeah for more than 100 years many people believed in this bullshit, because so few people care about checking if the stuff inside their heads they call ideas is actually true or was invented by some joker.

I got on to it because I read Columbus' book about his discovery of America, and the part where he has to convince the sailors to continue because they are afraid to sail out over the edge - there's nothing about that, obviously because the sailors weren't afraid of it. But in all popular movies and cartoons about Columbus you have the invention that the sailors think the earth is flat and Columbus has to convince sceptical people it is round.

In fact he had calculated how big the earth was and vastly underestimated it - probably to convince people the sail to Adia was not so long - and everybody thought he was wrong and it was longer. And yeah, he was just lucky America existed, because if it had been water all the way they would have run out of food long before they reached Asia. :) )

that has nothing to do with what I said

Uhm it's not all of them that change. I explained it to you already.

It didnt happen like that anyway, with plants evolving into humans, but let me explain you again why the "ancestor" doesnt disappear.

Cats originally looked something like this when humans domesticated them

Then a lot of people had fun breeding cats and turned them into these things

But you know the original cats are still around i suppose.

Well no wonder. The breeders just took a bit of cats and used them to create the variteties above. So the ones they didnt mess with still lokk the same.

Evolution works in the same way. The original "version" of the organism can still hang around together with the new species.

It can off couse also happen that the "original" version of the organism dies out. But it need not. All the variations are possible.

Original stays, new version stays.

Orignal stays, new version evolves, then new version dies.

Original dies, new version stays.

Original dies, new version stays, 2 new-new versions evolve, one of the die.

And so on.

I am logging out now. if there are a billion posts when I get back ime only reading the last one

Ohmagerd look at this one. Who'd want that ugly ****** as a pet.

The word evolution comes from the Latin word evolutionem. The theory of evolution is striving to depict the conversion from lower and rudimentary living beings to evolved ones. The transition takes place through gradual stages. Darwin's Theory of evolution makes an attempt to explain throughtly this phenomenon.
The ever new scientific discoveries over the years, the journeys of explorers in the most remote places, the discovery of archaeological remains, had long puzzled scholars. Lamarck was the first to hypothesize that the various species could be the result of a long chain of evolutionary transitional stages. However many biologists rejected natural selection as the primary mechanism of evolution.
Some argued that the inheritance of acquired characteristics was the most important mechanism, others insisted that new species arose rather suddenly by large leaps, not gradually from minute variation within species as Darwin had proposed.

'Respectfully' you hypocrite???!!! Right after you call his religion a Fantasy?

On this thread I have read a lot of Bull**** but this is pretty pathetic.  I am  tired of it. Neither side is going to give, in so why bother argue?

that's for alex rodregez

Well if us rational people had never bothered to argue with the irrationals, we would still be living in mud holes instead of having what we have now, so be happy people can be bothered :)

This debate proably will take 50 years or so, but as allways science will win in the end.

Then again, it is quite worrying irrationalism is so strong.

I think it is even getting stronger these years rather than the other way around?

For me it proof of the failure of the education systems of the west + the mechanisms for cultural transmission for adults that this issue even exists.

Those cats remind us that nature copies art.

Yeah in a way,

There is an interesting art form hidden in creation of interesting and spectacular genetically modified organisms, sadly our present days ethics prevent this.

There's the already classic mouse-with-a-human ear

And fluerescent mice has been created also, by giving them proteins from fluorescent organisms (jellyfish I think)

I personally think that fluorescent animals are uber cool and that we should make fluerescent pigeons to fly around our cities.

pawnkeeper, your level of understanding would be unimpressive in a kindergarten child. Those who get an education don't stay so ignorant.

No I'll resign. Its too tough fighting ignorance on my part.

It is when you haven't got a clue about what you're discussing!

 That's certainly the first smart thing he ever wrote on this forum. The ignorance on his part is indeed impossible to fight. As long as he doesn't start to educate himself, noone and nothing will change it.