Quote:
Originally Posted by MS Fowler
Looking at your last paragraph.
Yes, evolution does occur. I studied it in high school over 40 years ago. We radiated Tse-Tse flies (?) and observed many generations of them. We saw variation in their wings and their eyes, and tracked those changes over the generations. But we never got a moth, or a house-hold fly, all we ever saw were variation of the flies we started with, and most of the variations were harmful, i.e. not beneficial.
As for humans, we have thousands of years of human history--all recognizable as human. Sure, we've developed, and become larger, but still--human--well, most of us.
The progress due to application of the Scientific Method is welcome. But using a systematic approach to create new things does not prove, or disprove how things originated.
I've given examples of complex systems--(sex and poisonous animals). Complex systems require ALL their components to be in place, and function before there is any benefit. How can such things "evolve"? Their is no benefit that would warrant natural selection until the system is complete. I don't need to understand the details of how that can happen--as others have alluded--I probably wouldn't understand them anyway. But it is important that someone can explain it, otherwise you are accepting it purely as a matter of "faith".
Again, my questions do not "prove" that evolution is false, but I raise them to dispel the idea that evolution has solved all its problems.
|
Thousands of years? Try going back a few million years and look at the fossils. A few thousand years in human history is like saying you are going hiking to the house next door. The differences between early hominids and present day hominids is staggering.
I am not aware of any systems in animals that did not function as they evolved. A penis did not appear prior to the plumbing happening. Poisons to my knowledge have always had a delivery system or other use. Unless you have specific examples (this is what I was asking for) of cases where this is evident I have no idea what you are talking about.
No one is saying that evolution has solved all the questions. Science is a fluid. Always changing as new evidence is found. Evolution is a fact. That we do not have all the answers does not negate what we do know. Given the preponderance of evidence of evolution, I believe it is safe to say that all life is the way it is due to natural selection and evolution. Some of the evolutions may not have been efficient, some of the evolutions may have been selected out at a later point an time but they are all a natural occurrence in my opinion. Since there is no alternative explanation what else could it be.
I think Holmes said something to the effect that once you have eliminated all other possibilities, the one that remains, no matter how unlikely, must be true.