Quote:
Originally Posted by Lukandersen
A short run-down of what Evolution is. (This is not to prove evolution, since that is impossible, but to state what it really is)
Variation:
A group (or population if you like) must have individuals with different abilities, and a mechanism for adding new variation. (Random changes in the genome of an individual - Mutation)
Reproduction/Heredity:
The individuals must be able to reproduce, and the new abilities must be hereditary. Two variations can only change into a third via reproduction.
Selection:
The individuals inherited abilities must affect the individuals ability to reproduce, by survival (being able to get food easier, like better eyes, or more muscle mass, or perhaps being more heat-resistant) The changes are incredible subtle from generation to generation, but if you see a picture of a coyote in year 20.000 BC, and then see it today, the changes will be more obvious.
All in all: Something changes, if that change is bad, the ability will probably not be passed on, due to death. If it is good, and gets passed on, it will then be inherited by future generations.
The fact that oddors die because of oil on some coast is not proof that evolution is false.
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Wow - and you call
us dogmatic, with all the prescriptive "must have", "must be", "can only" and the "is bad", "is good" teleological undertones? I had no idea evolution rested on so many assumptions.
I still had this Dawkins guy ringing in my ear with his simplistic: "Life results from the nonrandom survival of randomly varying replicators" - but I guess I didn't understand how many unfounded assumptions Evolution made, until you came along. Thank you for increasing my faith!
But as far as I can follow you, you are trying to make a case for how change can occur and how small change over time (although you have your timing off - the world was created 6000 years ago!) can accumulate.
This in itself is nothing new - my waistline has been evolving over much shorter timespans, yet I see a significant change. But I still haven't turned into a Whale yet (that is:
my lower limbs have not degenerated and been swallowed up by fat). Where is your evolution now?
YiC,
Alvin