Need Some Education On EVOLUTION? Start Here! Perry & Axal take note!

by Seeker4 178 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • tetrapod.sapien
    tetrapod.sapien

    "macro evolution"?

    what's that? can someone explain it to me please? people keep talking about it like it's something to write home about. and does the genome of each animal know somehow that it belongs to a species group?

    like, do our genomes know that we are homo sapiens? and if we made a "genetic jump" from homo sapiens to homo xyz, would it not be through many iterations of "micro mutations"?

    i find it humorous that people think that because we humans have a cladistic classification system, that speciation (or macro evolution) is a different type of evolution from regular intra species evolution. as if nature said to itself "oh, well, species xyz has been around for long enough, let's give it a Macro Push to a new level. and presto, we have a new species." lol.

    seems like another example of desired human specialness. we think that our abstraction system for classifying organisms is set in stone somewhere, and organisms need to get a special permit to go from microevolving to macroevolving.

    creationists (wts included) say all the time: "microevolution does happen, but macro evolution does not." which is pure bull shit since technically, GENETICALLY, there is no freaking difference. we DECIDE what names to give groups of organisms for organizational purposes. it doesn't have any bearing on the mutations occuring in every single new organism over time.

    microevolution is all there is, technically. and so it would seem that creationists and evolutionists agree here. except they are not talking about the same thing since evolutionists obviously understand how evolution works, and creationists only pretend to.

    evidence for macroevolution? grow a brain!! what a waste of post 4999.

    tetra

  • Asheron
    Asheron

    Sad Emo,

    First of all, Happy Valentines Day My latest wood for this fire will be in red.

    Then why do you put scientists and smart in inverted commas - are they less scientific than the ones Tetra listed? But yes, I'll grant that the intent of each list may have been different.
    Im my opionion, they are using thier PHD, Doctorate etc to somehow make a public statement that thier belief in God and disbelief in evolution should hold more weight as a result of thier training. Read thier testimonies, I have, and I find it unsettling that they (in alot of cases) have stepped down from thier reasearch, teaching posts after finding God. THank you for granting that the lists are different.
    If your only response to as to why you dont believe in macro evolution is "its still an unproven theory!" than I am confident you will not change any minds if that is your intent.

    Not my intent at all, I don't know what gave you that idea, I'm still enquiring, did you notice that I wrote in spite of evidence before "it's still an unproven theory"? Like RAF has said frequently in her posts, you're free to believe what you want, I'm trying to learn for myself. What's the deal for you with me writing that anyway - even YOU have said evolution is unproven, why have a go at me for saying the same?

    We are all learning, the more I learn the less I know I know...However I NEVER said it was an unproven theory. I said I agreed it was a theory. See below for defininition of a theory.

    In science, a theory is a proposed description, explanation, or model of the manner of interaction of a set of naturalphenomena, capable of predicting future occurrences or observations of the same kind, and capable of being tested through experiment or otherwise falsified through empirical observation. It follows from this that for scientists "theory" and "fact" do not necessarily stand in opposition. For example, it is a fact that an apple dropped on earth has been observed to fall towards the center of the planet, and the theory which explains why the apple behaves so is the current theory of gravitation.

    So let me get his straight, "literal bible creationists and evolutionists are "close minded" but people that believe like you in a non literal creation account but dont believe in MACRO evolution think outside the box?

    Did you notice that I wrote some evolutionists before closed minded? I try not to do labelling. Stop pulling bits of my sentences out of context.

    Ok so which evolutionists are closed minded??? lol Yes indeed I heard an inferance loud and clear in your statement.

    Sad Emo, put down the brush you are using to paint people. You know nothing about how open minded I or other posters are from reading a few posts in an evolution debate.

    Asheron, if you took my comment personally that's your problem. I did and okay its my problem.

    I haven't 'painted' any posters at all, that is merely your misguided perception.

    Maybe, but you did lob a non-specific judgement against unnamed Evolutionists and literal earth creationists. Cant you see how in this forum that it most certainly would be taken personally? So I ask again, which closed minded evolutionists did you have in mind?

    You haven't given any response to my previous questions on this thread, and you aren't being exactly constructive by insulting my intelligence now - however little of it you think I have. Your assumption. I have no idea of the level of your intelligence nor have I insulted you in any way. If you took that out my comments than that is your problem.

    I am not prepared to continue with this particular dialogue so if you feel the need to insult me further don't expect any reply.

    What previous question are you reffering too, I truly must have missed it. I will gladly reply to any question I may have an opionion on.

    If you've nothing constructive to say to me on the subject of evolution -

    Ummm okay.

    Asheron

  • Abaddon
    Abaddon

    What is rather funny tetra is the lack of perspective shown.

    As I try and point out in my gull story, and as you point out when you say our genome is not aware of speciation, often when people say transitions are problematical or missing it is an indicator of a discontinuous mind, as Dawkins puts it.

    The genetic validation of cladistically derived 'family trees' is also something that many don't seem to get the significance of. If evolution was made up, it was done pretty well, as they made up what was later proved by totally different evidence.

    And this 'I can't see it' approach to denial is exccesively simplistic and again illustrative of an almost willful ignorance over the timescale evolution happens over; "mountains don't erode because I can't see it!!"

    And when you look at the doubts and denials, and see what is proposed as a replacement; it's like someone throwing out Newtonian Gravity and shrugging when asked why objects falls, or alternately saying fairies pull things down.

    Evolution theory is NOT 100% right. It will be twiddled with and new discoveries will be made. But so far it has not been proven wrong, and even if it makes some believers insecure is still the only theory in town.

    Creationism is essentially a conspiracy theory (naughty scientists decieve the world!). So is Holocaust Denial. Both are demonstably wrong. Both have extreme followers. And both also have otherwise reasonable people reckoning "where there is smoke there is fire".

    People who are not neo-Nazis but will wonder if it was all that many...

    People who are not creationists but will put far too much weight behind the doubts of Creationists.

    And this 'open mind' stuff is annoying. Science HAS to be open minded. It can be truculent and slow at times, but if new facts are discovered it WILL re-write the textbooks. This HAPPENS. How can a discipline;

    • that re-writes texts books as new discoveries are made
    • that uses a process of peer review where even papers supporting 'convential wisdom' are read by experts who try to find errors
    • that spends millions on research

    ... be closed minded?

    ANY evolutionary scientist who could disprove evolution WOULD as doing so would mean they joined the ranks of very few sceintists who are house-hold names.

  • dark angle
    dark angle

    primatedave, thanks for that origin link you gave. i felt im half way on your story. and boy, theres a lot of stuff thats very difficult understand in that link!

  • PrimateDave
    PrimateDave

    Hey tetra,

    I know where you are coming from and agree with you on the "macro" evolution bit. However, you may agree that accepting "micro" evolution is a fall back position for many Creationists who insist that "God" made each animal according to its "kind" as per the Biblical account. So, for the sake of argument, to those people "macro" evolution IS "Evolution", whereas "micro" evolution is only variation within a species. The Talk Origins 29+ Evidences for Macro-Evolution attempts to address this line of thinking specifically.

    Dave

  • gumb
    gumb

    I'm just reading the posting guidelines here, and I noticed the request to avoid: "1. Insulting, threatening or provoking language", now I'm not sure if telling people to "grow a brain" fits into that category?

  • Qcmbr
    Qcmbr

    When scientists create a new genetically modified strain of rice or a mouse that glows in the dark are they acting in the role of creator or evolutionary force?

  • Abaddon
    Abaddon

    Qc

    Interesting question. I would say they are just doing directly what has been done indirectly for thousands of years; practising unnatural selection. Thus Evolution.

    I don't think pug dogs or glowing mice are particulary likely to arise by natural selection. But generations of selecting what genes would be passed on is just like making sure mice got passed genes to make them glow.

    On reflection I think glowing mice could be the ultimate cat-toy...

  • Little Drummer Boy
    Little Drummer Boy

    Tetra,

    Thank you for making that last post on macro-evolution. I, for one, feel that evolution is the correct explanation of things, but I had not considered that macro-evo is really just as you say in your post. For what it's worth, you truely helped my understanding today with your very clear explanation of how we really shouldn't be using the macro term at all since we are just basically creating artificial little boxes to put life in.

    It may seem like a small thing, but to me this was a major "A-ha!" moment. It doesn't happen too often that I get to directly contact someone who has provided some great enlightenment to me, so...

    Thank you sincerely,

    LDB

  • Apostate Kate
    Apostate Kate

    Hi all!

    Just popping into the thread to tell you all who posted comments to me that I am not ditching the thread I am still very tired from Wednesday. Not sure if I have anything more to add but I'll read it over when I am more refreshed.

    Wednesday at the nursing home was really great. They are so happy to see us, I had a little group with a few beautiful children giving out cards and hugs. The only one who refused to take a beautiful homemade card from this little precious child was....of course you know..a JW. Could not even taka a card.

    Anyway, love to you all.

    Kate

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