Evidence for Evolution

[ken_sylvania]

To everyone participating here:

So are you descended from an ape on your mother’s or on your father’s side?

I've decended from a horse.

[silentreader]

To everyone participating here:

So are you descended from an ape on your mother’s or on your father’s side?

I've decended from a horse.

I am more likely to have descended from behind a horse.

[HondurasKeiser]

...I think it is wrongheaded and fruitless to try and use science to explain God or any other articles of faith such as miracles. Which frankly describes the entire endeavor of creation science or creationism.

I also don't dive into things like the mechanical model of the universe or any such thing. Which is not at all the focus of modern evolutionary biology And really falls into the category of philosophy rather than science. It is philosophy because it is a question that can't actually be answered by science. At least not science within our grasp.

I'm curious about the above-quoted because earlier in the thread you stated that you hold a "scientific worldview". How then, according to your worldview, do you make sense of God or something miraculous like the Virgin Birth of the Resurrection of Jesus?

[temporal1]

One observation i’ve read states that IF evolution were as contemporary science claims, where is fossil evidence of the “connecting” species? There should be LOTS.

There are vast numbers of transition species in the fossil record as well as living today.

They are POSSIBLY transition species. But it could also be conjecture. Again, no empirical data.

ach. i expected this.
as i understand, there are developments and changes within species to adapt as life unfolds. farmers+others who breed animals and plants depend on this, humans see their young - not as clones, but newly created human beings, benefitting from their ancestry.

God, using common soil, WITH His divine breath, has no limits, soil or no soil.

He gives us glimpses. Like, the potential of 1 & 0 in computer programming. To demonstrate how small we are.

How much more complex is common soil than 1 & 0, even without His divine breath.
We~are~comical. Laughter is good medicine.

[AndersonD]

As someone who has experienced clinical depression...I will be on meds for the rest of my life, I often asked, "why am I here, why should I get up in the morning?" These are philosophical questions. When I ask my atheistic friends at work why they are here on planet earth they don't know. "It's a great mystery". Why do you get up each morning?, "To survive". With my depression, I would end my life if that was my worldview. "Survival" for me is not a motivator to get up in the morning. I will pass on Darwinian theory, it's cruel.

[temporal1]

As someone who has experienced clinical depression...I will be on meds for the rest of my life, I often asked, "why am I here, why should I get up in the morning?" These are philosophical questions. When I ask my atheistic friends at work why they are here on planet earth they don't know. "It's a great mystery". Why do you get up each morning?, "To survive". With my depression, I would end my life if that was my worldview. "Survival" for me is not a motivator to get up in the morning. I will pass on Darwinian theory, it's cruel.

i don’t believe in atheists.

[AndersonD]

Also in terms of mass, the earth is a closed system, as is the universe.

Yes, but the creationist argument about the second law of thermodynamics is not about mass, it is about energy (or entropy) And the earth is most definitely NOT a closed system when it comes to energy.

May I ask Ken where you went to college?

Undergraduate work at Goshen College and Reed College
Graduate studies at University of Washington

How about yourself?

I attended a local community college and took Math and Chemistry. Nothing fancy. I respect anyone like yourself who has studied to that degree. Takes a lot of effort.
Did you have evolutionary biology at Goshen? I have 2 friends who are Goshen grads and they're ardent evolutionists also. Also do you know when Goshen embraced Darwin?

[Falco Knotwise]

Why am I hungry for bananas ?

[Ken]

Nonsense. The analogy was the one that you provided - comparing DNA to letters of the alphabet. Evolution's claim is, essentially, that random changes can happen in the DNA that add information and improve the coded instructions. And that if this happens often enough, instead of instructions on how to make a single-cell organism it turns into instructions on how to make a human being.

No, that absolutely is NOT the claim or premise of evolution by natural selection. There is nothing random about it. Rather, the theory of evolution is premised on the following points:

1. There must be genetic variation within a population (which can be due in part to random mutations)
2. This genetic variation must be heritable
3. There must be selection occurring (natural selection) which is based on differences in reproductive success among a genetically diverse population
4. There must be time (multiple generations). Evolution doesn't happen within a single individual or few generations.

[ken_sylvania]

Nonsense. The analogy was the one that you provided - comparing DNA to letters of the alphabet. Evolution's claim is, essentially, that random changes can happen in the DNA that add information and improve the coded instructions. And that if this happens often enough, instead of instructions on how to make a single-cell organism it turns into instructions on how to make a human being.

No, that absolutely is NOT the claim or premise of evolution by natural selection. There is nothing random about it.

Really? You're claiming that mutations are not random?