Evolution

[Sexton Blake]

"If evolution is true, why do things not change before my eyes?"

 

It is something we hear from creationists at times. People are creationists because they are too damned stupid to be anything else.

 

Evolution is a slow change that can often happen over millions of years and unlike in comic books, it usually only happens out of necessity. No one is ever going to get super powers or become some fantastic futureman because of evolution.

 

Creationists blather about if we come from apes, why are there still apes when most educated people know we came from ape like creatures and we separated from what is now apes several million years ago. We had a common ancestor.

 

Ants have basically been the same for about a hundred million years, having no need to change.

 

Evolution is down to beneficial mutations that help living things survive and breed better and so are passed onto future generations.

 

Creationists point to something in modern man and ask how that could have suddenly come about as we could not have survived without it?

 

That is like pointing at an old car and asking how they could have worked without all the electronics and computer stuff that is in modern cars?

 

The answer is that it did not and that what is now human beings evolved all together over time, not suddenly, one piece at a time.

 

The human eye is pointed to and asked how that could suddenly come about? It did not. A computer simulation showed how under optimum conditions a human eye could evolve from light sensitive tissue in as little as 250,000 years.

 

Ever tried to swat a fly? It is difficult because they still have light sensitive cells and while their compound eyes are far superior, a sudden drop in light in their light sensitive cells means they are in danger so should fly away.

 

In a dangerous world full of predators, any such mutation is beneficial in keeping something alive to produce future generations and is hung onto while it is still beneficial.

 

Our brains are another example. There are numerous examples in the animal kingdom of animal, birds and fish intelligence. To exist in a continually changing world, intelligence is necessary, even at the bottom of the evolutionary ladder, and the smarter, the better, giving more chances in dangerous situations, getting food, etc. Watch an amoeba move through water at speed and suddenly encounter an obstruction. They will I suppose see if there is anything eatable while they decide over several seconds what to do next, and then off at speed in another direction.

 

Insects are a fine example of evolution. There was thought to be about two million different species then they put some glue traps up in the Amazon and discovered thirty million more different types of insects. There is no doubt even more waiting to be discovered.

 

Insects are short lived so can evolve quickly and so many different species showed they took all evolutionary routes. If a god made insects, he would have made maybe a dozen different types of insects. Why make more? That must have been fun on Noah's Ark, in a closed space for a year, packed tight with untold millions of insects living on the huge amounts of smelly animal and human poop. Some creationists a bit smarter than the rest actually tried vegetation mats and realised insects could not have survived at sea on them for a year or more as some claim happened.

 

Some ignorant creationists claim only a few basic species were on the Ark and all quickly evolved to the so many that there are now in maybe a thousand years. I think one of the proofs against evolution is that there are rocks smarter than such creationists. Our own DNA proves creationists wrong:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitochondrial_Eve

 

Why don't we see things evolving now? You mean like the tree climbing blenny fish?

 

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2124873-these-fish-are-evolving-right-now-to-become-land-dwellers/

 

Evolution has not stopped for us or anything else. Just paused. We could still change, given necessity and enough time. Signs of evolution in humans:

 

https://www.scienceabc.com/nature/what-are-some-of-the-most-amazing-signs-of-evolution-in-the-human-body.html

 

Probably the best internet site against creationist lies and bible nonsense is:

 

http://www.talkorigins.org/origins/faqs-index.html

 

.

 

 

[pantheory]

On 2/11/2022 at 8:31 PM, Sexton Blake said:

"If evolution is true, why do things not change before my eyes?"

 

It is something we hear from creationists at times. People are creationists because they are too damned stupid to be anything else.

 

Evolution is a slow change that can often happen over millions of years and unlike in comic books, it usually only happens out of necessity. No one is ever going to get super powers or become some fantastic futureman because of evolution.

 

Creationists blather about if we come from apes, why are there still apes when most educated people know we came from ape like creatures and we separated from what is now apes several million years ago. We had a common ancestor.

 

Ants have basically been the same for about a hundred million years, having no need to change.

 

Evolution is down to beneficial mutations that help living things survive and breed better and so are passed onto future generations.

 

Creationists point to something in modern man and ask how that could have suddenly come about as we could not have survived without it?

 

That is like pointing at an old car and asking how they could have worked without all the electronics and computer stuff that is in modern cars?

 

The answer is that it did not and that what is now human beings evolved all together over time, not suddenly, one piece at a time.

 

The human eye is pointed to and asked how that could suddenly come about? It did not. A computer simulation showed how under optimum conditions a human eye could evolve from light sensitive tissue in as little as 250,000 years.

 

Ever tried to swat a fly? It is difficult because they still have light sensitive cells and while their compound eyes are far superior, a sudden drop in light in their light sensitive cells means they are in danger so should fly away.

 

In a dangerous world full of predators, any such mutation is beneficial in keeping something alive to produce future generations and is hung onto while it is still beneficial.

 

Our brains are another example. There are numerous examples in the animal kingdom of animal, birds and fish intelligence. To exist in a continually changing world, intelligence is necessary, even at the bottom of the evolutionary ladder, and the smarter, the better, giving more chances in dangerous situations, getting food, etc. Watch an amoeba move through water at speed and suddenly encounter an obstruction. They will I suppose see if there is anything eatable while they decide over several seconds what to do next, and then off at speed in another direction.

 

Insects are a fine example of evolution. There was thought to be about two million different species then they put some glue traps up in the Amazon and discovered thirty million more different types of insects. There is no doubt even more waiting to be discovered.

 

Insects are short lived so can evolve quickly and so many different species showed they took all evolutionary routes. If a god made insects, he would have made maybe a dozen different types of insects. Why make more? That must have been fun on Noah's Ark, in a closed space for a year, packed tight with untold millions of insects living on the huge amounts of smelly animal and human poop. Some creationists a bit smarter than the rest actually tried vegetation mats and realised insects could not have survived at sea on them for a year or more as some claim happened.

 

Some ignorant creationists claim only a few basic species were on the Ark and all quickly evolved to the so many that there are now in maybe a thousand years. I think one of the proofs against evolution is that there are rocks smarter than such creationists. Our own DNA proves creationists wrong:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitochondrial_Eve

 

Why don't we see things evolving now? You mean like the tree climbing blenny fish?

 

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2124873-these-fish-are-evolving-right-now-to-become-land-dwellers/

 

Evolution has not stopped for us or anything else. Just paused. We could still change, given necessity and enough time. Signs of evolution in humans:

 

https://www.scienceabc.com/nature/what-are-some-of-the-most-amazing-signs-of-evolution-in-the-human-body.html

 

Probably the best internet site against creationist lies and bible nonsense is:

 

http://www.talkorigins.org/origins/faqs-index.html

 

.

 

 

 

Yeah, if they are creationists who think the Earth is only thousands of years old, then evolution would not make any sense to them either since there wold not be enough time for most evolution processes to be observable.

 

And then, why are there still apes? of course humans are classified in the family of great apes. Some moved to different environments and different parts of the world outside of Africa, so their evolutionary history would have been different because of their different environments.

[◊ Weezer ◊]

This may be "far fetched", but if you bring in the possibility of aliens more advanced than us, it really opens a can of worms.  Were humans as we know them today planted on earth from somewhere else a few thousand years ago?   Thus the sudden appearance of "Adam and Eve" further evolved than other animals of that time?   Are "greys", as depicted by big heads and large slanted eyes with small bodies, actually people from other planets that are millions of years older and further evolved than we are?  Needing their brains to survive, more than strong bodies might indicate evolution. 

[◊ Weezer ◊]

It seems like the estimated age of the earth keeps growing as research goes on.  I am not a scientist,  but am beginning to think things are MUCH OLDER than we imagine, allowing for unimaginable evolution.  And perhaps cross "pollination" from other planets??  The possibilities are almost endless.

[freshstart]

22 hours ago, Sexton Blake said:

People are creationists because they are too damned stupid to be anything else.

I'm not so sure about this. I was a creationist for quite awhile, but I don't think I was stupid. I was brainwashed, sheltered, misled, and surrounded by peope who made creationism seem not only plausible, but perfectly normal. I was encouraged to read only those things that supported creationism and to avoid/challenge any view that didn't support the bible as literal and authoritative.

People are generally ruled by their emotions, which has nothing to do with intelligence, but it does present a dilemma (whether its reaized or not).  Its a rare person who can step outside of their emotions or temporarily set emotions aside (primarily fear) in order to consider different points of view. And of course this applies to political views and all sorts of hot topics as well. Once people get emotional, they stop listening and instead of mulling over a different point of view to try to genuinely understand it, they dig their heels in and become focused on how to counter attack. 

[pantheory]

16 hours ago, Weezer said:

This may be "far fetched", but if you bring in the possibility of aliens more advanced than us, it really opens a can of worms.  Were humans as we know them today planted on earth from somewhere else a few thousand years ago?   Thus the sudden appearance of "Adam and Eve" further evolved than other animals of that time?   Are "greys", as depicted by big heads and large slanted eyes with small bodies, actually people from other planets that are millions of years older and further evolved than we are?  Needing their brains to survive, more than strong bodies might indicate evolution. 

 

Yes, it is far fetched. Our direct ancestors have been humans on Earth for millions of years now. For instance I have about 2% Neanderthal genes in me. Neanderthals have been on Earth for about 1.5 million years. Another homo species, Homo-erectus has been around almost 2  million years. And continuously older human-like species date back 4.4 million years. Only black sub-Saharan Africans don't have some of these genes. And all the great apes before them are also directly related to us. Chimpanzees share about 97.8% percent of their genes with us. Even bananas surprisingly share about 60% of the same DNA as humans.

 

Yep, humans are definitely Earthlings, but the very beginnings of the most primitive original life on Earth could have originated elsewhere, and if so likely rained down on Earth 3+ billion years ago. These theories are called Panspermia.

 

[◊ Weezer ◊]

Is it possible life actually started on another planet and was transfered here?  Maybe we have the same DNA as life on other planets.  With the billions of galaxies, isn't it possible we are just one of many from the same source??  Isn't it an assumption we are unique?

 

After a lot of research on UFOs I am convinced we are visited by aliens, and may have been for eons.  Can that possibility be ruled out?

[pantheory]

23 hours ago, Weezer said:

Is it possible life actually started on another planet and was transfered here?  Maybe we have the same DNA as life on other planets.  With the billions of galaxies, isn't it possible we are just one of many from the same source??  Isn't it an assumption we are unique?

 

After a lot of research on UFOs I am convinced we are visited by aliens, and may have been for eons.  Can that possibility be ruled out?

 

Of course it can't be ruled out   But of course it would be far more likely that such Earth life, if not originating on Earth, came from our own solar system concerning the origin of Earth life --  or possibly from our own milky Way galaxy, a multi-billion star galaxy with probably billions of planets within it. Intelligent life coming from another galaxy outside our own,  probably would have taken many billions of years to evolve, and another hundred million years plus to get here -- unless faster than light-speed travel is possible.  So it would seemingly be far more likely that intelligent alien life would have come from the Milky Way, our own galaxy.

[◊ Weezer ◊]

Time/space/travel/existance may be MUCH more complicated than we realize.  It's just an opinion, but I think we may be much less advanced than we think we are.