The human genome is a "3.1 billion-letter instruction book that conveys all kinds of information and all kinds of mystery about humankind" - states the scientist who led the team that cracked the code. Francis Collins further states, "This most beautiful system could only proceed from the dominion of an intelligent and powerful being.” Or possibly a few cosmic kindergarten kids with nothing better to do, I might add.
“I see God’s hand at work through the mechanism of evolution. If God chose to create human beings in his image and decided that the mechanism of evolution was an elegant way to accomplish that goal, who are we to say that is not the way,” he says.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0, ... 84,00.html
Mechanism of Evolution
Moderator: Super Moderators
Leave it to Shirleypal to latch onto some highly interesting and important piece of news. I have been watching this debate over the accidentality vs. intentionality of the human genome for quite some time, and I will continue to do so. This is definitely a very important topic, and only a person of Shirleypal's intelligence and sensitivity would know.
Nevertheless, in the interests of intellectual accuracy, I must disclose that Collins is definitely in the minority among scientists on this matter (even though he assuredly does not stand alone). Most scientists believe that the human genome is the result of a purely material, purely mechanical, purely random and purely purposeless course of events over 4.5 billion years, that life is a totally meaningless blob of protoplasm infesting a cinder encircling a spark suspended in a fart, and that, if the protoplasm does not shatter the cinder, then the spark will engulf it in fire about 5 billion years from now, at which point things will be as if they had never been in the first place.
And you wonder why, after four hundred years of hearing this scenario, we stand on the verge of a Great Dying that will make the Black Death of the 14th century look like a Victorian tea-party? You wonder?
Nevertheless, in the interests of intellectual accuracy, I must disclose that Collins is definitely in the minority among scientists on this matter (even though he assuredly does not stand alone). Most scientists believe that the human genome is the result of a purely material, purely mechanical, purely random and purely purposeless course of events over 4.5 billion years, that life is a totally meaningless blob of protoplasm infesting a cinder encircling a spark suspended in a fart, and that, if the protoplasm does not shatter the cinder, then the spark will engulf it in fire about 5 billion years from now, at which point things will be as if they had never been in the first place.
And you wonder why, after four hundred years of hearing this scenario, we stand on the verge of a Great Dying that will make the Black Death of the 14th century look like a Victorian tea-party? You wonder?
-
Shirleypal
- Pirate
- Posts: 45448
- Joined: 03-06-2003 03:00 AM
Evolution 101
Links are dispersed throughout the text, click on the link below if you want access to them.
In biology, evolution is the change in the heritable traits of a population over successive generations, as determined by the shifting allele frequencies of genes. Evolution is ultimately the source of the vast diversity of life: all contemporary organisms are related to each other through common descent, products of cumulative evolutionary changes over billions of years. Over time, new species evolve from existing species through speciation, and other species become extinct, resulting in the ever-changing biological world reflected in the fossil record.
The basic mechanisms that produce evolutionary change are natural selection (which includes ecological and sexual selection) and genetic drift acting on the genetic variation created by mutation, genetic recombination and gene flow. Natural selection is the process by which individual organisms with favorable traits are more likely to survive and reproduce. If those traits are heritability, they pass them to their offspring, with the result that beneficial heritable traits become more common in the next generation.[1][2][3] Given enough time, this passive process can result in varied adaptations to changing environmental conditions.[4]
The modern understanding of evolution is based on the theory of natural selection, which was first set out in a joint 1858 paper by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace and popularized in Darwin's 1859 book The Origin of Species. In the 1930s, scientists combined Darwinian natural selection with the theory of Mendelian heredity to form the modern evolutionary synthesis, also known as "Neo-Darwinism". The modern synthesis describes evolution as a change in the frequency of alleles within a population from one generation to the next.[4] This theory has become the central organizing principle of modern biology, relating directly to topics such as the origin of antibiotic resistance in bacteria, eusociality in insects, and the staggering biodiversity of the living world.
Because of its potential implications for the origins of humankind, evolutionary theory has been at the center of many social and religious controversies since its inception.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution
Links are dispersed throughout the text, click on the link below if you want access to them.
In biology, evolution is the change in the heritable traits of a population over successive generations, as determined by the shifting allele frequencies of genes. Evolution is ultimately the source of the vast diversity of life: all contemporary organisms are related to each other through common descent, products of cumulative evolutionary changes over billions of years. Over time, new species evolve from existing species through speciation, and other species become extinct, resulting in the ever-changing biological world reflected in the fossil record.
The basic mechanisms that produce evolutionary change are natural selection (which includes ecological and sexual selection) and genetic drift acting on the genetic variation created by mutation, genetic recombination and gene flow. Natural selection is the process by which individual organisms with favorable traits are more likely to survive and reproduce. If those traits are heritability, they pass them to their offspring, with the result that beneficial heritable traits become more common in the next generation.[1][2][3] Given enough time, this passive process can result in varied adaptations to changing environmental conditions.[4]
The modern understanding of evolution is based on the theory of natural selection, which was first set out in a joint 1858 paper by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace and popularized in Darwin's 1859 book The Origin of Species. In the 1930s, scientists combined Darwinian natural selection with the theory of Mendelian heredity to form the modern evolutionary synthesis, also known as "Neo-Darwinism". The modern synthesis describes evolution as a change in the frequency of alleles within a population from one generation to the next.[4] This theory has become the central organizing principle of modern biology, relating directly to topics such as the origin of antibiotic resistance in bacteria, eusociality in insects, and the staggering biodiversity of the living world.
Because of its potential implications for the origins of humankind, evolutionary theory has been at the center of many social and religious controversies since its inception.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution
-
Shirleypal
- Pirate
- Posts: 45448
- Joined: 03-06-2003 03:00 AM
"Most scientists believe that the human genome is the result of a purely material, purely mechanical, purely random and purely purposeless course of events over 4.5 billion years, that life is a totally meaningless blob of protoplasm infesting a cinder encircling a spark suspended in a fart, and that, if the protoplasm does not shatter the cinder, then the spark will engulf it in fire about 5 billion years from now, at which point things will be as if they had never been in the first place."
Given the fact that most mainstream scientists are atheists, what else are they to believe Joe.
Given the fact that most mainstream scientists are atheists, what else are they to believe Joe.
-
Jon-Marcus
- Pirate
- Posts: 1409
- Joined: 01-08-2005 09:10 AM
- Location: Bonham, Texas
Evolution, Like creationism, is a theory.
So sorry, but I am not , and will not be convinced that I am the decendant of apes. We, humans, have two genes less than apes. As far as I know, humans and apes cannot breed ... and I truely hope no one has ever tried to find out, one way or the other.
I am not an ape. I am a human being.
So sorry, but I am not , and will not be convinced that I am the decendant of apes. We, humans, have two genes less than apes. As far as I know, humans and apes cannot breed ... and I truely hope no one has ever tried to find out, one way or the other.
I am not an ape. I am a human being.
"You have forgotten the face of your father." Roland Deschain
Actually..
Humans and Chimps are closer genetically than Donkeys, and Horses....but that's another problem...
Mankind is not the sole product of his genes. This is something poorly understood by scientists, and almost completely unknown to the lay person..
There is another process known as paedomorphisis, that is largely responsible for mans current biology. Roughly padeomorphisis is the retention of juvenile traits in the adult by the supression of genes..
Thus Chimps and Human young look very much alike pre birth, both share the flattened face and lack of brow ridge.. But the human retains these features into adulthood, while the Chimps genes complete development giving it the characteristic look of an ape.
Thus people are the way they are because their genes are not expressed, because of this they don't have instincts like animals, and can instead develop a culture which takes the place of genetic developmental traits...
In other words, man is unique in the animal kingdome because his genes do not govern his biology, and evolution can also proceed much faster through his tools, and his science than through his genes..
It's probably true at this point that for man evolution is a moot point, because man will control his own development through the science of biology, and eventually that science will control how his genes are expressed.
I would highly recomend this book by The Late Anthropologist Stephn Jay Gould for any interested readers.
Ontogeny and Phylogeny (Harvard University Press, 1977), ISBN 0-674-63940-5
Mankind is not the sole product of his genes. This is something poorly understood by scientists, and almost completely unknown to the lay person..
There is another process known as paedomorphisis, that is largely responsible for mans current biology. Roughly padeomorphisis is the retention of juvenile traits in the adult by the supression of genes..
Thus Chimps and Human young look very much alike pre birth, both share the flattened face and lack of brow ridge.. But the human retains these features into adulthood, while the Chimps genes complete development giving it the characteristic look of an ape.
Thus people are the way they are because their genes are not expressed, because of this they don't have instincts like animals, and can instead develop a culture which takes the place of genetic developmental traits...
In other words, man is unique in the animal kingdome because his genes do not govern his biology, and evolution can also proceed much faster through his tools, and his science than through his genes..
It's probably true at this point that for man evolution is a moot point, because man will control his own development through the science of biology, and eventually that science will control how his genes are expressed.
I would highly recomend this book by The Late Anthropologist Stephn Jay Gould for any interested readers.
Ontogeny and Phylogeny (Harvard University Press, 1977), ISBN 0-674-63940-5
Last edited by Lord Moon on 07-13-2006 01:23 AM, edited 1 time in total.
Primate segmental duplications: crucibles of evolution, diversity and disease
"The duplication of genomic sequences is one of the primary mechanisms for the creation of new genes... by adaptive evolution, gene fusion or exon exaptation"
Nature Reviews Genetics 7, 552-564 (July 2006)
http://www.nature.com/nrg/journal/v7/n7 ... g1895.html
"The duplication of genomic sequences is one of the primary mechanisms for the creation of new genes... by adaptive evolution, gene fusion or exon exaptation"
Nature Reviews Genetics 7, 552-564 (July 2006)
http://www.nature.com/nrg/journal/v7/n7 ... g1895.html
Jon-Marcus wrote: Evolution, Like creationism, is a theory.
So sorry, but I am not , and will not be convinced that I am the decendant of apes. We, humans, have two genes less than apes. As far as I know, humans and apes cannot breed ... and I truely hope no one has ever tried to find out, one way or the other.
I am not an ape. I am a human being.
But J-M... evolutionary theory really does not say you are "the decendant of apes." It says that apes and humans are both primates, and branches of the same tree, which had a common ancestor (which was not an ape, but was a small mammal).
Anchors Aweigh!