Evolution?

I know what Meshi means!

A lot of malcontents on this site. Just smile and nod. LOL!

Also, this seems to be the core problem nowadays: no one is willing to respect the boundaries (keeping prayer out of public schools, challenging religion in a holy building) anymore.

I mean nothing. He is just pleased that Jaerik will not persecute him for believing whatever he chooses to believe in which is great.

There is no reason to harass people based on their beliefs. On that note, my life for Aiur!

Go back and read my earlier post.

Your gear isn't good as mine so you're wrong!

Yes, but my baby bunny claps. And that, sir, is full of win!

That's why I usually just avoid these type of threads. This one was better when it was about pokemon.

I think the 'Idea of religion' is defined by which side of the argument you're on.

Believers Idea of religion may be something like, this set of standards and morals is similar to the ones I currently possess(usually drilled into kids by parents going to church?)

Non-believers Idea of religion may be something like, that set of standards and morals is nice but I don't need (deity name here) to know what's right and wrong and I can make my own decisions based on thought and education. Science plays a major part in this type of person.

There isn't an argument. Evolution is true. Its happening. Its happened. Religious have the bone with Abiogenis. They are just mostly ignorant and don's realize this.

Also about morals - in Christianity for example - the Bible is a TERRIBLE book of morals. Sell your daughter into slavery? If your child disrespects you then stone them? WTF. The morals of the people that made the bible were non-existant.

If you want religion in schools then you need to teach every major (and some not-so-major) religion and how they came to be. Show similarities in origin, characters etc. Teaching anything other than that (like creationism instead of evolution) should be banned.

We teach all the major religions and also "dead" ones like Norse paganism, Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Earth religion etc. This is just as important as history in school because it teaches people what it was like at the time, how people viewed the world.

I said not a single word about evolution, which I know happens/happened. You'd have to be an asshat of immense proportions to not know/believe that.

I'm not going to condemn either side of ignorance for the sake that, no matter where your beliefs lie, there is so, so much that we don't know, but accept with a great deal of faith.

Having actually majored in biology, it is a widely accepted basis that organisms have managed to change over a very long period of time. We take classes like comparative animal physiology, and it is explicitly stated that we're attempting to compare certain physiological and anatomical changes as a result of evolutionary progression. On the whole, that's the intention. But when you get down to the nitty-gritty essence of studying each and every single development in mind-numbing detail, you find there are just as many anomalies as there are consistencies with the "theory of evolution," if not more so.

I think it should also be pointed out that the basis of evolution is essentially mutations in the genetic code that are not only physically expressed, but beneficially as well. There are so many factors that scientists are still trying to figure out--genetics is a completely complicated process of which we know only a fraction; we do understand a good amount of detail on its mechanics, but only recently have we begun to discover the epigenetic realm and its involvement on genetic mutability--that changes can be either dynamic and transient or permanent and stable, and there are a great number of primary literature sources supporting either. It's very messy. Not to mention the factor of phenotypic plasticity in the more observable sense of physical changes as a result of the surrounding biotic and abiotic aspects of the environment--the fact that organisms have been seen to physically adapt over time to their environment isn't necessarily a result of changes in their genomic expression, but could possibly be a systematic method of adaptation pre-programmed into the organism's DNA. Again, messy business.

And that's the thing about science--science is the study of things material, corporeal; with our current abilities and knowledge, we only come to discover how much we don't yet know, and, in terms of things that aren't within our grasp temporally, cannot ever know, and thus must take on some level of faith--faith in the sense that, though we may not know the exact specifics of certain theories and cannot say that such-and-such a thing happens with complete, 100% consistency, we--as a people--widely accept it as fact.

So regardless of where you yourself stand, given the amount of knowledge you currently know, you are taking whatever you have accepted on the basis of faith--nothing more, and nothing less.

I can't plus this enough. :(

It's a (big) stretch to say that Evolution is a "faith".

I would not go there.

However, if you're implying that Evolution is a (widely accepted and highly reputable) theory, wherein there is some ambiguity remaining, then yes, that is correct.

The way you framed the picture though, whereby you seem to equate religious belief with accepting the theory of Evolution ... that's a large stretch, bordering on (peaceful) propaganda.

I actually teach this for a living, so this is going to be fun :).

The Theory of Evolution is simply that - A Theory. Scientists, especially with the amazing breakthroughs in Bioinframatics and Genetics, are only now, after 50 years of incredible understanding, piecing together the missing gaps of information in that theory.

Creationism dosen't really stand to have an argument against it. You want proof?

Bacteria evolve every 15 minutes. This is proven. This is fact. This is why medicine changes constantly, to combat the evolved bacteria now immune to most anti-biotics prescribed. They evolve to stay alive. There isn't some bacteria that sits there and squints its face really hard and says "I MUST EVOLVE NOW CUZ I'LL GET KILLED", It just happens with any method of chance, to be resistant to whatever the current bacteria killing drug is, and will live on to have kinky bacteria sex, making babies.

Creationists... if you want to make your argument actually valid, use this one:

Cell Theory - All Existing Cells came from a (single), percursor ancestor.

What would people in ffxiah forums say... Derp cuz god would have to make it derp. Give it 10 years. Scientists are close to making primitive functiontion cells with basical organo-compounds. I mean, Most of the structures rapidly make themselves if you mix them together. Life is very efficent sometimes :).

Actually using antibiotics is itself a screening process that leaves behind mutant strains of bacteria. The mutants are resistant and then give rise to identical progeny whilst the sensitive representation are wiped out. It's not evolution, it's selection that would not otherwise occur ;)

everything you just said is evolution

You're kinda right. If medicine wasn't something that existed, Bacteria wouldn't have that selection pressure. So then bacteria with random immunity genes, or factors, wouldn't be better fit to survive then one without it.

But it does exist.

If you introduce a factor to any species, say for a radical example, Every Cheetah that can't run 70 mph will die because of a new predator, you're only going to be left with a small population of those cheetah's left. (I don't know what cheetah's can run at, or how fast, just follow me).

Now you can stop there and say "lol this is a selection pressure"

But imagine now, that population of cheetah's. Over time, only those cheetah's will breed, and not by choice, they simply are the only survivors. The genes are now much less random - as only some of them are present in the general population with all the other cheetah's dying off.

Those offspring will have less genetic variation, and will have very similiar gene pools as the parents. These offspring will THEN be under the same pressures - run 70 mph or die.

Overtime, this population will evolve to meet the 70mph standard completely.

This can be applied to the bacteria example as well, i only used this one so people not versed in bacteria life cycles etc would be able to see the vivid story :)

Did I miss a module in Microbiology where bacterial reproduced by mixing gametes?

From the Wiki:
In early 2006, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins interviewed Haggard as part of a British television documentary entitled The Root of All Evil?. During this interview, Dawkins spoke with Haggard about contradictions between the cumulative knowledge produced by science, and a literal interpretation of the Bible (particularly its account of creation). In response, Haggard claimed to "fully embrace the scientific method." Haggard then stated that the conclusions of that method regarding the age of the earth and evolution were only the result of "some of the views that are accepted in some portions of the scientific community." When Dawkins pointed out Haggard's misconception of the theory of evolution (for instance Haggard's notion that complex organs such as the eye spontaneously manifested), Haggard suggested that Dawkins should be less arrogant about his learning, saying that he himself isn't arrogant because he "knows so much more".

As Dawkins and his film crew were packing up to leave, there was a brief altercation in the church parking lot. According to Dawkins, Haggard ordered Dawkins's crew off his land with the words "You called my children animals" and threatened legal action and confiscation of their recording equipment. Later, Dawkins speculated that Haggard actually believed that Dawkins had implied that his children were animals, something Dawkins reflected he agrees with, given common descent.

I was thinking, oh god an evolution thread got bumped, no good can come of this... But these 3 words put together made it worth it XD

Any bets on how long till the thread goes back to pokamon?

X-rated conjugation from the hottest bacteria in Scandinavia :P