What are the odds?

[Ronin]

I asked this question as a child, I asked my teacher "Why did only people learn to speak. The underlining explanation for everything according to evolution is it all happended by chance.If all things being equal,and all things evolved. why is it that only humans became aware? Why aren't we conversing with a four legged mammel that evovled with us?
so here is my question..
1. Why are humans the only higher functioning mammel?
2. What are the odds?

[Goat]

It seems to me evolutionary scientist should play the lottery! The only explaination you have for higher function is mutation. Yet today whenever cells mutate it kills ie: Cancer!!! I still wonder what the odds are that only one out of a billion or so animals became aware? What mutated so that we could make up language, love, hate,all the things that make us uniquely human? It seems according to evolution we were just lucky!!

It's as lucky as taking an arrow, shooting it up into the air, and then drawing a bullseye around it after if falls.

What are the ODDS of the bullseye being right smake where the arrow landed.

I can tell from your lack of response to all the answers you were given that you are not interested in debate, merely tauntology. I don't think you want to hear the answers, but merely make mocking questions.

[Confused]

It seems to me evolutionary scientist should play the lottery! The only explaination you have for higher function is mutation. Yet today whenever cells mutate it kills ie: Cancer!!! I still wonder what the odds are that only one out of a billion or so animals became aware? What mutated so that we could make up language, love, hate,all the things that make us uniquely human? It seems according to evolution we were just lucky!!

I think the evolutionary scientists would have a better chance of winning. See, in your creationist view, God either:
1) Didn't forsee random mutations, therefore didnt plan on the adaptation of life to survive, therefore making him not all knowing
2) foresaw the mutations in DNA and decided to let some children be born with debilitating and excruciatingly painful abnormalities that would cause extreme toture during their brief 2-6 years of life
3) Planned for mutations that were lethal so that those who so desperately wanted children could never have them.
4) Planned for nonlethal but deletion mutations that would create monsters out of children in an effort to show his love.

I think I like the lottery idea better.

[QED]

It seems to me evolutionary scientist should play the lottery! The only explaination you have for higher function is mutation. Yet today whenever cells mutate it kills ie: Cancer!!! I still wonder what the odds are that only one out of a billion or so animals became aware? What mutated so that we could make up language, love, hate,all the things that make us uniquely human? It seems according to evolution we were just lucky!!

It's as lucky as taking an arrow, shooting it up into the air, and then drawing a bullseye around it after if falls.

What are the ODDS of the bullseye being right smake where the arrow landed.

I can tell from your lack of response to all the answers you were given that you are not interested in debate, merely tauntology. I don't think you want to hear the answers, but merely make mocking questions.

Maybe, goat. It certainly looks like Ronin has been taught the controversy. But then again you and I both understand the methods by which nature manages to climb "mount improbable" and, as you say, perceptions of probability can differ widely depending on the knowledge of how a given outcome can have been arrived at.

Ronin is obviously very proud of all the human attributes he mentions. Intolerance would undoubtedly be another one to add to his list. I strongly suspect that humans have long applied intolerance along with those other attributes to making sure that we remain the dominant species on the planet. Naturally I'm not suggesting that we've be preventing pigs from developing technology by making bacon sandwiches out of them, (Jose's description of specialization in different species accounts for this) but I often wonder if Neanderthals were the only other line of primates to become extinct leaving us in the dominant position.

[juliod]

I'm suprised no one linked to:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6100430.stm

Elephants can recognise their own reflection, showing self-awareness seen before only in humans, great apes and bottlenose dolphins, scientists say.

I'd say ronin has been "busted" to use EasyR's idiom.

DanZ

[Ronin]

It's interesting that almost all talk about what is simuliar, when answering the question. OF course this is another tactic of evolutionist. It reallity is'nt that hard,wow look that monkey has an arm, I must be related to him!! see!
` I think unbiased science should look at the differences, and ask why. I remember reading somewhere where this scientist said if aliens came to earth and looked at all the humans and then the animals. They would point to us and say."How did you get here before us?" He meant evolution could get away with explaining how the animals got here,but humans it was a different matter.

If evolution is what happened why are there so many more questions?

[Confused]

It's interesting that almost all talk about what is simuliar, when answering the question. OF course this is another tactic of evolutionist. It reallity is'nt that hard,wow look that monkey has an arm, I must be related to him!! see!
` I think unbiased science should look at the differences, and ask why. I remember reading somewhere where this scientist said if aliens came to earth and looked at all the humans and then the animals. They would point to us and say."How did you get here before us?" He meant evolution could get away with explaining how the animals got here,but humans it was a different matter.

If evolution is what happened why are there so many more questions?

There exist less questions about evolution than there are about the creationist version. I don't know which account is accurate. There isn't enough evidence to completely support either theory yet. But at least evolutionists are attempting to. Creationists spend more time atttempting to debunk evolutionists latest discoveries to waste any resources on proving Genesis.

[QED]

It's interesting that almost all talk about what is simuliar, when answering the question. OF course this is another tactic of evolutionist.

Could this be what I've been asking for on these forums recently -- an example of a tactic employed by evolutionists to trick people into thinking that natural selection can be a natural design process?!?

It reallity is'nt that hard,wow look that monkey has an arm, I must be related to him!! see!

If all we had that was similar were arms then you might have a good point. However each additional similarity counts towards the weakness of your argument.

I think unbiased science should look at the differences, and ask why. I remember reading somewhere where this scientist said if aliens came to earth and looked at all the humans and then the animals. They would point to us and say."How did you get here before us?" He meant evolution could get away with explaining how the animals got here,but humans it was a different matter.

I'm not sure what the animals (or for that matter the people!) near you look like, but if they're anything like the ones around me and on TV then I'm at a complete loss to understand this bizarre sounding idea. Biology and anatomy are not my specialist areas, but I doubt if this lack of formal training is leading me to the wrong conclusions. Among mammals alone (a vast group of distinctly different animals) the skeletal arrangements are virtually identical with regards to their essential topology. For example, the five toes of ancestral mammals can be identified in animals ranging from Humans to Horses. I can only guess that this "alien" you speak of is unable to see as clearly as we do in the Earth's atmosphere. You do realize that we all have vertebrae (back-bones) connecting a pelvis to a skull with a hinged jaw -- and that arms and legs attach at the same points and with the same joints?

I suggest you have a play with this entertaining online jigsaw. I think you'll find that once you have managed to piece together one or two animals you'll notice a pattern that will make it easy to do the rest.

If evolution is what happened why are there so many more questions?

Well, if the answer is "God waved his hand and all the animals suddenly appeared" then that's nice and tidy. One answer explains everything. But then again it doesn't -- because there's clearly a process that's involved and it has a particular signature; one that unfolds over time. This presents us with many mini-questions that can be answered very conclusively (e.g. Genetic material in the form of DNA is being passed from generation to generation and is what defines the physical structure of the individual). Clearly there's plenty more to understand in addition (maybe) to "God made it so".