Why are we still alive? If we evolved slowly.

[Christian1234]

Evolution: In biology, evolution is change in the heritable traits of a population over successive generations (influenced by natural selection, genetic drift, or gene flow). The variation (genetic variation) in the units of heredity ("shifts in the allele frequency of genes") and interactions with the environment that increase the survival and reproductive success of this variation is natural selection and it plays a major role in adaptations (and exaptations). Over time, this process can result in speciation, the development of new species from existing ones. All contemporary organisms on earth are related to each other through common descent, the products of cumulative evolutionary changes over billions of years. Evolution is thus responsible for the vast diversity of life on Earth, including the many extinct species attested to in the fossil record.

Genetics: Biology. the science of heredity, dealing with resemblances and differences of related organisms resulting from the interaction of their genes and the environment.

Adaptation:
a. any alteration in the structure or function of an organism or any of its parts that results from natural selection and by which the organism becomes better fitted to survive and multiply in its environment.

b. a form or structure modified to fit a changed environment.

c. the ability of a species to survive in a particular ecological niche, esp. because of alterations of form or behavior brought about through natural selection.

Reproduction: Biology. the natural process among organisms by which new individuals are generated and the species perpetuated.

So how could I be alive today if Evolution took billions of years to produce a new species? So lets say I was evolving from a 4 legged animal and lost my front legs(and they began to evolve to arms) according to evolution theory, I would've died and not been able to adapt to my environment in time to survive. In order for evolution to work it would've needed to to alter my genes simaltaneous in order for me to have survived my genetic alteration.

I believe we were designed with the capability to adapt in matter of days and were given genetic code to keep us all from looking like are ancestors. I think its ironic for people to say over billion years we developed an upright position and developed a sophiscated brain compacity compared to other animals which inhabit this earth.

Then evolutionist throw in this word CHANCE.. All this happen by chance which I think is more ironic by reading the facts we should've died between monkey and human form.

If evolution were true than if we all started having sex with monkeys for generation to generation for a billion years eventually are genetic code would change and monkeys would eventually get pregenant and pop out half monkey and human babies.. But wait if we all started having sex with monkeys are population would drop and eventually would mean are human species would die off because people would just be having sex with monkeys and monkeys would dominate and we would be dead for our ignorance.

So can someone please explain why genetics adaptation is Evolution.. True Evolution would mean mutation of your own genetic pool resulting in sudden change in spcies but mutation usually leads to death.

[Goat]

Evolution: In biology, evolution is change in the heritable traits of a population over successive generations (influenced by natural selection, genetic drift, or gene flow). The variation (genetic variation) in the units of heredity ("shifts in the allele frequency of genes") and interactions with the environment that increase the survival and reproductive success of this variation is natural selection and it plays a major role in adaptations (and exaptations). Over time, this process can result in speciation, the development of new species from existing ones. All contemporary organisms on earth are related to each other through common descent, the products of cumulative evolutionary changes over billions of years. Evolution is thus responsible for the vast diversity of life on Earth, including the many extinct species attested to in the fossil record.

Genetics: Biology. the science of heredity, dealing with resemblances and differences of related organisms resulting from the interaction of their genes and the environment.

Adaptation:
a. any alteration in the structure or function of an organism or any of its parts that results from natural selection and by which the organism becomes better fitted to survive and multiply in its environment.

b. a form or structure modified to fit a changed environment.

c. the ability of a species to survive in a particular ecological niche, esp. because of alterations of form or behavior brought about through natural selection.

Reproduction: Biology. the natural process among organisms by which new individuals are generated and the species perpetuated.

So how could I be alive today if Evolution took billions of years to produce a new species? So lets say I was evolving from a 4 legged animal and lost my front legs(and they began to evolve to arms) according to evolution theory, I would've died and not been able to adapt to my environment in time to survive. In order for evolution to work it would've needed to to alter my genes simaltaneous in order for me to have survived my genetic alteration.

I believe we were designed with the capability to adapt in matter of days and were given genetic code to keep us all from looking like are ancestors. I think its ironic for people to say over billion years we developed an upright position and developed a sophiscated brain compacity compared to other animals which inhabit this earth.

Then evolutionist throw in this word CHANCE.. All this happen by chance which I think is more ironic by reading the facts we should've died between monkey and human form.

If evolution were true than if we all started having sex with monkeys for generation to generation for a billion years eventually are genetic code would change and monkeys would eventually get pregenant and pop out half monkey and human babies.. But wait if we all started having sex with monkeys are population would drop and eventually would mean are human species would die off because people would just be having sex with monkeys and monkeys would dominate and we would be dead for our ignorance.

So can someone please explain why genetics adaptation is Evolution.. True Evolution would mean mutation of your own genetic pool resulting in sudden change in spcies but mutation usually leads to death.

First of all, evolution is defined in the change of allese over time. That means that it isn't in an individuals lifetime, but rather over generations. The only time there will be a change in allels is during reproduction. The forms of the genes that will help the organism to surivive and reproduce will tend to become more common that those variations of genes that reduce survival and reproduction. While there is an element of chance (a mutation in the reproductive in a sperm or egg), there is a filter applied (the ability to surive and reproduce). This 'filter' reduces those varations that do not promote survial to the point of being able to reproduce. It
DOES promote the genes that might have long term detriment, but also provides a shorter term survival until reproduction can occur (sickle cell anemia in malaria infested areas, for example).

Most mutaions are neutral. These might come into play when there is an environmental upset (a gene that allows for survival in a different climate but is neutral in the current climate won't be selected for until the climate does change).

If you have two population in isolation from each other, over time, their ability to
successfully have offspring when they do come into contact diminishes, and eventually stops. For example, Lions and tigers can produce offspring, but they do not produce fertile male offspring. Horses and donkeys can produce offspring, but
it is exceedingly rare that this offspring is fertile at all.

The part you are missing is that the it is not only chance. While there is an element of chance involved, there also nonrandom element. That is the ability of the organism to surive and reproduce to the next generation. This eliminate your claim that 'mutation usually leads to suddden death' (an unsupported assersion btw).

[Confused]

You keep arguing your assertion that we evolved from monkeys. Our genetic makeup points to a common ancestor. That doesn't' necessarily mean it was a monkey, but perhaps instead an extinct ancestor of them. How many species have become extinct in the past 150 years???? Now consider the past 6 millions years. But still, evolution doesn't mean extinction. While changes in alleles can occur to prompt evolution, not all of the species necessarily have to have this change in alleles to survive. That would be the theory of adaptation in which case the strongest survive, or those with the ability to adapt to their environment. Perhaps this adaptation is a result of evolution, but it need not be.

On an interesting note, the National Geographics magazine published an article I think it was the Novemeber issue, or maybe August, about finding a 3.3 million year old infant with human traits from the waste down. While the skull still had the protruding facial features the one thing that is truly interesting is that they found an intact hyoid bone in the exact place man has today. As you know, the hyoid bone is one of the defining elements needed for human speech. Evolution? Or just a random hyoid bone happened to get encased with this fossil?

[Vladd44]

Thanks for the laugh, I needed it.

I can only hope your oversimplifications are in an effort to smear an opposing viewpoint rather than such a total misunderstanding of what you think you disagree with. If it is an accurate representation of what you think evolution actually is, then please learn the subject matter before you decide what you believe.

So how could I be alive today if Evolution took billions of years to produce a new species? So lets say I was evolving from a 4 legged animal and lost my front legs(and they began to evolve to arms) according to evolution theory, I would've died and not been able to adapt to my environment in time to survive.

I fail to see the relevance, unless your claiming to have lived billions of years personally.

But, take the horse for example. It is one of the best documented evolutionary chains we currently have available.

The Hyracotherium is commonly accepted as an ancestor to the horse coming from the Eocene epoch in the Palaeogene period. It was much smaller, had feet with 4 toes and it lacked molars.

The fossil records show that the area of its origins began to dry, which caused vast overgrowth of vegetation to die out. This change reduced the Hyracotherium's ability to hide from predators. With this change things that would help the animal avoid death also changed. Offspring with greater speed (to run away) and better ability to elevate its head (to see danger) had a better chance at survival than those not so fortunate. It also caused their diet to switch from vegetation to grass, which accounts for changes in their teeth.

This new need for speed would favor Hyracotherium with longer legs and a more narrow compact foot. The compact feet require less energy to lift, allowing it to conserve energy and increase endurance much like a current variation in dog's feet often called "cats feet". And eventually led to the loss of digits, much like the elongation of the toes on a dog.

As the foot narrowed the descendants of the Hyracotherium's generations followed a course much like the canine foot. Today dogs still have a toe on their front legs (dewclaw) that is a direct result of the elongation, however it has already been lost on the back legs. Eventually like horses, dogs will also lose this toe.

So essentially, due to the drying of the marshes, the "horses" that had longer legs, better ability to elevate their head had an advantage over their relatives who did not have these advantages. Causing them to be more likely to survive, which in turn allowed them to reproduce more often. Over time, causing these changes to become dominant.

I believe we were designed with the capability to adapt in matter of days and were given genetic code to keep us all from looking like are ancestors.

???????????????

If you really believe that, lets put it to the test, the ultimate weakness of evolution is that is is impossible to really duplicate (other than on a micro-organism level) due to time constraints. But if your right, lets lock you in a cage where you need to be 10ft tall to reach food and water for a year. Think about it, when you get out you could make millions in basketball.

Then evolutionist throw in this word CHANCE.. All this happen by chance which I think is more ironic by reading the facts we should've died between monkey and human form.

Once again, I hope your just throwing out arguments to muddy the waters and don't actually believe them. Sure chance mutation had it's part, but overall the adaptations and changes made were the culmination of small changes over vast amounts of time due to their enviroment. A horse didn't develop bc it wanted to run faster, or thought hooves were cooler than multiple toes. These things happened because they were an advantage that increased their chances to survive.

If evolution were true than if we all started having sex with monkeys for generation to generation for a billion years eventually are genetic code would change and monkeys would eventually get pregenant and pop out half monkey and human babies.

Uh, No. If your looking for an excuse to date that cute chimp next door, don't look to evolution.

Chimps and humans share a common ancestor, we did not descend from them, nor did they descend from us. We do share a common ancestor that lived sometime between 8 million and 6 million years ago. That common ancestor bed with its "own kind" just as chimps and humans do. What happened was, two (or more) different groups, living in areas that had different needs developed into what their enviroment molded them into, not interspecies breeding.

But wait if we all started having sex with monkeys are population would drop and eventually would mean are human species would die off because people would just be having sex with monkeys and monkeys would dominate and we would be dead for our ignorance.

On the topic of ignorance, do you like bananas? I really hope you are just trying to get a rise, otherwise, I really pity you.

True Evolution would mean mutation of your own genetic pool resulting in sudden change in spcies

And that is true because you said it was? pffft.

[Viridis]

What about the fact that evolution continues to occur today? Doctors always tell patients with an infection to take the full course of antibiotics, because otherwise it can lead to resistant strains of bacteria. In other words, if you stop taking the antibiotic too soon, some of the bacteria will live and may become resistant to that antibiotic. When those bacteria divide, their "offspring" will also be resistant. That's evolution. Why do you suppose scientists were so worried about the Asian bird flu? They were afraid that it would mutate, allowing it to pass from human to human. That also is evolution. What about all the different breeds of dogs? That was evolution guided by mankind, but a form of evolution nonetheless. It was simply human selection rather than natural selection.

Evolution may be seen every day in the world around you, unless you choose to close your eyes to all evidence that goes against your religious presumptions.

[Christian1234]

What about the fact that evolution continues to occur today? Doctors always tell patients with an infection to take the full course of antibiotics, because otherwise it can lead to resistant strains of bacteria. In other words, if you stop taking the antibiotic too soon, some of the bacteria will live and may become resistant to that antibiotic. When those bacteria divide, their "offspring" will also be resistant. That's evolution. Why do you suppose scientists were so worried about the Asian bird flu? They were afraid that it would mutate, allowing it to pass from human to human. That also is evolution. What about all the different breeds of dogs? That was evolution guided by mankind, but a form of evolution nonetheless. It was simply human selection rather than natural selection.

Evolution may be seen every day in the world around you, unless you choose to close your eyes to all evidence that goes against your religious presumptions.

This is called adapting not evolution. Its still bacteria not a new lifeform. Just like we can adapt to certain viruses.

The last 150 years of species dieing is from are ignorance not nature or Evolution. So for your sake if the world has been around for billions of years, yes, maybe many species died off but to place your faith into CHANCE which lead to sophiscated creatures like us. This would be hard for me to believe, why isn't there any other intelligent creature? Can other animals create computers, sky scrappers, housing, schools, Highways and etc... This is my point and you guys keep saying that we arn't the final product, so if evolution is true there will never be a final product.

All humans look different but were still human. Dogs look different but there all dogs same with cats. If we weren't created with a complex genetic code we'd all look the same and be drones walking around with hopeless lives.

Its hard for me to believe that all this around me happened by chance!

[Galphanore]

Wow. First things first, evolution is not random. It's not based on "chance". Though I doubt you will actually accept that it is so, now the the main misconception you have. From reading your starting post I get the impression that you are thinking along the same lines of many Creationists in that, for example, "a half eye is useless". You make the assumption that someone must have an arm or have a leg, this is based on your statement that :

lets say I was evolving from a 4 legged animal and lost my front legs(and they began to evolve to arms) according to evolution theory, I would've died and not been able to adapt to my environment in time to survive. In order for evolution to work it would've needed to to alter my genes simaltaneous in order for me to have survived my genetic alteration.

But this is a common misconception. First, individuals do not evolve, species evolve through reproduction. Second, you don't just suddenly loose a pair of legs and then wander around till you figure out how to grow arms, there are intermediate forms. Take, for instance, Aligators.
[center][/center]That is an Aligator "foot", but it also has fingers that with minor changes can grasp, and they actually use them to pull themselves around and gain traction. The changes are minor over many generations.

Also, you make the common claim that "All humans look different but were still human. Dogs look different but there all dogs same with cats. If we weren't created with a complex genetic code we'd all look the same and be drones walking around with hopeless lives." A perfect example of this is found when looking at this chart (click on it to view the page it's from) :
[center][/center]When given perfect examples of intermediate fossils the creationists continue to insist that it is either a human or an ape.....and even they can't agree which. Don't let your dogma get in the way of seeing what is going on, remove the rose colored glasses.

[QED]

...but to place your faith into CHANCE which lead to sophiscated creatures like us. This would be hard for me to believe, why isn't there any other intelligent creature? Can other animals create computers, sky scrappers, housing, schools, Highways and etc... This is my point and you guys keep saying that we arn't the final product, so if evolution is true there will never be a final product.

Hello Christian1234 That seems quite reasonable to me -- I'm pretty sure if humans were to vanish from the Earth, then given the slack, some other species would take-up our place eventually.

You're wondering things like "Why us? Why are we the only ones with the smarts in large quantities?". Do you ever wonder about your own particular existence? Why did you turn out to be the nationality, race etc. that you are? Only you are that person living where you are today. It could have been otherwise -- you could have been a 12 year-old Hindu Girl (I'm assuming that you're not!) for example.

It could be that we developed one crucial trick over and above all the other animals (would you not agree that there are a considerable number of similarities in numbers and general layout of limbs organs etc?). Perhaps it was our imagination: The ability to model some non-existent future along the lines of "what if?" (in our minds) would set us up to plan and carry out actions rather than just respond to external events all the time. I see that as a big distinguishing feature when I look from "face to face" between most animals and humans.

Of course imagination isn't restricted to humans alone (there is a great demonstration of a chimp being frustrated by a bunch of bananas strung too high for him to reach. Nearby is a big block that he could move to gain enough extra height to reach them with. A camera records the growing smile on his face as he looks towards the block and its potential value dawns upon him. This potential is then realised immediately with great confidence.).

But regardless of what developments might have taken place in our species it also strikes me that we would then move to suppress any competition for our place at the "top of the table". This fact combined with the first question I posed you (why are you even you) could explain the position that you find so remarkable.

Its hard for me to believe that all this around me happened by chance!

Well "chance" alone is very unlikely to do anything spectacular -- as you instinctively know. What can get results is chance being filtered by selection. This is what happens if you sieve a quantity of random sized grains for example; they go in random but the size of the mesh selects those that come out on the other side. It's just one example of a natural ordering process of which there are many.

In the case of evolution by natural selection "chance" plays the role of offering up variations which are then selected or rejected according to how useful they were in sustaining the animals blood-line. Does that seem unreasonable to you? If so why?

[methylatedghosts]

So how could I be alive today if Evolution took billions of years to produce a new species? So lets say I was evolving from a 4 legged animal and lost my front legs(and they began to evolve to arms) according to evolution theory, I would've died and not been able to adapt to my environment in time to survive. In order for evolution to work it would've needed to to alter my genes simaltaneous in order for me to have survived my genetic alteration.

Front legs were not lost and rplaced with arms. They lost their function as legs as we began to stand on two feet, and gained their function as arms with hands. i.e. they became arms. They evolved to arms

If evolution were true than if we all started having sex with monkeys for generation to generation for a billion years eventually are genetic code would change and monkeys would eventually get pregenant and pop out half monkey and human babies.. But wait if we all started having sex with monkeys are population would drop and eventually would mean are human species would die off because people would just be having sex with monkeys and monkeys would dominate and we would be dead for our ignorance.

We split off from the same/similar common ancestor, and now our genetics are dissimilar enough that we cannot reproduce with them. We are not the same species.

So can someone please explain why genetics adaptation is Evolution.. True Evolution would mean mutation of your own genetic pool resulting in sudden change in spcies but mutation usually leads to death.

Usually - yes. Not always. Sometimes it is beneficial.

[2 many loop holes]

It has taken 15 billion years to create us. Evolution is very slow.

Evolution: In biology, evolution is change in the heritable traits of a population over successive generations (influenced by natural selection, genetic drift, or gene flow). The variation (genetic variation) in the units of heredity ("shifts in the allele frequency of genes") and interactions with the environment that increase the survival and reproductive success of this variation is natural selection and it plays a major role in adaptations (and exaptations). Over time, this process can result in speciation, the development of new species from existing ones. All contemporary organisms on earth are related to each other through common descent, the products of cumulative evolutionary changes over billions of years. Evolution is thus responsible for the vast diversity of life on Earth, including the many extinct species attested to in the fossil record.

Genetics: Biology. the science of heredity, dealing with resemblances and differences of related organisms resulting from the interaction of their genes and the environment.

Adaptation:
a. any alteration in the structure or function of an organism or any of its parts that results from natural selection and by which the organism becomes better fitted to survive and multiply in its environment.

b. a form or structure modified to fit a changed environment.

c. the ability of a species to survive in a particular ecological niche, esp. because of alterations of form or behavior brought about through natural selection.

Reproduction: Biology. the natural process among organisms by which new individuals are generated and the species perpetuated.

So how could I be alive today if Evolution took billions of years to produce a new species? So lets say I was evolving from a 4 legged animal and lost my front legs(and they began to evolve to arms) according to evolution theory, I would've died and not been able to adapt to my environment in time to survive. In order for evolution to work it would've needed to to alter my genes simaltaneous in order for me to have survived my genetic alteration.

I believe we were designed with the capability to adapt in matter of days and were given genetic code to keep us all from looking like are ancestors. I think its ironic for people to say over billion years we developed an upright position and developed a sophiscated brain compacity compared to other animals which inhabit this earth.

Then evolutionist throw in this word CHANCE.. All this happen by chance which I think is more ironic by reading the facts we should've died between monkey and human form.

If evolution were true than if we all started having sex with monkeys for generation to generation for a billion years eventually are genetic code would change and monkeys would eventually get pregenant and pop out half monkey and human babies.. But wait if we all started having sex with monkeys are population would drop and eventually would mean are human species would die off because people would just be having sex with monkeys and monkeys would dominate and we would be dead for our ignorance.

So can someone please explain why genetics adaptation is Evolution.. True Evolution would mean mutation of your own genetic pool resulting in sudden change in spcies but mutation usually leads to death.