Free Republic
Browse · Search
Smoky Backroom
Topics · Post Article

To: metacognative
"big hearty FACT like evolution."

Evolution isn't a fact, and those who claim it is are wrong. The theory of Evolution is just that; a theory. In science, a theory is an axiom which has significant supporting evidence (like, say, the fossil record?), but which has not been directly observed.

"How about a new organ or something? Maybe how a two way reptile lung became a one way bird lung?"

Severe mutations are almost always fatal. Minor ones might just cause severe retardation of horrible disfigurement. This page has some excellent material about how severe most mutations are in a complex organism like humans. From that page, "Two-thirds of all pregnancies are lost. These miscarriages are called spontaneous abortions. Genetic mutation causes an estimated 60% of these spontaneous abortions."

Evolution is not a matter of two humans mating and producing a super-human new species. That's a patent misunderstanding. The theory of Evolution simply looks at what happens when you take minor mutations, genetic variations, natural selection, and a few million years and put them all together under different conditions. It seems that many have this vision that the theory of Evolution claims that elephants are springing up from spider eggs or something. The reality is that it's far more boring than all that, and that it's a very slow and (mostly) gradual shift that occurs over vast amounts of time as conditions for organisms change.
348 posted on 11/29/2004 10:26:43 AM PST by NJ_gent (Conservatism begins at home. Security begins at the border. Please, someone, secure our borders.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 331 | View Replies ]


To: NJ_gent

I'm still waiting for observable evidence of a beneficial mutational step toward a new species


386 posted on 11/29/2004 10:59:04 AM PST by metacognative (expecting exculpation?!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 348 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Smoky Backroom
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson