Pheobe Debates The Theory of Evolution

Original scene from the show... Friends. ^ | NA | NA

[Mr.Atos]

I was just lisening to Medved debating Creationism with Athiests on the air. I found it interesting that while Medved argued his side quite effectively from the standpoint of faith, his opponents resorted to condescension and beliitled him with statements like, "when it rains, is that God crying?" I was reminded of the best (at least most amusing)debate that I have ever heard on the subject of Creationism vs Evolution, albeit a fictional setting. It occurred on the show, Friends of all places between the characters Pheobe (The Hippy) and Ross (The Paleontologist). It went like this...

Pheebs: Okay...it's very faint, but I can still sense him in the building...GO INTO THE LIGHT MR. HECKLES!!

Ross: Whoa, whoa, whoa. What, uh, you don't believe in evolution? Pheebs: Nah. Not really. Ross: You don't believe in evolution? Pheebs: I don't know. It's just, ya know, monkeys, Darwin, ya know, it's a, it's a nice story. I just think it's a little too easy.

Ross: Uh, excuse me. Evolution is not for you to buy, Phoebe. Evolution is scientific fact. Like, like, the air we breathe, like gravity... Pheebs: Uh, okay, don't get me started on gravity.

Ross: You uh, you don't believe in gravity? Pheebs: Well, it's not so much that ya know, like I don't *believe* in it, ya know. It's just...I don't know. Lately I get the feeling that I'm not so much being pulled down, as I am being pushed.

Ross: How can you NOT BELIEVE in evolution? Pheebs: [shrugs] I unh-huh...Look at this funky shirt!!

Ross: Well, there ya go. Pheebs: Huh. So now, the REAL question is: who put those fossils there, and why...?

Ross: OPPOSABLE THUMBS!! Without evolution, how do YOU explain OPPOSABLE THUMBS?!? Pheebs: Maybe the overlords needed them to steer their spacecrafts!

Pheebs: Uh-oh! Scary Scientist Man!

Pheebs: Okay, Ross? Could you just open your mind like, *this* much?? Okay? Now wasn't there a time when the brightest minds in the world believed that the Earth was flat? And up until what, like, fifty years ago, you all thought the atom was the smallest thing, until you split it open, and this like, whole mess o' crap came out! Now, are you telling me that you are so unbelievably arrogant that you can't admit that there's a teeny, tiny possibility that you could be wrong about this?!?

Pheebs: I can't believe you caved. Ross: What? Pheebs: You just ABANDONED your whole belief system! I mean, before, I didn't agree with you, but at least I respected you. Ross: But uh.. Pheebs: Yeah...how...how are you gonna go in to work tomorrow? How...how are you gonna face the other science guys? How...how are you gonna face yourself? Oh! [Ross runs away dejected] Pheebs: That was fun. So who's hungry?

[Aric2000]

Did I say "minds", I meant Mind, hmm, wonder what that little slip means?

[js1138]

I don't think parents of handicapped children would like to be told their children are cursed by god.

[bondserv]

The Original Sin of Adam brought a curse on the universe.

Prior to the curse Adam tended the garden, after sin enter the universe, Adam was forced to work, sweat and till the ground.

Genetics degrade, but were perfect in their original design. The waxing old like a garment was not part of God's creation.

This idea is completely and clearly laid out throughout scripture.

[VadeRetro]

Technically, they're only dangerous to small children who run and emit high-pitched squeals. Such stupid children deserve to die for inducing the wolf-dog's natural "prey response."

[Lurking Libertarian]

Can a chihuahua mate with a wolf? Isn't the disparity in size simply too great?

I don't know about a chihuahua and a wolf, but a male of a very small dog breed can mate with a female of a much larger breed. In a park in new York, I once met a "pugmation"-- a backyard cross between a pug and a dalmation.

[PatrickHenry]

It's not the 9th yet. You're a poop-head! Always have been. Always will be. Hee hee hee!

[Condorman]

The so called scientists did not even bother to test whether they could produce viable offspring between them. So no, they do not show speciation.

I love predictable patterns. But be that as it may, why does it matter if they COULD mate when in a natural environment, they DON'T mate?

Take the salamanders. Please. Ha!

But seriously, I expect a hybrid between two such wildly different coloration strategies will produce offspring less fit than either of the two parents, and therefore subject to significantly greater predation than either of the parents.

In other words, even if the two subpopulations did reproduce successfully with each other, a higher mortality rate for the hybridized offpsring, and not necesarily lack of offspring would create two subpopulations reproductively isolated at the end of the ring.

I ask you this: What is the difference in reproductive success between a mating that produces no offspring, and a mating that produces offspring that are immediately eaten?

[BMCDA]

But why did it degrade in such a way that these "errors" in the genome exhibit a tree-like structure?

[Aric2000]

You're Christian bashing again, AREN'T you, aren't you?

Sorry, just couldn't help myself.

Sounds really crazy, but they seem to think it makes sense.

Maybe this agreement will actually do some good things to these threads.

We can always hope, right? ;)

[Condorman]

People define species to fit the needs of their ideology. Evolutionists would expect a rather fuzzy definition. Darwin said he had come to regard species as just strong varieties. So it is not surprising that evolutionists regard the species boundary as anything that, in the wild, results in groups not intermating.

Humans love to categorize things. It makes thinking easier if one can create convenient huristics instead of dealing with everything one at a time. I'm gonna have to whisper this but sometimes stereotypes aren't bad.

The definition of species is like that. To draw an analogy that will be missed by the people who need it most, if you wake up one morning and it's 55 degrees outside, and by mid-afternoon your thermometer reads 95 degrees, at what temperature would you say the day went from "cool" to "hot"?

[Condorman]

In a park in new York, I once met a "pugmation"-- a backyard cross between a pug and a dalmation. I can't imagine what it looks like, but I bet it's repugmant.

[Aric2000]

GROAN.....

[bondserv]

Look down from a plane onto the badlands. The erosion patterns are amazing. Destruction can create some amazing undesigned structures.

[BMCDA]

Hey punk! Are you threatening me??

LOL, ain't it fun ;^D

Maybe this agreement will actually do some good things to these threads.

Aye, I'm pretty sure it will. At least it works on other forums where you can have a nice conversation without any name-calling.

Sounds really crazy, but they seem to think it makes sense.

Yes, but I really don't understand why. Maybe this creator wanted to make his creation look as if it evolved ;)

[BMCDA]

Look down from a plane onto the badlands.

Mmmm... OK

The erosion patterns are amazing.

Yepp

Destruction can create some amazing undesigned structures.

Yeah, now your point is...

[bondserv]

Your tree is more of tumbleweed that rolls around to various evolutionists and gets pruned and grafted in with different branches everywhere it goes.

It is amazing how much travel that tumbleweed has gotten; scientists have been assuming structures to mean one thing only to continually redefine the "real" significance after a short time. This is what can be called "Speculative science" with varying conclusions that often contradict one another.

It would be better for them to simply admit they don't know what the data means, and for those interested it is a hobby similar to building puzzles. After all we don't need this speculation to benefit us, and the one area we see this speculation impacting, the "health industry", there are continual revisions taking place. Coffee? Sugar? Carbohydrates? Protien? Cancer? SARS? AIDS? Alzheimers? MS? ALS?...

[js1138]

Genetics degrade, but were perfect in their original design.

That is an interpretation, and one I believe is in error. First of all, on logical grounds, because perfection, by definition, does not degrade. Second, on observational grounds, selection and wastage remove non-viable copies, just as the CRC check and redundency removes errors from computer data transfers. Thus, even imperfection can maintain itself without degradation. You are assertion that God is a less capable engineer than humans.

[RightWingNilla]

And as someone who has extensive project experience and understanding of project constraints on the final result, one would absolutely expect errors, DNA coden reuse for new functionality, defects (mutations) that provide advantages but with damaging limitations, and so on.

In most cases the errors found in the human genome are notlinked to nor are required in any way for the functionality of the "working" parts.

The major difference is that evolutionary theory says "well, given enough time and geographical isolation it just happens" and intelligent design says "except what just happens is guided."

This sounds more reasonable to me, and would be consistent with a common ancestor and shared errors observed. But it is no more falsifiable than the theory that angels guide the planets around the sun in addition to the natural gravitational forces.

[js1138]

The Original Sin of Adam brought a curse on the universe.

The bumper sticker I referred to really exists; it is really used by parents of handicapped children; and it is really addressed to your assertion that birth defects are the result of original sin.

[RightWingNilla]

Sorry, just couldn't help myself.

Hey, this is the last day to get it out of your system.

So...f*&%$!! you, you f*&^*% b**^*$!!!!

And that goes double for the rest of you f*&%*&$ m*&*&^ f*&%!!!!