Posted on 02/08/2005 3:50:43 AM PST by PatrickHenry
My little book? I have thousands of books. I know, you mean the Bible. Do you believe there is a God? If not YOU must be the most Supreme being, being a man, right? It only takes some mere decades of being on this earth, two of which are spent in childhood and adolescence ( I have to stop and look words up, mis-spell just one word and everything you say is discounted, "He's illiterate!" "She's a witch!" talk about your Dark Ages), to discover they are so intelligent they can discount thousands of years of history and knowledge acquired by others.
I don't know, Hindu-Arabic numerals were a great advance in mathematics as was algebra. Where do you think that these were developed? (Hint: Al gebra was the original name in the language of the people who developed it) Who do you suppose developed the science of astronomy to the point where really accurate calendars were possible? (Hint: they did so before Columbus and didn't live in Europe, Asia, or Africa) Who developed geometry, trigonometry, and many of the philosophical foundations of modern education, not to mention the form of governement that we consider to be the most desirable today? (Hint: Zeus might be pretty mad at you if you can't figure this one out.) Last time I checked, the Arabs, the Mayans and the Ancient Greeks were not Christians. This doesn't even mention the Chinese who made some pretty big advances in material science (paper, gunpowder) or early civilizations who developed written languages and agriculture.
Mathematics may be very useful while considering evolution or any other theory regarding the past.
For example: The number of ancestors required for me to have exist doubles every generation into the past, this must happen. 2 parents, one generation back, 25 years. Eight great-grandparents, 3 generations back 75 years.
20 generations back I must have had 1,048,576 grandparents, this is all in one generation of time,500 years ago.
30 generations back, 1,073,741,824 grandparents, of course evenly half men, half women. 750 years ago.
35 generations back it required 17,179,869,184 grandparents for me to exist as I am today. At my 25 year per generation average this would have been 875 years ago.
Now, every generation requires my grandparents to double, a generation can only be so long. Of course there were not 17 billion people on earth, let alone all of European descent 875 years ago. I have thoughts on this, what are yours?
at some point, your (and my, and those of everyone else) ancestors start to appear in the family tree at multiple loci, as the divergent branches cross each other.
this is not a problem.
Still I need 8 great grandparents discounting everyone else. 20 generations ago I, myself had to of had 1,048,576 grandparents whether they were shared by many others or not. A biological fact, right?
no, fellah. read again.
your family tree crosses itself many times.
meaning that some of your ancestors are represented as "20th-great grandfather" through multiple lines, essentially creating "virtual" duplication where no real duplication has occured.
shall I generate a chart to graphically explain this process?
No, I understand, like 2 and 3rd cousins marrying they have the same gg-ggg-grandfather. But still.
It seems to me that your argument would rule out the possibility that we all are decendants of Adam and Eve. After all, to go back that many generations, there must have been an astronomical number of people, not two.
but, still, what?
beyond second-cousin, the genetic issues are nil.
this doesn't even get into the level of distal-family "inbreeding" concommitant to populations isolated by geography, tribalism, or other factors.
Okay, I said I had my thoughts on it. The world is not as rigid as my set scale, as you help point out. But could it be such a change as to drop my 20 generation ancestors from over a million to mere thousands? Must've been.
I did not put it forth as an arguement. And as you see, the answer to my speculation rules nothing out.
It is believed that the "zero" originated in India but how much influence was Hindu and the details are lost.
What is your main problem with the theory of evolution? I just cannot believe you accept it whole hog.
Now we are disputing the facts concerning evolutionary science. What is about all this you feel threatened by? Do you have very much invested in your desire that there is evolution?
yes.
if you are truly interested in the topic, I'm sure you can find a reputable geneologist who can show you how often the crossings occur, and at what point they become essentially inevitable, using documented lineages of families rather than logical speculation.
I think you need another roll of aluminum foil ...
You need to go talk to your minister. The tin-foil is not working.
.......This PROPOSAL places whales squarely within the large group of cloven-hoofed mammals....."
(Emphasis MINE)
Either it's fact or it's a proposal. Why are science writers so ignorant?
I have no "main problem" with the theory.
I have some complaints about some of the details, the persistence of reliance on morphologic similarity, an institutional bias in favor of graduation rather than paradigm shifts, etc... but these stem from human impatience: in time, the amount ofd data available, andour understanding of those data, will correct these minor flaws.
Your math is way off. You forgot the extensive in-breeding ...
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