Posted on 02/24/2005 11:42:04 AM PST by ezfindit
Earlier this year, researchers in Spain made a remarkable scientific discovery. Rats are capable of discerning the rhythms of the human language and can tell the difference between different languages. According to the Reuters story, the "study suggests that animals, especially mammals, evolved some of the skills underlying the use and development of language long before language itself ever evolved." There is only a slight catch with the researchers' evolutionary explanation, it does not make any sense. Rather than support evolution, these findings actually reinforce the Creation model of the world. The research seems to indicate yet another weakness of the evolutionary model and adds more weight to a growing body of scientific evidence that disproves many aspects of evolution.
Neuroscientists at the University of Barcelona used Dutch and Japanese in conducting their studies on 64 male rats. They chose Dutch and Japanese because these languages are "very different from one another in use of words, rhythm and structure." According to the story the rats "were trained to respond to either Dutch or Japanese using food as a reward." The findings were indeed remarkable. "Rats rewarded for responding to Japanese did not respond to Dutch and rats trained to recognize Dutch did not respond the spoken Japanese. The rats could not tell apart Japanese or Dutch played backwards," according to the Reuters account.
Full article available at OrthodoxNet.com.
(Excerpt) Read more at orthodoxnet.com ...
Please check your facts first before you comment:
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6856
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=0002E500-0464-11DF-846483414B7F0000
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6808288/
Yes, those are links to real articles. The one you originally was significantly different. Maybe you can figure out which part.
save for later perusal
It's pretty clear you didn't read the stuff you've linked here other than the OrthodoxNet article. None of the 3 mention ID or creationism at all, but each of them references evolution as being the cause for the rat's ability. That Mr. Banescu believes that the reason is 'cuz God made it so, is NOT science.
Bingo. This is creationist claptrap.
They are spinning evidence for evolution as evidence in their favor, and they're hoping people won't take the time to figure out what it all means.
If animals really have something in their brains capable of telling languages apart (because of the way they sound, etc.), it's probably because it serves some other function as well.
Which means that human capacity for language is not Irreducibly Complex according to Behe's definition that no "parts" of the whole may serve any other purpose.
Exactly. Why would God give them language skills? So they could obey human commands? I don't see that happening for a lot of rats.
If animals really had been "designed," the designer would have left out useless stuff like an ability for language. Why give that to rats? How is that part of God's plan?
Creationists won't say. They can't say. They just baldly assert that this is evidence against evolution, even though it doesn't fit into any other theoretical framework.
achtung! sheisskopf alert.
Perhaps recognizing the vocalizations of a predator? Or even some form of rudimentary vocal communication between rats?
Next year: they will put the rats in little costumes.
Which is exceptionally ridiculous in this case, because this could be a precursor for human speech capability!
I don't see why this would be surprising. Rats have excellent hearing and would grow used to the sounds of a particular language. Here's a story that happened to me:
I was traveling in France on a tour with an orchestra. As is my habit when traveling, I took off on foot to explore the areas near my hotel, which included some residential streets.
On one corner, I encountered a friendly-looking dog, so I called him to see if he would come over for a head-patting. He growled at me. Now, dogs generally respond in a friendly way to me, so I couldn't figure it out.
Then, I suddenly had a flash. I called the dog again, this time speaking French. Tail-wagging, the dog trotted over for his head-pat.
Dogs...rats...squirrels...humans...all mammals, with many brain similarities.
I won't be bothering the science lists for this ... ah, material.
But nothing about the rats' abilities is limited to human voices. As Zeroisanumber pointed out, being able to tell the difference between German and Japanese might be similar to being able to tell the difference between noises made by different predators (like a wolf and a cat). I don't know if that's the value they get from it, but it certainly is a possible value.
"...in order to demonstrate the majesty of God's Creation, we've given rat 'A' a set of tiny wooden shoes, whereas you can see that rat 'B' is clearly wearing a little silk kimono..."
Please - get help.
figured not, but figured you could use a hearty laugh :)
Hee hee.
Yep, this sure is stretching it...
eep. just a parlour-laugh?
sorry.
*embarrassed*
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