Posted on 07/14/2007 10:33:34 AM PDT by GodGunsGuts
Madonna and Bon Jovi are no match for Hawaiian flies when it comes to karaoke hits at the University of Nebraska State Museum in Lincoln. In a popular exhibit activity, visitors attempt to mimic the unique courtship calls of different species of Hawaiian Drosophila, a group of 800 different flies that may have evolved from a single species.
Fly karaoke is part of "Explore Evolution," a permanent exhibit currently at Nebraska and five other museums in the Midwest and Southwest...that explores evolutionary concepts in new ways. Such an activity is a far cry from the traditional way science museums have presented evolution, which usually included charts called phylogenies depicting ancestral relationships or a static set of fossils arranged chronologically. "Explore Evolution'' has those, too—and then some, because museum curators came to realize that they needed better ways to counter growing attacks on their integrity.
...
Under pressure from these kinds of groups, the Kansas State Board of Education in 2005 approved a curriculum that allowed the public schools to include completely unfounded challenges to the theory of evolution.
In an effort to make their case to the public, creationists raised $26 million in private donations to build the 50,000-square-foot Creation Museum in Petersburg, Ky., which opened in late May. The institution presents the biblical history of the universe. Visitors learn that biblically, dinosaurs are best explained as creatures that roamed Earth with humans. In its first month of existence, the museum drew over 49,000 visitors, according to its Web site.
"Explore Evolution," funded by a $2.8 million grant from the National Science Foundation, is one of many recent efforts by science museums to counter such resistance to evolution...
(Excerpt) Read more at sciam.com ...
The only quasi logical explanation is had when one assumes the parallel and/or infinite universe hypothesis. Then a case for evolution sans an intelligent prime mover gains a fig leaf of plausibility.
You need to talk to the abiogenesis folks about this one. They are still working out the details.
The theory of evolution begins where they leave off.
I suppose you are one of those FReepers who support the idea that FReepers should eat their young?
For instance, what is the origin of life, from which all other life sprang?
Unknown. Today there simply is no good scientific account of the origin of life although there are many interesting speculations.
Did only one organism start all present forms of life, from amoebae to whales?
Probably not. Even today we know that the simpler forms of life routinely share genetic material. Endosymbiosis is a generally accepted explanation of the origin of organelles in eukaryotes. And today's genomes are littered with remants of viruses.
Is life still being spontaneously generated, or was that only possible a couple of billion years ago?
Impossible to say given that we don't have a origin of life theory.
When most of life was extinguished during one or another extinction episode, did it all start over again from another primordial ooze, or did the few life-forms left over become the ancestors of all present life?
Ditto.
What type of evolution is responsible for the presence of non-living matter? Of energy? Of cosmic forces, etc?
Now you're getting into some better territory. It is thought that the universe's hydrogen and some helium condensed out about 300K years after the BB when the universe cooled enough. The heavier elements up to iron were created by fusion in stars. The heavier elements were created and spewed into space by super novas. These naturally occuring elements then combine to form the molecules of non-living (and living) matter. I would classify those theories as very reliable.
The total energy content of the universe is another matter. Some folks maintain that it's pretty close to zero with negative energy of gravity countering the positive energy of matter and light we observe.
Similarly for the cosmic forces, there are some speculations but nothing I'd consider reliable. For example, some folks think the universe is actually part of a megaverse. They think the "true" physical laws of the megaverse admit a very large number of solutions (i.e. laws of the cosmic forces). In most solutions the cosmological constant is much farther from zero than it is in ours. Large positive values cause rapid inflation and within these inflating universes there will be quantum fluctuations that create pockets with different solutions, our own being one.
Is it really possible for a species to become suited to its environment through a random process of mutation?
Yes, and here we're on pretty firm ground. One example is a bacterium in which a frame shift mutation allowed it to metabolize nylon. Frame shifts are about the most random kind of mutation there is. A good analogy is like inserting or dropping a bit in a data stream, the decoded characters would be essentially uncorrelated with the original message.
I hate to be a nit picker because I now what you mean. But in physics, work = energy. I use the term "directed energy" which implies intelligence.
Don't be silly. Nobody said the universe has existed for infinitely long or that life will exist for infinitely long. The same argument could be used against the formation of oil. In a closed universe, your argument would assume that there would need to be hand waving in order to make oil. Unless you realize that the universe has not existed for infinitely long and that the oil will not last infinitely long.
it almost seems like there’s an evo ping list that they use to gang up on threads. They can’t stand on their own two feet so they need numbers.
No. Hydrogen ions , deuterium ions, helium ions, and traces of lithium ions were created in the first four minutes after the Big Bang. It took about 500,000 years for the universe to expand and cool to the point where the high photon flux would not reionize these ions. Thus at about half a million years, these atoms captured electrons and created the cosmic microwave background. The rest of your post is accurate. It is probable that we are third generation or further supernova remnants. The high levels of carbon, oxygen, silicon, and iron are easily accounted for in nuclear physics depending upon the sizes of the stars. Higher elements are only accounted for in supernovas because it takes endothermic nuclear reactions to make them. This is also why they are so rare, especially for high atomic numbers.
Agreed.
Thank you so much for sharing your insights!
Thanks for the additional information!
What part of evolution violates the 2nd Law of Themodynamics? The 2nd Law of Thermodynamics states that the decrease of entropy in a closed system must be exceeded by the increase in entropy of its environment.
Life, living systems, ecosystems, can decrease in entropy as long as their environments increase in entropy more than the system. The 2nd Law is not violated. What part of the evolution of life on earth, if any, (even hypothetically) requires a decrease in entropy of a closed system that exceeds the increase in entropy of its immediate environment?
Everytime I post that post (in threads).. nobody will touch it.. LoL..
Well someone who values the truth would be able to answer fairly quickly. Yes, even if it destroys my world view, I want to now how things really are, not how I think they are.
The only problem with this philosophical argument is that valuing the truth is a world view as well. If it is argued that there is no value in any particular worldview, then there is no reason to value the truth over valuing lies. As I wrote before, this is better fleshed out and argued by philosophers like Thomas Nagel.
Wow- this thread took off in a hurry-
Yeah, it’s kind of a convoluted circular subject.
If it is true that morals are objective, then they by extension are truth itself. If there were no evil or good, then truth wouldn’t need morals to exist and truth would be truth without morals. now, since truth is an objective universal absolute, as I said, that indicates that there must be a truth determiner, who by His nature, is the good. Since we know evil exists, we also know the opposite exists, and that the opposite isn’t determined by an arbitrary subjective determiner, but rather by an absolute who’s determination of Good and evil is also absolute- this is a universal truth that is made aware in each of us (Yes, we can subjectively itnerprete these absolutes as we like, but the objective absolute is non the less still absolute)
If this absolute universal morality exists, then walla, it is truth
[[Is it good or evil that electrons have a negative charge?]]
you aRE attempting to comparing a natural truth with a moral truth, and the two are not the same- it’s not a valid argument
You must be thinking of PatrickHenry's ping list, nearly 400 strong.
He abandoned that ping list, and this website, last fall during the great evo purge. Management clearly stated that those who favored the theory of evolution were not welcome, so he left.
After a couple of months of not posting, he was inexplicably banned. He's over at Darwin Central now.
What we have left here is DaveLoneRanger's creationist ping list. As far as I know there is no longer an "evo ping list;" if there is, nobody invited me.
I am one of the few of the old "evo" posters left. But that's no problem: I can take you all on by myself.
The reason? I post accepted science.
You can have magic, superstition, wishful thinking, old wives tales, folklore, what the stars foretell and what the neighbors think, omens, public opinion, astromancy, spells, Ouija boards, anecdotes, Da Vinci codes, tarot cards, sorcery, seances, sore bunions, black cats, divine revelation, table tipping, witch doctors, crystals and crystal balls, numerology, divination, faith healing, miracles, palm reading, the unguessable verdict of history, tea leaves, new age mumbo-jumbo, hoodoo, voodoo and all that other weird stuff.
I'll stick with science. And I got you outnumbered!
HA!
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