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Story of evolution can be seen as comedy of errors (The Ancient Hiccup, Male Hernias, and more)
Philadephia Enquirer via Houston Chronicle ^ | Saturday, April 26, 2008 | Faye Flam

Posted on 04/27/2008 2:42:03 AM PDT by canuck_conservative

"Oh what a piece of work is man," wrote Shakespeare, long before Darwin suggested just how little work went into us. Somehow, that same process that gave us reason, language and art also left us with hernias, flatulence and hiccups.

One argument scientists often make against so-called intelligent design — the idea that evolution cannot by itself explain life — is that on closer inspection, we look like we've been put together by someone who didn't read the manual, or at least did a somewhat sloppy job of things.

Viewed as products of evolution, however, our anatomical quirks start to make sense, says University of Chicago fossil hunter and anatomy professor Neil Shubin, author of the recent book Your Inner Fish. And by focusing on our less lofty traits, evolutionary biology can help dispel one of the most egregious and even tragic fallacies surrounding Darwinian evolution — that it moves toward perfection, with man at the apex of some towering ladder.

Evolution of Hiccups

That misreading of evolution has been connected to the eugenics movement of the early 20th century, with the Nazis extending the man-as-ideal notion to blue-eyed blond German-man-as-ideal notion.

"Darwin didn't believe it, but some, who saw it through a more religious light, tended to want to interpret evolution as a steady march toward the pinnacle of humanity," says University of Pennsylvania ethicist Art Caplan, who has written extensively on the eugenics movement.

By today's understanding, evolution by natural selection doesn't march toward anything — it just modifies existing creatures to better compete in ever-shifting environments.

Understanding something as seemingly trivial as the evolution of hiccups can help clear up some profound misperceptions on the nature of life and humanity.

The sound of a hiccup echoes back to our very distant past as fish and amphibians some 375 million years ago, says Shubin. It's really just a spasm that causes a sharp intake of breath followed by a quick partial closing of our upper airway with that flap of skin known as the glottis. It's best if you can nip it in the first couple of hics, he says.

It's much harder to stop once you've let yourself get up to 10. By that point you've reverted to an ancient breathing pattern orchestrated by the brain stem that once helped amphibians breath, letting water pass the gills without leaking into the lungs.

"Tadpoles normally breathe with something like a hiccup," Shubin says.

The theme of his book is that we owe much of our anatomy to our animal ancestors. "Parts that evolved in one setting are now jury-rigged to work in another," he says. "When you look at the human body, you see layer after layer of history inside of us."

The first layer is what we share with chimpanzees and gorillas. The next goes back to mice and cows, while further down, you get to the relatively underappreciated layers we share with fish — which include the backbone and basic layout of the body.

Fishy news about hernias

Our descent from fish explains why men are so much more prone to hernias than women. In fish, Shubin explains, the testicles lie up near the heart.

(Had they remained there, he said, it would give a whole new meaning to the Pledge of Allegiance.)

The budding gonads still form up high in a human embryo, but male mammals reproduce better with their sperm kept a bit cooler than body temperature. And so during gestation, human testicles take an incredible journey down through the body to their destination in the scrotum.

The trip downward puts a loop in the cord that connects the testes to the penis, leaving a weakness in the body wall where the cord attaches that never quite repairs itself.

Hence the trouble with hernias down the road.

The matter of milk

No good story about human design flaws can pass up a discussion of flatulence — and science has addressed the kind that would occur if everyone in the world drank a tall glass of milk at the same time.

Geneticist Pragna Patel of the University of Southern California said one of her favorite examples of evolution in progress involves the gene that determines who can digest the sugars in milk and who cannot.

From genetic studies it appears that so-called lactose intolerance was our ancestral state.

A few people, however, were genetically gifted with an enzyme called lactase, which breaks down lactose, and in groups that started drinking lots of milk around 10,000 years ago, that version of the gene started to take over.

Scientists recently sequenced the lactase gene and found 43 different variations that allow adults to drink the milk of other animals.

"It's the first clear evidence of convergent evolution," Patel said, though it's not known whether those lacking this innovation failed to pass on their genes because they suffered from lack of nutrition or just didn't get invited to any parties.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Miscellaneous; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: evidence; evolution; godsgravesglyphs; proofeverywhere
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To: WVKayaker
“Evolve includes origin, doesn’t it?”
No, it does not, or at minimum, it is not required.

“You must have a starting point in order to measure (apparent) change.’

You can pick any point in a sequence to measure change, either backward of forward.

Yes, history does not have enough time to explain all the evolution that we have evidence for. Pre-history has plenty of time, though.

81 posted on 04/27/2008 6:51:15 AM PDT by marktwain
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To: Mr. Jeeves

Correcting the bizarrely formatted tagline...


82 posted on 04/27/2008 6:51:41 AM PDT by Mr. Jeeves ("One manÂ’s 'magic' is another manÂ’s engineering. 'Supernatural' is a null word." -- Robert Heinlei)
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To: Mr. Jeeves

OK, now it should work. ;)


83 posted on 04/27/2008 6:52:23 AM PDT by Mr. Jeeves ("One man's 'magic' is another man's engineering. 'Supernatural' is a null word." -- Robert Heinlein)
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To: CarrotAndStick
I have admitted to my faith in God. I have no better argument, nor need one to justify myself. I am merely offering you an opportunity to get to know Him better. You prefer to bask in your intelligence and display of knowledge.

I merely measured a 167 IQ on the standardized tests back in the 60's. Now, I am 60, and have grown acquainted with how little I know, much less the amount of information I can process, at any rate.

I have formal education and lots more from the school of hard knocks. I have been to war, and have seen the whites of their eyes. I have suffered loss, and gained more in replacement. I love the life that I live, and know my Creator personally.

I have studied "religions", and have made my own conclusions. I accept those things of which I do not have complete knowledge. I seek to know more.

I talk with God. You call it prayer. I am mere mortal, but He offers me hope. He is as real, to me, as the keyboard upon which I type... and He loves you, too. He gave His life for you. Believe it, or not.

84 posted on 04/27/2008 6:52:45 AM PDT by WVKayaker ( "Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome..." I. Asimov)
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To: hellbender
Can you give a single documented instance of a species which became extinct because it didn't adapt (through evolution) to changing environments? Most extinctions were probably due to catastrophic events like extraterrestrial impacts, volcanic eruptions, etc., from which evolution offers no protection.

Google "living fossils". Postulate why they are so rare.

85 posted on 04/27/2008 6:54:40 AM PDT by CarrotAndStick (The articles posted by me needn't necessarily reflect my opinion.)
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To: canuck_conservative

OK. Let’s hear all about the many intermediate stages of testicular migration. Please note that I am not talking about lack of intermediate evolutionary steps in general; obviously they exist. But this testicle issue involves all sorts of linked and profound changes. The critter has to develop warm-bloodedness (a big step in itself) in order for external gonads to be necessary or desirable. The testicles have to move, which involves changes in many internal structures. A canal has to form to convey them out of the body cavity without leaking other structures. All the plumbing and blood supply to support the new testicle location has to be arranged. A scrotum has to be created where nothing was before. It’s not as simple as the facile arguments of the “pop” evolutionists suggest.


86 posted on 04/27/2008 6:55:10 AM PDT by hellbender
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To: WVKayaker

thanks for your thoughts...
one of the many miraculous examples i use to affirm my belief in god is that, without a master planning this big mess, the chances of a planet, the exact distance from a star to house life, having a moon the exact size and distance from that planet to fit within that sun’s shape to cause such a beautiful phenomena as the solar eclipse cannot be a happenstance of mear chance...

the artistry of god’s creation is awe inspiring and i haven’t seen a majority of it yet... and will never... heaven must be something.

teeman


87 posted on 04/27/2008 6:56:11 AM PDT by teeman8r
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To: WVKayaker

Well, good for you.

It’s not as if I don’t want God. I just don’t want to trap myself in euphoric illogic. So, that leaves it upto God to rectify me, I guess.


88 posted on 04/27/2008 6:57:10 AM PDT by CarrotAndStick (The articles posted by me needn't necessarily reflect my opinion.)
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To: CarrotAndStick

You don’t respond to my challenge. Name a single species which we know “became extinct because it didn’t adapt to changing environments.” The changes which killed off most species were too rapid for evolution to deal with. And there are quite a few “living fossils.” The horseshoe crab is almost unchanged in 200 million years.


89 posted on 04/27/2008 6:59:03 AM PDT by hellbender
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To: Soliton
Gee, according to the Bible, our imperfections came out of disobedience and some day our bodies will be made perfect and eternal as God originally designed them. I'll look at the improbability of the Bible being written over a few thousand years, by over a hundred authors, and managing to not contradict itself, and compare it to a bunch of scientists who are always guessing and theorizing about things, while changing their opinions/theories every few years or so. Once done, I'll give God His due credit.

Have a great day.

90 posted on 04/27/2008 7:00:56 AM PDT by trebb ("I am the way... no one comes to the Father, but by me..." - Jesus in John 14:6 (RSV))
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To: hellbender
from which evolution offers no protection

Well if it gave no protection, then every living thing would have been wiped out by past natural disasters. Meaning we wouldn't be here now.

But obviously that's not the case, is it? So everything that survived must have had some evolutionary advantage in the past, whether than meant living in protective lakes and oceans when meteors hit, or better exterior covering, or whatever.

Open your eyes, buddy. There's a world of evidence all around you, and even inside you! Why do I have to keep holding your hand?


91 posted on 04/27/2008 7:02:11 AM PDT by canuck_conservative
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To: hellbender

Single species?

Where are the three-foot wingspan dragonflies today?

Only the higher-oxygen ratio air of prehistory could have supported such sizes.


92 posted on 04/27/2008 7:03:03 AM PDT by CarrotAndStick (The articles posted by me needn't necessarily reflect my opinion.)
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To: trebb

You mean, those people who wrote the Bible or any other religious text had no axe to grind, especially with the teeming, illiterate, unwashed masses that they sought to influence, for good or bad? Is that why various books of the Bible had to be discovered, rejected or accepted, over time? Is that why the Laws of Moses needed amendment- a new Law written? As for dramatc, public miracles, they all seem to happen mysteriously 2000+ years ago. Is it a coincidence that they all happened at a time when the masses feared raising uncomfortable questions? All pointing to divine perfection, I bet.


93 posted on 04/27/2008 7:10:09 AM PDT by CarrotAndStick (The articles posted by me needn't necessarily reflect my opinion.)
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To: hellbender

Horseshoe crabs of today are a tiny fraction of the sizes they once were, as per their fossil records. Might the size-change adaptation been brought about by the reduction in oxygen percentages, as evidenced by ancient glacial ice-bubble analysis?

Add to that, internal changes- like resisting new diseases.


94 posted on 04/27/2008 7:13:52 AM PDT by CarrotAndStick (The articles posted by me needn't necessarily reflect my opinion.)
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To: CarrotAndStick

So how do you think it all started? Or did it just “evolve” from nothing? How old is the earth? What is “pre-history”? Please show me your wisdom... so I, too, can be enlightened. I must be a rube.


95 posted on 04/27/2008 7:20:06 AM PDT by WVKayaker ( "Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome..." I. Asimov)
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To: WVKayaker

Naw, you’d be a lot better off believing in hocus-pocus.


96 posted on 04/27/2008 7:32:32 AM PDT by CarrotAndStick (The articles posted by me needn't necessarily reflect my opinion.)
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To: CarrotAndStick
I have no idea how old is the Earth. Some people cling to Bishop Ushher's 7000 years, but I see enough proof to believe otherwise. I drive through mountain slashes, which reveal striations of various layers of detritus. Some contain fossilized things and all show the ravages and upheavals of time. Some stripes are vertical, folded upon each other, others are perfectly flat.

I grew up along the shores of various oceans. I had a driveway covered with "Marl", which is nothing more than deteriorated sea stuff, layered along the coastal plains. It packs as good as concrete, but needs something to keep the dust down. It contains lots of fossils.

Yet, with all the "fossil" evidence, there can only be speculation among the science priests. They say they don't need to explain origin, and can surely identify changes which are clear and apparent evidence affirming their religious beliefs and knowledge. Why, because their are too many dots not connected, and too much time must have passed. Of course, pre-history is a convenient explanation. We just call it Genesis 1, and 2...

97 posted on 04/27/2008 7:33:00 AM PDT by WVKayaker ( "Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome..." I. Asimov)
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To: CarrotAndStick

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

2 Now the earth was [a] formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day...


98 posted on 04/27/2008 7:35:42 AM PDT by WVKayaker ( "Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome..." I. Asimov)
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To: CarrotAndStick

6 And God said, “Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water.” 7 So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. 8 God called the expanse “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.


99 posted on 04/27/2008 7:36:50 AM PDT by WVKayaker ( "Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome..." I. Asimov)
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To: CarrotAndStick

9 And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.

11 Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. 12 The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.


100 posted on 04/27/2008 7:37:24 AM PDT by WVKayaker ( "Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome..." I. Asimov)
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