I’d be interested in the useful prediction of what the next step in the evolution of mankind is going to be.
And not the AGW kind of nonsense of prediction, that *change* is going to happen. Anyone can claim that.
If science it going to prove itself *useful* then it ought to be able to PREdict the next change, not observe it and claim *See, we were right. Change happened just like we predicted*.
Well, DUH!!! Of course change is going to happen.
What is predictable is that if I subject a population of bacteria to ten different stresses, the genome of the population will change such that the stressful conditions become optimal or normal conditions.
Biologists cannot predict WHAT EXACT mutations will arise - but we know that they will - and that those variations that arise that act to reduce the stress on the organism will predominate in subsequent generations.
Moreover evolutionary science demonstrated is predictive utility rather dramatically recently when the existence of a fish-tetrapod transition was predicted to be at a particular location at a particular time period - and low and behold - they found “Tiktaalik”.
You say “Well DUH!!!! Of course change (in DNA/living organisms) is going to happen”.
Because evolution is defined as a change in the genetic makeup of a population you may as well have said...
Well DUH!!!! Of course evolution is going to happen.
What would possibly stop it? Where is the mechanism to keep DNA exactly the same so that adaptive changes don't arise and predominate?
The funny thing is that he gets so incensed when we call out the fact that the term “evolution” is being conflated to mean both “change over time” (which is correct), and
goo-to-you, particles-to-people, molecules-to-man “evolution”.
The conflation is on purpose. It hides the illogic of
“Given: species change in response to enviromental pressure.
Conclusion: goo-to-you is true”
Also, wrt your “next step in the evolution of mankind” - that assumption MUST be addressed, because it totally devalues what we are NOW as “inferior” to some future superman, and invariably leads to programs of “guided evolution” or eugenics.
Discarding the will of God, man will manipulate DNA in an effort to improve the human race (eliminate birth defects, tendency to disease, etc.) This may be spurred by women insisting on a perfect baby every time and suing when their expectations are not met. For lack of tort reform, a defective baby may already be seen as a "get rich quick" opportunity via a wrongful birth lawsuit.
If God does not intervene - but I am confident He will - the optimum child for the "civilized world" could ultimately be the product of a test tube (like the movie Gattica) - where "natural born" babies are considered to be sub-human.
No, if God does not intervene - but I am confident He will - evolution will not matter. In the name of ridding the world of disease and improving inheritable traits such as intelligence and beauty and avoiding lawsuits - mankind will continue down the road of eugenics by another name.
Maranatha, Jesus!!!