Since, to date, there is not one jot nor tittle of evidence that a new species ever was born of parent of a different species, and since, moreover, the mechanisms of genetics seem to militate against this (how does the ape-man with 48 chromosomes give birth to Adam and Eve, who have 46 chromosomes? If it is a mutation, how does it just so happen that Adam is born in the same generation as Eve, and mates with her, and not with a she-ape?) I would offer that Darwin's theory never rises above the level of a philosophical speculation.
14 comments
Okay, if Adam and Eve really were the very first and only humans, then how in the friggin' hell did we survive all that inbreeding!? I would offer that creationism never rises above the level of a childish fantasy.
Noah & co.
They must have had some weird-ass DNA to have given the world the genetic diversity that exists today.
Also, Labradoodles: in 1988. NEXT!
On Adam and Eve and inbreeding: I actually thought about that, though not in context of religion, but in context of a sci-fi thing involving there being a brand new, artificially created species with very few breeding members to start with. And I came up with this: the first generation is created with dozens of different germ-lines within their reproductive system, none of which closely matches the genetics of the rest of the cells in their bodies. The second generation's genes are mostly random as a result, being genetically unrelated to their parents and siblings.
Granted that this scenario involves more than one breeding pair to start with and *very* large families for the first few generations, but theoretically it could work. Also, promoting non-monogamous reproduction as a form of duty during at least the second and third generations might allow it to work with as few as three or four first-gen breeding pairs or non-monogamous equivalent. I don't think that quite meshes with traditional Judeo-Christian sensibilities, though "go forth and multiply" is certainly in full force here.
I think one of the MANY things fundies don't get about evolution (or hell, biology in general) is that it mostly consists of continuous processes instead of discrete packages, that things like species etc. are mostly human inventions to make categorizations of the life forms around us easier. Of course you can tell two species from very different taxa apart from each other, but the lines become very blurry in regards to closely related ones. And in the end that's were the stupid "no one has ever seen an ape birth a human" argument stems from: They really believe that there can't be continuous connections between two species. That's a) observably wrong and b) would make evolution impossible if it were true, meaning that this argument is actually biased from the start: It only works if you already don't believe that evolution happens. Therefore it is not even a dumb argument, but a circular one.
John C. is Wrong, as usual. No-one (who understands it) has ever said that evolution is one species born of a different species, so the fact that there isn't one jot or tittle about this speaks FOR evolution.
We have chromosomes that seem fused together, as if we had more chromosomes in the past.
Mitochondrial Eve was born hundreds of thousands of years from Y-chromosomal Adam, you nitwit.
I would offer that you don't even understand Darwin's theory, nor understand that it's no longer his theory, as it has EVOLVED so much over the years, he would hardly recognize it if he were to come back. He was also not the only one, or even the first to think along these lines, he was just the first to publish it. You clearly don't know the scientific method, and I doubt you can understand a philosophical speculation, Wrong-y.
We know how the number of chromosomes changes. We can show you exactly where two of them fused together due to a mutation. And you can climb on your soapbox and shout "No evidence" all day, and it won't make a dime's worth of difference to evolution, which will continue just fine without your approval.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
To post a comment, you'll need to Sign in or Register . Making an account also allows you to claim credit for submitting quotes, and to vote on quotes and comments. You don't even need to give us your email address.