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Politics : Evolution -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ~digs who wrote (1219)	12/1/2004 5:31:57 PM
From: TigerPaw	Respond to of 69300

The religious fundamentalists of Darwin's day pounded him a lot about similar plants and animals found on completely different continents. He gave some pretty ridiculous rationalizations. Moving continents seemed even more ridiculous at the time. That is why today's fundamentalists always try to treat Darwin as the last word in the descriptions of evolution instead of the first word. TP

To: ~digs who wrote (1219)	12/29/2004 1:45:03 PM
From: TigerPaw	Respond to of 69300

The scientists found that the human brain's genes had gone through an intense amount of evolution in a short amount of time - a process that far outstripped the evolution of the genes of other animals. guardian.co.uk This article is rather sensational. Rapid evolution and periods of stasis is the hallmark of punctuated equalibrium. Well adapted lifeforms do not evolve much at all, and changes are swallowed into the gene pool. At times of change however, the changes can be quite rapid and specific. This is not unique to humans, it is just that brain development happened to be the area where humans found their need and advantage. "We've proven that there is a big distinction," Prof Lahn said. "Human evolution is, in fact, a privileged process because it involves a large number of mutations in a large number of genes. "To accomplish so much in so little evolutionary time - a few tens of millions of years - requires a selective process that is perhaps categorically different from the typical processes of acquiring new biological traits." It is very common for these types of articles to compare some datum to Darwin's original theory of gradual natural selection and ignore the 150 years of development since then. As humans become more social, differences in intelligence will translate into much greater differences in fitness, because you can manipulate your social structure to your advantage," he said. "Even devoid of the social context, as humans become more intelligent, it might create a situation where being a little smarter matters a lot. "The making of the large human brain is not just the neurological equivalent of making a large antler. Rather, it required a level of selection that's unprecedented." It is similar to the level of selection for resistance to the something like the Black Plague, or an insects resistance to DDT. TP

To: ~digs who wrote (1219)	6/2/2005 10:58:16 AM
From: LLCF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 69300

Some fundamentalists of course are way out there... however there is much misunderstanding on the topic in that many think that evolutions means "random"... ie. no god. The other side {people liking to think of themselves as modern, rational, and scientific} also add to the problem by thinking evolution precludes a greater power {god}. In fact there is tons of evidence supporting the assertion that random mutation couldn't possibly explain many of the 'jumps' and changes being uncovered. The real error seems to be paradigm blindness on both sides... the fundamentalists see god having created something 'back then'... and god of course is 'out there' or 'up there' creating stuff. In accepting this premise, and then rejecting it's ramifications through observation, many reject 'creationism' out of hand with no thought. The reality is that evolution IS creationism unfolding. This corresponds to the enfolded and unfolded {unmanifest and manifest according to the mystics} universes. LLCF