Here is my question. When and why did the process of evolution stop? People often use the the arguement that both man and ape share 98% of DNA. So, in theory, man evolved from ape. Why has the process ended? Why are we still human? Why have we not evolved from humanity into a more superior race? If the theory of evolution was plausible, would it not be a continual process?
Has it stopped? We don't know that it has. It may be that from we humans, something better will emerge eventually.
you obviously dont understand evolution, firstly it was never the claim that we evolved from apes, it says both us and apes evolved from a long exstinct ancestor. and evolution is a long process taking a very long time for one member of a species to change enough for it to be considered a new species, proof is in the fossil record. and humans are evolving, where growing less and less hair, where becoming larger in shape (when its common for men to be 6 ft. a hundred years ago you woul be looked at like a freak for being so tall). where evolution will take humans no body really knows but one thing is certain it will take a long while.
According to the big bang, the universe was created sometime between 10 billion and 20 billion years ago from a cosmic explosion that hurled matter in all directions. In the same essence, evolution proclaims that we are in relation with an ape, due to similar DNA structure. That implies the fact that we were created from the same atom. However, where did the atom come from? "There was a large cosmic explosion hurling matter". If there was a cosmic explosion, there had to be something there. In order for there to be something there, it would have had to been created. Also, experts say that there was not an explosion, rather, an expansion. According to the standard Big Bang theory, our universe sprang into existence as "singularity" around 13.7 billion years ago. What is a singularity? Scientists have admitted that they cannot answer that question. Interestingly enough, I have actually had atheists use this theory to explain why they do not believe in faith. Using a theory that scientists cannot come to a conclusion on proves nothing at all.
If you're interested in that check out 'The Lucifer Principle" the author talks about evolution from a cellular lever and how since we are all decendants of the single cell our behavior can be understood through watching the behavior of giant societies of organisms(since when rationalized we are all related since we all came from the same cell) and he concludes that the whole process of evolution is just a way to take that organism and make it stronger to make the species more successful. And if you think about it, its true.....what is every species trying to do other grow and prosper.
well it is possible to believe in evolution and god, just not evolution and literal reading of genesis. like god could have set evolution and the big bang in motion (it would have been difficult for god to explain to ancient israelites the concept of evolution, and for it to make sense a good deal about biology and atoms and cells and such). the cause of the big bang could be anything, the singularity your asking about could be anything, it could be god. but then it would be fair to ask what created god, how could he spring from nothing if you believe he could you can then say atoms always existed, it would make the same sense.
The big bang is not a proven fact I agree. But on this question, there are other lines of thought too. For instance, some philosophers have suggested that the universe had no beginning - it has always existed. But even if we could prove with absolute certainty that the big bang never happened, it would leave the theory of evolution intact. It's clear enough that this particular planet had its begininning - it must have been formed at some point in time. Later, life appeared. Perhaps evolution is the mechanism used by God to create life. This has been suggested by the Christian theologian and paleantologist, Teilhard de Chardin, and many others. He evidently sees evolution as a progressive expression of God's creative will. It is important to note that whilst religion and religious philosophies may stand or fall if just one point can be clearly shown to be false, the same doesn't apply to science, because it isn't a unified but a diverse field of knowledge. Thus, advances or changes of theory in physics doesn't necessarily affect other theories in fields like biology. There are a number of inconsistencies in the Bible, esp. in the OT. That doesn't mean that the whole thing is false.
You don't really have a good understanding of evolution or the big bang. The big bang was not an explosion of matter into space. Both space and matter were created at the same time. It's hard to explain in common terms, and hard to visualize. But it wasn't really an explosion like one usually thinks of the term. Second, the big bang is not part of evolutionary theory. Evolution is about life, not stars and galaxies. Third, evolution probably hasn't stopped for humans, but it's not having a huge effect because our population size is so large and mobile, it's hard for any one positive mutation to spread throughout the population. Evolution usually acts on small populations, not a whole species. But if the species is not seperated into distinct populations (seperated by a river, mountain, etc), or if they are, but individuals constantly move around and interbreed, then it's the same as not having seperate populations at all. Here are some links you should check out, they explain the basic ideas of evolution. Even though you don't seem to agree with it, it's still good to be informed. http://aolsvc.pbs.aol.com/researchandlearn/wgbh/evolution/library/faq/ http://evolution.berkeley.edu/ http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-intro-to-biology.html And the big bang: http://www.umich.edu/~gs265/bigbang.htm
Ok heres the deal: We are still evolving, there is no such thing as superior species or race. Our DNA constantly undergoes mutations and the mutations that are beneficial to us stay in our DNA. The reason that you don't see anything like X-Men happening is that evolution takes millions of years to produce any affects that you would really notice. The whole thing about the Big Bang - I'm not entirely sure what you are talking about, the whole thing about coming from the same atom, is utter rubbish. And atom is at least one proton and on electron in a stable state. A singlularity is a infentisimally large ammount of energy in an infentisimally small space. I suggest you check out Thomas Aquinas on the whole "First Cause" princible. Blessings Sebbi
You don't necessarily have to suspend your belief in god to believe in evolution. In fact, literalists better get with the times and trust science, because you may as well believe the earth is flat, or the sun revolves around us.
It hasn't.. it's still going on today... What you need to realise is that it's a very VERY slow process.. it's not the sort of thing that happens overnight.
What is god? While we're on the subject, where did god come from? (PS, just because we don't know yet - although i'm sure there are many theories and ideas - does not mean we'll never know)
From what I understand alot of people today are saying that we no longer develop physically because there's really no competition any more. Here is my example: Let's say it's thousands of years ago. You were born without a leg and that happens to be a genetic trait, let's call it the no leg gene, well all of your offspring would also have the no leg gene and they too might be born without a leg. But! evolution works on a competitive nature. If you can't get around to get food then you eventually die and with you the no leg gene. But this is today. If you were born today without a leg that's alright because we can make you a shiny new leg or you can get a wheelchair. Infact you don't even really need the leg to survive anymore because you can still get the things you need to survive, even without the second leg. You could lead a regular life without the leg and get along just fine. The thing is some folk believe that we may be developing mentally now since there is no more competition on a physical level. So it might be that now our brains are evolving. No not crazy super powers. Just simple things like being able to sort information better or being able to understand concepts faster.
well, human observers can watch a "generation" of fruit flies happen in a week or two... and mice generations may take a few months, while dogs or cats may take a couple years... and bacteria can reproduce in days or even hours (& incorporate fresh traits from plasmids, yes, but that's about as much sex as a bacterium can handle; actual sex 9as practiced by eucaryotes such as animals, plants, fungi, & protists (yes, even protista are prolly capable of having sex) can stir the old genetic mixer up a lot (recombination, moeities, F2 alleles, holy crap) & mutations are happening for sure... but with humans, a "geneartion" is like 20 - 30 years or so (yeah, teenagers can have kids, but 25 is prolly a better age to begin procrerating rather than 14 or so, imho...) ~ & historically, many people who considered themselves "christian" back in the 1700s & 1800s believed that plant & animal speices had indeed changed (EVOLVED!!!) over the eons - it was darwin's phrase "by means of natural selection" that bothered some of them (in the mid-1800s, after darwin published his "descent of species") the most... (especially the american variant of the bible-thumping fundamentalist (as "the scopes monkey trial" brought to the fore, mmmmmmm?)...) ymmv...
it hasn't stopped. we're still evolving through breeding. it's just hard to see the whole forest when you're standing in the middle of it.
