Happy Birthday, Charles Darwin

[dbackjon]

Your brillance is seeing what occurs in nature changed the world.

[kalm]

Less evolved members of the board in 3...2...1.....

[Ivytalk]

Happy Birthday, Chuckie D!

[SuperHornet]

Did you guys never hear that Darwin recanted that bogus "theory?"

[dbackjon]

Did you guys never hear that Darwin recanted that bogus "theory?"

No, because he never did.

And it is not bogus

[CitadelGrad]

Did you guys never hear that Darwin recanted that bogus "theory?"

Did you hear that it wouldn't matter even if he had? Evolution is observable.

[SunCoastBlueHen]

[SuperHornet]

Did you guys never hear that Darwin recanted that bogus "theory?"

Did you hear that it wouldn't matter even if he had? Evolution is observable.

Hogwash.

[SeattleGriz]

Did you guys never hear that Darwin recanted that bogus "theory?"

Did you hear that it wouldn't matter even if he had? Evolution is observable.

What is your definition of Evolution? I ask, because I have found that Evolution means different things to different people. Usually when a discussion breaks out, it is because they have different ideas as to what constitutes Evolution.

[BlueHen86]

Did you hear that it wouldn't matter even if he had? Evolution is observable.

Hogwash.

Not at all. Penicillin-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae is an example of a life form evolving to overcome a change in environment.

[YoUDeeMan]

Hogwash.

Not at all. Penicillin-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae is an example of a life form evolving to overcome a change in environment.

Evolution? No...it's evil at work. Those pesky Streptococcus pneumoniae have been possessed and altered by the Devil himself!

[Grizalltheway]

The rest of you don't know shit, I'm listening to PhD Superhornet...

[SeattleGriz]

Hogwash.

Not at all. Penicillin-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae is an example of a life form evolving to overcome a change in environment.

This is what I am talking about, when asking what people consider Evolution. To some, this is not evolution, but really just an instance of natural selection (and Bacteria's scary ability to swap DNA with others) coupled with mutation. There is not a net gain in functional systems.

Usually this sort of resistance caused by the mutation results in a overall loss of functionality. ie - Even though they are now resistant to Penicillin, they are more susceptible to other factors that a normal (Wild Type) Strep isn't.

[youngterrier]

Did you hear that it wouldn't matter even if he had? Evolution is observable.

What is your definition of Evolution? I ask, because I have found that Evolution means different things to different people. Usually when a discussion breaks out, it is because they have different ideas as to what constitutes Evolution.

having just taken a test on evolution, I think there are 2; one being controversial, the other being pretty well accepted.

Accepted definition--organisms adapt and change over time

controversial--we all (all organisms) have common ancestry in microscopic organisms.


....then again it was a multiple choice test so I could be 100% wrong on that one

[Chizzang]

All one has to do is spend some time studying the history of sea mammals to understand evolution...
about 55 million years ago whales were land animals
in their on-again-off-again relationship with the sea some 80 species of Mammal that originated in the sea through overtly conspicuous evolution became land dwellers and then again moved back to the sea...

Exact skeletal records exist from about 220 million years back on this family's history of evolving

it's fairly "clear"

This doesn't mean God lied
This doesn't mean God isn't real
Doesn't mean anything other than evolution is real...Nothing personal need be made of the search for truth and the process of evolution - it's as natural and observable as day and night or passing clouds or fossil records

[SeattleGriz]

What is your definition of Evolution? I ask, because I have found that Evolution means different things to different people. Usually when a discussion breaks out, it is because they have different ideas as to what constitutes Evolution.

having just taken a test on evolution, I think there are 2; one being controversial, the other being pretty well accepted.

Accepted definition--organisms adapt and change over time

controversial--we all (all organisms) have common ancestry in microscopic organisms.


....then again it was a multiple choice test so I could be 100% wrong on that one

Yeah. I'm not looking to argue, just pointing out that many people don't see eye to eye because they don't realize they are talking about different definitions.

When I hear evolution, I think man evolved from primordial soup. Not natural selection, or diversity of species.

Perfect timing for this article.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/200 ... arwin-day/

What, exactly, is Darwin's theory? It is not just "evolution." Evolution can mean "change over time," which no sane person denies. Or it can mean life on Earth has a long history, documented by the fossil record. Yet the general outlines of the fossil record were established before "The Origin of Species" appeared in 1859. And biblical chronology did not play a major role in the 19th-century Darwinian controversies, because by 1859 most educated Christians had accepted geological evidence for an old Earth.

Darwin's theory is that all living things are descendants of a common ancestor, modified by unguided processes such as random variation and natural selection. Although nobody doubts that variation and selection can produce minor changes within existing species ("microevolution"), Darwin claimed that microevolution leads to the origin of new species, organs and body plans ("macroevolution").

[Grizalltheway]

All one has to do is spend some time studying the history of sea mammals to understand evolution...
about 55 million years ago whales were land animals
in their on-again-off-again relationship with the sea some 80 species of Mammal that originated in the sea through overtly conspicuous evolution became land dwellers and then again moved back to the sea...

Exact skeletal records exist from about 220 million years back on this family's history of evolving

it's fairly "clear"

This doesn't mean God lied
This doesn't mean God isn't real
Doesn't mean anything other than evolution is real...Nothing personal need be made of the search for truth and the process of evolution - it's as natural and observable as day and night or passing clouds or fossil records

I'm not sure I agree with the whole "cloud theory", either.

[Grizalltheway]

having just taken a test on evolution, I think there are 2; one being controversial, the other being pretty well accepted.

Accepted definition--organisms adapt and change over time

controversial--we all (all organisms) have common ancestry in microscopic organisms.


....then again it was a multiple choice test so I could be 100% wrong on that one

Yeah. I'm not looking to argue, just pointing out that many people don't see eye to eye because they don't realize they are talking about different definitions.

When I hear evolution, I think man evolved from primordial soup. Not natural selection, or diversity of species.

Man didn't evolve from primordial soup. It's a gradual process that's taken billions of years. A billion years is a loooooooong time, and the planet has been around for 4.5 billion.

[SeattleGriz]

Man didn't evolve from primordial soup. It's a gradual process that's taken billions of years. A billion years is a loooooooong time, and the planet has been around for 4.5 billion.

So where did it all start?

[youngterrier]

having just taken a test on evolution, I think there are 2; one being controversial, the other being pretty well accepted.

Accepted definition--organisms adapt and change over time

controversial--we all (all organisms) have common ancestry in microscopic organisms.


....then again it was a multiple choice test so I could be 100% wrong on that one

Yeah. I'm not looking to argue, just pointing out that many people don't see eye to eye because they don't realize they are talking about different definitions.

When I hear evolution, I think man evolved from primordial soup. Not natural selection, or diversity of species.

Perfect timing for this article.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/200 ... arwin-day/

What, exactly, is Darwin's theory? It is not just "evolution." Evolution can mean "change over time," which no sane person denies. Or it can mean life on Earth has a long history, documented by the fossil record. Yet the general outlines of the fossil record were established before "The Origin of Species" appeared in 1859. And biblical chronology did not play a major role in the 19th-century Darwinian controversies, because by 1859 most educated Christians had accepted geological evidence for an old Earth.

Darwin's theory is that all living things are descendants of a common ancestor, modified by unguided processes such as random variation and natural selection. Although nobody doubts that variation and selection can produce minor changes within existing species ("microevolution"), Darwin claimed that microevolution leads to the origin of new species, organs and body plans ("macroevolution").

me neither...I'd lose

[youngterrier]

Man didn't evolve from primordial soup. It's a gradual process that's taken billions of years. A billion years is a loooooooong time, and the planet has been around for 4.5 billion.

So where did it all start?

and therein lies the problem....

[Grizalltheway]

Man didn't evolve from primordial soup. It's a gradual process that's taken billions of years. A billion years is a loooooooong time, and the planet has been around for 4.5 billion.

So where did it all start?

With primordial soup, but no one is saying that it went straight from that to humans.

[SeattleGriz]

So where did it all start?

With primordial soup, but no one is saying that it went straight from that to humans.

Sorry, didn't mean to imply we went from soup to a big bag of soup in skin overnight.

[Grizo406]

So where did it all start?

[Grizalltheway]

With primordial soup, but no one is saying that it went straight from that to humans.

Sorry, didn't mean to imply we went from soup to a big bag of soup in skin overnight.

No worries. I'm just as mystified as anyone else as to how this whole cosmic mess came to be (in fact, it hurts my poor brain to think about it ), but I think evolution is the best theory out there regarding how life on Earth works.