It's interesting that you brought up Hitler though because (though you may disagree with this) he is the ultimate embodiment of social darwinism, which is what Mrs. V's post was about: taking an atheistic evolutionary position to its logical conclusion will lead one to some very cruel and inhuman positions. Obviously, doctors don't generally take things that far, but is it because they logically can't go there or emotionally don't want to go there?
I don't think the devil creates anything. And I don't think God made fossils to confuse us. My point is that the fossil evidence I know of supports that there used to be some forms of life that don't appear to exist anywhere today. However, in order to support evolution, what is needed is for some of the fossil evidence to show intermediary forms and that is what seems to be lacking. This was the main reason why the punctuated equalibrium theory was put forth. Basicly, that theory was that evolution (which previously was said to happen very gradually) in fact happens so rapidly that it isn't seen in the fossil record.
It was during my paleobiology class and the professor made an aside as to "what would be discerned by those humans alive at the time as a worldwide flood". Before you run off with this , make sure that you understand what a glacial dam is... and what it would have looked like to someone in a valley that got ramsacked by this thing... But I believe the year was 1993 or 1994 that I took that course. You might be able to find some material on a geobase server if you just type in glacial dam & tigres euphrates....
You are right, I forget that Hitler considered Jews another race. I guess he is the ultimate social darwinist, I won't disagree with that.
Only Vince Carter is half man half anything else... but there are 'transitional forms' in the rock record. If you get a chance to peruse that talkorigins.org site it will hopefully display a few (I'm not the master of that website, and I don't know how reliable it is as a source... if you have any questions raise them here or there and I'll try to be helpful). Hopefully I can get in 3 secs of work today *ahgghahgh*
I won't have a real informed opinion on (macro)evolution until it can be contained in one comprehensive, non-contradictory theory that doesn't change every 10 years. Until then, every response looks this way to me. creationism faithful: "Evolution is a plausible theory, but science hasn't disproven the bible's account yet." evolution faithful: "Creationism is false because the Bible is false."
Sorry Mrs. Valdez, you were trying to be serious and I hijacked the conversation. I understand your point that you don't believe that there are intermediary life forms between species but I think that to get into a discussion of that magnitude would require literally hundreds of pages and I think that you will not convince me and I will not convince you. I will only say that I find evolution to be believable not because someone told me, but because I rationalized it given the information I gained from my gardner, Mr. StopGraspingForWaysToDenyTheObvious.
I think you are quite right in pointing out that this isn't an arguement that can be won on the BBS. And I didn't come to my conclusions blindly either. But given that, why make make rude comments about the education levels or logic of people who disagree with you?
Achebe, Are you aware of the evolutionary proof for homosexuality in gay men? It's based on genes that promote promiscuity in females. When they are active in men, they create a wildly sexual, girlie man. While the girlie man won't reproduce, the gene is still carried through females while serving a survival function (promiscuity promotes the species). The thing that is cool about this is that evolution wants to create more sexually responsive females. But we are blocking it, because our wild ones generally don't want to have a bunch of babies, and can control it with technology evolutions. So versus the times of Greek baths, we are regressing as a species towards more mechanical and boring sex. I wonder if creationism as anything to do with this regression.
There is evidence that there may have been a catastrophic flood of the Black Sea, or what is now the Black Sea, some thousands of years ago. The scientist that discovered the Titanic... damn, I can't remember his name... has used a remote submersible off the northern coast of Turkey and discovered what he believes is an ancient coastline very far below the surface. Very fascinating stuff. The idea is that the Black Sea was a much smaller freshwater lake that suffered a deluge because of the collapse of the narrow stretch of land at the Bosporus. I should have done a Google search first.
heypartner, I've heard a lot about the mechanistic 'broken' theories of homosexuality but I hadn't heard this particular one. Are you being serious? I'll have to look this one up when I get a chance (and my whole PhD thesis was going to explore the sneaker male aspect of homosexuality... ie Peter Pan orangutans , somebody apparently has a proximate reason, dangit).
Oh yeah Deckard, sorry about that... geobase.com is a consulting firm... geobase servers are accessible through your library
I've got two legs from me hips to the ground and When I move em they walk around And When I liftem they climb the stairs and When I shave em they ain't got hairs..
what is a mechanistic "broken" theory and what is the "sneaker male." btw: I'm serious re: a species of insects. I'll have to hunt that down. It is from the sex lady who specializes on studying the biology of sex across all species. btwbtw: care to explain why Lucy did not produce adaptive radiation, but every other species in that area did...in fact, every species did, right?
So the logical extension of the theory of evolution is Malthusian theory? Eek. B-Bob, Sometimes when I think about the physics of where I am in the larger state, country, continent, planet, solar system, galaxy, universe, space infiniti I want to kill myself...then I realize that, since I am so insignificant, killing myself would not matter. How is that for negative + negative = positive? Science is fun - it makes me not want to kill myself.
Ah, this is much better. All I wanted to do as a scientist was create some unease, and since I'm not a biologist, I was feeling left out of the fun. Now I can sleep well tonight. Thank you.
