(August 4, 2015 at 3:49 pm)Whateverist the White Wrote: What I meant to point at was some routing issues with the giraffes blood system which I've read others argue as proof that the giraffe did evolve from a creature without such a long neck. (I'm sure neither of us has an issue with that.) Unfortunately I don't recall now just what that detail consisted of.
Perhaps you are referring to the recurrent laryngeal nerve, whatevs?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cO1a1Ek-HD0
I actually think that's a reasonable analogy to the evolution of superstition/religiosity in humans. You start with something that imparts an evolutionary advantage (pattern-seeking/the ability of an animal to vocalize) and you morph it, little by little, until its connection to the original evolutionary advantage seems to stretch beyond what might seem reasonable (assuming an ultimate agency behind everything in the universe) or necessary (a highly circuitous route that's twenty-times (or more) longer than it needs to be).
Teenaged X-Files obsession + Bermuda Triangle episode + Self-led school research project = Atheist.
