(November 19, 2012 at 2:08 pm)John V Wrote:(November 19, 2012 at 9:32 am)festive1 Wrote: Of course it's applicable to evolution. A shared culture (including religion) helps people to form a cohesive society, which allows larger, biologically sustainable groups to form. Want a modern-day reference? Look at the Amish. They are a relatively small group that only marries and therefore mates within itself. Because of this, they have become susceptible to genetic mutations. In this group, it's having more than 10 fingers. Compared to the general public, the Amish have this trait in greater percentages.Huh? This has nothing to do with my point. To clarify, I'm pointing out that fitting data into patterns is a big part of the study of evolution.
I'm pointing out that the Amish are evolving extra fingers because their reproductive population is too small. Genetic diversity is a good way of ensuring that recessive traits (like having extra fingers) remain recessive. This seems to me to be putting data (Amish people having a higher incidence of extra fingers) to evolution (in this example from having too small a population to maintain the genetic health of said population).
