RE: How do you know God isn't dead?
May 16, 2013 at 6:42 pm
(This post was last modified: May 16, 2013 at 6:52 pm by Ryantology.)
(May 16, 2013 at 6:26 pm)Statler Waldorf Wrote:(May 11, 2013 at 1:25 am)Ryantology Wrote: Red becomes violet as a light wave shortens. Show me exactly where red ends and violet begins.
That’s a faulty analogy because the spectrum of life on Earth has never been observed to be a gradual distinction, but rather very classifiable. What gave birth to the very first Human and what made that animal not a Human? I think that’s a rather simple question.
How you do observe a species evolving over millions of years? You can't. You can only go by the fossil record, and it's not complete. Of course, we can see evolution take place on a small scale just by having a kid, it will take on characteristics of both parents but it is still a unique creature. And there are plenty of shorter-term studies which show physical changes to humanity over generations (quick, how many Hispanics existed a thousand years ago?). If people afflicted with dwarfism bred exclusively for many generations, might not they become a species of their own? It's a judgement call. Using the term 'species' in this debate just messes things up, because there is no ironclad objective metric to determine if certain life forms have changed enough to merit being reassigned. We're not a different species from our ancient predecessors as much as we are the same creature which has radically altered its characteristics over time. You can't point to any certain individual and say "this is no longer x, it is now y" because the decision is arbitrary and really beside the point. Evolution is not about one species becoming another. It is about one branch of life changing over generations, depending on how much change is necessary for them to thrive. And this is a process which demonstrably happens. Whatever most primitive single-celled organism first lived and reproduced eventually evolved into me, just as red becomes violet as the wave shortens. The only problem is that this appears to be above your head, but thanks to me, it should not be anymore and you can start forming an argument which is worth this much of a response.