Evolution explains everything...

[_truth dancer]

Hey Ya'll...

Here is my attempt to get some new discussion going! :-)

Is there anything that evolution does not explain about our world? I suppose we don't get the reason for the universe but I'm thinking more about human life and how we live in the world.

in my opinion, evolution explains pretty much everything from the difficulties in marriage, to the "temptations" we sometimes feel, to the reason we act unkindly towards others, to our obsessions, to the creation of societies, various cultural phenomenon, etc. etc. etc.

What do you think? Can you think of things evolution does NOT explain?

Thanks for any thoughts or insights or opinions,

~dancer~

[_asbestosman]

Evolution probably explains the spork, but I don't think evolution explains why hot dogs come in packages of 8 while buns come in packages of 6.

More seriously, I'd be cautious of using evolution as the new "god of the gaps"

[_beastie]

I think there are things evolution doesn't explain yet, but will very likely help explain in the future. Dawkins, in his book The God Delusion, talks about how evolution provides a pattern of gradual development - more complex organisms developing over millions of years from simple organisms - that will likely be helpful in determining the origin of the universe. There are theories out there, but all none seem elegant and simple enough, and all have potential holes.

Where evolution does a slam-dunk over religion, in my opinion, and again from Dawkins, is that it provides a crane to explain the origin of complex organisms rather than a sky-hook (ie, God). The reason a crane is preferable is because a sky-hook actually magnifies the riddle of the origination of complex organisms by referring to the most complex organism imaginable (ie, God) without any explanation of the origination of that being.

[_Ray A]

Hey Ya'll...

Here is my attempt to get some new discussion going! :-)

Is there anything that evolution does not explain about our world? I suppose we don't get the reason for the universe but I'm thinking more about human life and how we live in the world.

in my opinion, evolution explains pretty much everything from the difficulties in marriage, to the "temptations" we sometimes feel, to the reason we act unkindly towards others, to our obsessions, to the creation of societies, various cultural phenomenon, etc. etc. etc.

What do you think? Can you think of things evolution does NOT explain?

Thanks for any thoughts or insights or opinions,

~dancer~

You might be interested in this exchange between Richard Dawkins and Francis Collins in a recent Time interview, in this particular part about the "why" questions, why are we here, and what is the purpose of life, etc:

DAWKINS: To me, the right approach is to say we are profoundly ignorant of these matters. We need to work on them. But to suddenly say the answer is God--it's that that seems to me to close off the discussion.

TIME: Could the answer be God?

DAWKINS: There could be something incredibly grand and incomprehensible and beyond our present understanding.

COLLINS: That's God.

DAWKINS: Yes. But it could be any of a billion Gods. It could be God of the Martians or of the inhabitants of Alpha Centauri. The chance of its being a particular God, Yahweh, the God of Jesus, is vanishingly small--at the least, the onus is on you to demonstrate why you think that's the case.

Dawkins concluded with this statement:

DAWKINS: My mind is not closed, as you have occasionally suggested, Francis. My mind is open to the most wonderful range of future possibilities, which I cannot even dream about, nor can you, nor can anybody else. What I am skeptical about is the idea that whatever wonderful revelation does come in the science of the future, it will turn out to be one of the particular historical religions that people happen to have dreamed up. When we started out and we were talking about the origins of the universe and the physical constants, I provided what I thought were cogent arguments against a supernatural intelligent designer. But it does seem to me to be a worthy idea. Refutable--but nevertheless grand and big enough to be worthy of respect. I don't see the Olympian gods or Jesus coming down and dying on the Cross as worthy of that grandeur. They strike me as parochial. If there is a God, it's going to be a whole lot bigger and a whole lot more incomprehensible than anything that any theologian of any religion has ever proposed.

Evolution does not explain everything, but you're right, it does explain human behaviour, and why we often act the way we do. If you peruse Dawkins' unofficial website (he doesn't run it) he has some very interesting thoughts about the role of evolution and the necessity for humans to move beyond "animal instinct" in order to survive.

[_truth dancer]

I like the crane vs sky hook analogy! :-)

Of course evolution doesn't yet give us every piece to the puzzle but the theory certainly explains an awful lot!

I'm not just thinking about biological evolution ... I wish there were a better word to discuss the evolution of the whole universe. I like the idea of suggesting the universe unfolds. In other words, Darwin's theory seems focused on the origins and development of life but in reality, life is very, very new to our universe. We had nearly ten billion years of creation/development prior to life showing up on our world... this was an evolution as well in my opinion.

But back to my OP.... is there any human dynamic or relationship or need that is not explained through evolution? Any, emotion, interaction, passion, sickness?

I would like to come up with a list if anyone can think of something. :-)

~dancer~

[_truth dancer]

Hi Ray..

Thanks for these quotes.

They are a perfect example of why I don't believe in Mormonism.

If there is a God, this God would in my opinion have to be so much more than the man/God described in scripture or seen by Joseph Smith.

I can't get the idea of a man/God into my mind. It just doesn't fit. I think we are rather advanced primates but, my goodness we have a LONG way to go and are truly just at the beginning of our species development which came to exist because of the interaction with our environment.

To my way of thinking and as I ponder in meditation and reflection, there is so much more to come, so much beyond our ability to even remotely imagine that to describe God as a human, with emotions and a primate form, with some rather primitive ideas, just doesn't make any sort of sense.

NOT THAT my way of experiencing life is the right way at all... I just can't make the idea of the Mormon/Christian/Egyptian/Jewish/whatever God fit.

Ya know? :-)

~dancer~

[_keene]

The main problem I see with current evolution theory, is that the mutations are believed to be random. "The New Biology," a lecture by Bruce Lipton shows that DNA can actually be changed depending on the environment, rather than by random changes in the replication process.

There was an experiment where they took a bunch of cells, and "broke" the DNA that allowed them to digest milk, and then put them in petri dishes filled with only milk. Expecting the cells to die in their first generation, they were very surprised to see that they were able to fix their own DNA, so they could survive in the milk.

For humans, and any animal with a brain, this means that the DNA of the animal will change, depending on their beliefs about the environment, and their diet. Bruce goes into a lot more detail, but I think it adds a whole new layer to the speed at which evolution can occur, which helps fill in the "missing links" that anti-evolutionists keep harping on about.

It also allows consciousness into the theory, which is what most science misses these days.

[_OUT OF MY MISERY]

The main problem I see with current evolution theory, is that the mutations are believed to be random. "The New Biology," a lecture by Bruce Lipton shows that DNA can actually be changed depending on the environment, rather than by random changes in the replication process.

There was an experiment where they took a bunch of cells, and "broke" the DNA that allowed them to digest milk, and then put them in petri dishes filled with only milk. Expecting the cells to die in their first generation, they were very surprised to see that they were able to fix their own DNA, so they could survive in the milk.

For humans, and any animal with a brain, this means that the DNA of the animal will change, depending on their beliefs about the environment, and their diet. Bruce goes into a lot more detail, but I think it adds a whole new layer to the speed at which evolution can occur, which helps fill in the "missing links" that anti-evolutionists keep harping on about.

It also allows consciousness into the theory, which is what most science misses these days.

I want to evolve into someone that can fly, and heal myself, and walk into burning buildings and time fold, and disappear into walls, and hear people's thoughts so I can help catch serial killers...

SAVE THE CHEERLEADER....SAVE THE WORLD

[_keene]

The main problem I see with current evolution theory, is that the mutations are believed to be random. "The New Biology," a lecture by Bruce Lipton shows that DNA can actually be changed depending on the environment, rather than by random changes in the replication process.

There was an experiment where they took a bunch of cells, and "broke" the DNA that allowed them to digest milk, and then put them in petri dishes filled with only milk. Expecting the cells to die in their first generation, they were very surprised to see that they were able to fix their own DNA, so they could survive in the milk.

For humans, and any animal with a brain, this means that the DNA of the animal will change, depending on their beliefs about the environment, and their diet. Bruce goes into a lot more detail, but I think it adds a whole new layer to the speed at which evolution can occur, which helps fill in the "missing links" that anti-evolutionists keep harping on about.

It also allows consciousness into the theory, which is what most science misses these days.

I want to evolve into someone that can fly, and heal myself, and walk into burning buildings and time fold, and disappear into walls, and hear people's thoughts so I can help catch serial killers...

SAVE THE CHEERLEADER....SAVE THE WORLD

Have you considered hallucinogens?

[_harmony]

I want to evolve into someone that can fly, and heal myself, and walk into burning buildings and time fold, and disappear into walls, and hear people's thoughts so I can help catch serial killers...

SAVE THE CHEERLEADER....SAVE THE WORLD

This time of year, I'd like to fold time too.