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Meet the Ancestor of All Animals on Earth
San Francisco, 10:24 PM
Mon Dec 14
25 posts in the last 24 hours
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Meet the Ancestor of All Animals on Earth |
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01/27/09
and to add to the $5 discussion, some people haven't evolved.
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@crashedpc: But that's an awesome start.
01/27/09
I think after a while the horse is too pulped to beat, and it's more like whipping the horse into a frothy cream.
01/27/09
What happening here and countless other silly evolution debates across the Internet is just noise and heat. Not one creationist ever learns. I'm just bloody tired of having to reiterate already long settled issues to trolls and the willfully deluded.
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2) toddbert, read a good basic evo bio book. Heck, I'll gladly buy you one offa amazon.com. (warning: I might not be that generous) It will tell you that individuals within populations evolve. Not the entire species. Think of speciation like a person's family tree: people don't go extinct just because they've had a kid, species don't go extinct just because they've had a child species.
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01/27/09
Many of his children went on to great adventures with their special powers and changes but all those who were born in the image of their greatgreat^1000 father found that perfect home and happily ever after just as satisfying as ever.
As all of the children had children they all had their own adventures and stories. Some found their happily ever after and some died terrible villainous deaths wrought by their own greedy hands.
Sometimes all you can be is fulfilled, fill a niche, survive.
01/27/09
So you're saying his wife held him back?
/ducks
01/27/09
01/27/09
Here's a question. $1 to anyone who can answer it in a way that would make sense to a small child (yes, that would be me)
Why did this cute little fellow not "evolve"? Did he not feel the need to "keep up with the Jones's" and start sprouting extra parts? Why should it exist at all if "it" became "us"? Obviously it had every opportunity to be all that it could be, right? I do realize that's more than one question. Tell you what, that will be $1 for each question. $4 total.
Well, what are you waiting for? Start typing! Wait, that's 5 questions now. Dang! Ok, $5.
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01/27/09
Short answer: keep your $5 bucks troll.
01/27/09
Divergent paths, blah blah blah.
01/27/09
Physics: And the Earth loves you soooo much that it just wants to pull you close for a big hug! That's what gravity's all about!
Chemistry: The little electrons are so happy and full of life and excitement they always want to dance with each other! Sometimes they want to dance with the electrons of other atoms!
Mathematics: Umm. Get back to you on this one.
01/27/09
Science for teens:
Biology: Sometimes things just wanna fuck.
Physiology: Things gotta fuck with something, right?
Math: You gotta use this to count the number of times you get laid.
Physics: Learn your limitations.
01/27/09
Concepts which are easily explained to small children.
Of course, that's because they haven't been blinded and deafened by some ignorant sky-god doctrine.
Keep the $--buy a book.
01/27/09
Your explanation seems to say that this organism achieved a perfect state, where no random mutation ever gave it an edge on it's neighbor. These things are probably found everywhere. So, the idea that their evolutionary path is based on their environment is invalid.
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01/27/09
Your question assumes that there is one form of final evolution that is better than all others (human), when evolution is in fact very environment-specific.
When a beneficial mutation occurs, it is a local phenomenon and will not necessarily engulf an entire species. Just because some of a species has changed and found a new way to survive it does not necessarily negate the means of survival of the remainder of that species.
There is also the fact that if all life evolved simultaneously in the same direction, there would be no such thing as a 'food chain', since all life would be identical. As life evolves, it necessarily creates a symbiotic relationship with the environment it lives in otherwise it will not survive (modern man may illustrate this point very poignantly).
01/27/09
Like with watercolors?
01/27/09
Just because you don't understand why doesn't change that, nor does it matter whether you "believe" it or not. It also doesn't matter that it hasn't been proven to you. No one owes you an explanation as to how it all works. The evidence is out there for you to review.
Evolution is a complex science, and the whole of it is outside the grasp of a small child. You, however and despite your protestations to the contrary, are not a small child. If you can't understand how 150 years of scientific inquiry and discovery isn't invalidated by your ignorance, then it doesn't matter how many small words someone tries to use to explain it to you. You've made a conscious choice not to understand. You don't WANT to understand. You want to believe your sad, little view of the universe is truth. Go ahead, feel free. The rest of the world will continue to move on without you.
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01/27/09
Sure, not as pithy. But better.
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[www.pbfcomics.com]
01/27/09
Here's a watercolor that microcosmically illustrates the poignant point:
01/27/09
"No one owes you an explanation as to how it all works." ?
That's the most counter-scientific, counter-education, counter-logic, counter-intelligence retort you could make.
We always owe and are owed explanations. It's how we learn. It may literally be what separates us from other animals. Many animals can observe and learn from those observations as individual creatures. Humans teach and remember.
01/27/09
That's a good point, but why would they all evolve in the SAME direction? My point was why is little Mr. Blob still a blob. Am I to believe that being all "blobby" is a successful survival trait? Sure they may multiply like crazy, but still...
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Go be "skeptical" of physicists. Or chemists. Or Engineers. Or Podiarists.
01/28/09
Now that you mention it those podiatrists are definitely hiding something...
01/28/09
@Ornament: The heads themselves are not the point the ecocide and resulting cultural death the island represents is the point.
[en.wikipedia.org]
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01/29/09
Or, borrow it from your local library, and give them a $5 donation. Win/win!
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01/27/09
Religious people preach against evolution, but have they every really thought that maybe god wanted it to work that way (evolution)?
Think about how _you_ would explain evolution to a scraggly bunch of completely uneducated, superstitious, hunter/gatherer/farmers, and you can see how "simplifying" the whole thing with a parable makes sense.
01/27/09
*Ahem* Religion is just full of crazy people who would never believe in evolution!
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*goes back to frothing*
01/27/09
Why is a meaningless universe without a god so frightening to some people?
01/27/09
A meaningless universe is frightening simply because it's unpredictable and lonely. God or no god, we all have some reason for being--for why we get out of bed in the morning and push past the tragedies in life.
Without some reference point to make sense of things, life is too complex and chaotic to grasp intellectually, and becomes a very scary thing.
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...
Oh my. Look at this mess! Well. Tell this... God friend of yours to clean it up or I'm telling his parents!
01/27/09
Not everyone needs religion, but everyone needs some way to conceptualize the world, or the world is a frightening and confusing place.
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Which are, uh,
?
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I find it amazing how these insanely primitive beings that everything evolved from are still chilling right next to us after all these millions of years. I bet they were chillin with the cavemen when they were hunting dinosaurs.