The word theory in the theory of evolution does not imply mainstream scientific doubt regarding its validity; the concepts of theory and hypothesis have specific meanings in a scientific context. While theory in colloquial usage may denote a hunch or conjecture, a scientific theory is a set of principles that explains observable phenomena in natural terms. "Scientific fact and theory are not categorically separable", and evolution is a theory in the same sense as germ theory, gravitation, or plate tectonics.
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Anonymous2011-11-21 11:54
Evolution does not attempt to explain the origin of life or the origin of the universe. While biological evolution describes the process by which species and other levels of biological organisation originate, and ultimately leads all life forms back to a universal common ancestor, it is not primarily concerned with the origin of life itself, and does not pertain at all to the origin and evolution of the universe and its components. The scientific theory deals primarily with changes in successive generations over time after life has already originated. The scientific model concerned with the origin of the first organisms from organic or inorganic molecules is known as abiogenesis. The Big Bang theory is the prevailing model for explaining the early development of our universe.
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Anonymous2011-11-21 11:54
Humans did not evolve from chimpanzees, monkeys, or any other modern-day primates. Humans and monkeys share a common ancestor that lived about 40 million years ago. This common ancestor diverged into separate lineages, one evolving into so-called New World monkeys and the other into Old World monkeys and apes. Humans are part of the Hominidae (great ape) family, which also includes chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans. Similarly, the common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees, which lived between 5 and 8 million years ago, evolved into two lineages, one eventually becoming modern humans and the other the two extant chimpanzee species.
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Anonymous2011-11-21 11:56
Evolution is not a progression from inferior to superior organisms, and it also does not necessarily result in an increase in complexity. A population can evolve to become simpler, having a smaller genome, but biological devolution is a misnomer.
According to the California Academy of Sciences, only 59% of U.S. adults know humans and dinosaurs did not coexist. However, the last of the non-avian dinosaurs died 65.5 million years ago, after the Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction event, whereas the earliest Homo genus (humans) evolved between 2.3 and 2.4 million years ago. This places a 63 million year expanse of time between the last dinosaurs and the earliest humans.
Evolution does not violate the Second Law of Thermodynamics. A common argument against evolution is that entropy, according to the Second Law of Thermodynamics, increases over time, and thus evolution could not produce increased complexity. However, the law does not refer to complexity and only applies to closed systems, which the Earth is not, as it absorbs and radiates the Sun's energy.
Evolution does not "plan" to improve an organism's fitness to survive. For example, an incorrect way to describe giraffe evolution is to say that giraffe necks grew longer over time because they needed to reach tall trees. Evolution doesn't see a need and respond to it. A mutation resulting in longer necks would be more likely to benefit an animal in an area with tall trees than an area with short trees, and thus enhance the chance of the animal surviving to pass on its longer-necked genes. Tall trees could not cause the mutation nor would they cause a higher percentage of animals to be born with longer necks. In the giraffe example, the evolution of a long neck may equally well have been driven by sexual selection, proposing that the long necks evolved as a secondary sexual characteristic, giving males an advantage in "necking" contests over females.
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Anonymous2011-11-21 11:57
Dinosaurs did not go extinct due to being maladapted or unable to cope with change, a view found in many older textbooks. In fact, dinosaurs comprised an extremely adaptive and successful group, whose demise was brought about by an extraordinary event that also extinguished many groups of plants, mammals and marine life. The most commonly cited cause is that of a asteroid impact on the Yucatán Peninsula, triggering the Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction event. Also, dinosaurs aren't actually extinct as such. Birds evolved from small feathered theropods in the Jurassic, and while most dinosaur lineages were cut short at the end of the Cretaceous, some birds pulled through, so that dinosaur descendants are very much a part of the modern fauna.
Mammals did not evolve from any modern group of reptiles, just like humans have not evolved from chimpanzees (above). Very soon after the first reptiles appeared, they split into two branches. The line leading to mammals diverged from the line leading to modern reptilian lines (the sauropsids) about 320 million years ago, in the mid Carboniferous period. Only later (late Carboniferous or early Permian) did the modern reptilian groups (lepidosaurs, turtles and crocodiles) diverge. The mammals themselves being the only survivors of the synapsid line make them the "cousins" rather than "siblings" of modern reptiles. The confusion over the origin of mammals comes from conflicting definition of "Reptile". Under Linnaean taxonomy reptiles are all amniotes except mammals and birds, thus including the synapsids as well as the first basal amniotes. With the rise of phylogenetic nomenclature in the 1990s, "reptile" also began to be used as a synonym for Sauropsida, which exclude the basal amniotes and the synapsid line. The synapsids are popularly known as "mammal-like reptiles". An example is Dimetrodon, which is often thought of as a dinosaur, but is in fact neither a dinosaur nor closely related to modern reptiles.
>>9-13
Nice try, but I don't believe in words. They're the tools of the devil to create fiction to steer the man from my personal christian HomoGod. Begone, words! Begone from my eyes and ears! I only believe in cock up my anus - amen!
the only reason people believe in religion is because they are unable to understand what nothing would be like. also humans tend to have this mind set that they are so special that they have a god that focuses souly on them.
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:2011-11-25 23:19
If science is true why do you ask dumb questions?
If STD's are true why do you still rape children?
If intelligence is true why does 4chan exist?
If anything is true, why EVERYTHING???
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Anonymous2011-11-25 23:24
hey athiest if god isnt real then how does rgwjnabnain the puddin poops and the sweeters and the hoopty jump feij
religion:0
athiest:0
cosby:over 9000