Flawed but functional. Doesn't that about sum up our experience?
The Common Ancestry Thread
by cantleave 271 Replies latest members adult
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cofty
I would think that the trial and error phase of evolution perhaps could be done on a super computer - Frank
That would be nothing at all to do with evolution. It sounds more like eugenics.
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frankiespeakin
Cofty,
I envision in the future that a couple seeking a child will go to DNA processing type clinic get there DNA modified embryo implantation.
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cofty
What a horrible thought. Back to the topic of common ancestry....
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PSacramento
Psac - I think you are committing the teleological fallacy.
Probably.
Its easy to fall for the outdated myth of "The Great Chain of Being" with stupid white men perched at the top.
Evolution has no purpose - no end product in mind.
Other than survival of organisim?
When we talk about design we simply mean the correlation between form and function.
Evolution won't reverse the sub-optimal design of the human eye because there is no selective pressure to do so.
So what is the driving force behind evolution then?
The universe really doesn't care.
Evolution isn't the universe, just a name we have given to ONE of it's many processes.
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PSacramento
Flawed but functional. Doesn't that about sum up our experience?
Flawed according to who? according to what?
If the evolutionary process has no goal, no meaning then how can anything be viewed as flawed? flawed compared to what?
If the point of the eye is to see and that is what it does how can it be flawed?
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cofty
Evolution has no purpose - no end product in mind. - me
Other than survival of organisim? - Psac
No not really, that's still looking at it from the wrong end. Organisms are gene machines. Genes that have an effect on its host that make it more likely to survive and breed will get passed on to future generations - That's it. The word purpose has no place in evolution other than as a metaphor or shorthand.
So what is the driving force behind evolution then? - Psac
Natural selection. Mutations just happen. Most are neutral, many are harmful. Those few that are beneficial march on into the future in the genome of their hosts. Those changes in the genome are what we call evolution.
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jgnat
PSacramento, flawed as in not ideally designed.
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PSacramento
Natural selection. Mutations just happen. Most are neutral, many are harmful. Those few that are beneficial march on into the future in the genome of their hosts.
Those changes in the genome are what we call evolution.
Ok, you say that mutations just happen but why do they just happen? to what point do they happen? If there is no reason for the mutations to happen, why are they happening?
PSacramento, flawed as in not ideally designed.
Accoring to who? to what? There is no "design", the human eye got to where it was based on either by pure blind chance and random mutation OR because it needed to evolve to the satge it did to help with the surival of the species, either way there was no design NOR can it be viewed as flawed unless it doesn't DO what it is supose to do, right? If the purpose is to see and the eye sees, then where is the "flaw" or lack of "ideal"?
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cantleave
Ok, you say that If there is no reason for the mutations to happen, why are they happening?mutations just happen but why do they just happen? to what point do they happen?
Mutations in DNA sequences generally occur through one of two processes, DNA damage from environmental agents such as ultraviolet light (sunshine), nuclear radiation or certain chemicals or mistakes that occur when a cell copies its DNA in preparation for cell division.