» Santa vs God
Una muy graciosa comparación entre Papa Noel y el Dios de los cristianos.
Fuente: unreasonablefaith.com
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January 7, 2009
January 6, 2007
» The evolution talk — or the real birds and bees talk.
Many creationists Intelligent Design proponents seem to have many misconceptions of evolution, its processes and how it works. Many of these are easily explained and refuted, and doing so would help those sitting on the fence a great deal. While I’m sure that I won’t convince many hard-core believers, I hope that at least we can have an index of some common misconceptions and what their responses are.
If we evolved from apes, why do they still exist?
This is one I’ve found many times. It mainly concerns the evolution of the different branches of primates. There are two main problems with this one. The first one is that it is a deliberate attempt at discrediting evolution because it reduces humanity to mere animals (which is what we are) which doesn’t bide well with many people. The second one is that it is a complete misunderstanding of how evolution works, and how we came to be.
While modern-day apes and Homo sapiens sapiens both share many characteristics, that doesn’t mean that humans evolved from chimpanzees. What it does mean, however, is that humans, chimpanzees, orangutans and gorillas, which make part of the Hominidae family of apes, all had the same ancestor, which then evolved due to the different environments it found itself into the different apes we all see today. This means that, we have not evolved from apes, but evolved with them, as if we were all cousins sharing the same grandparents.
Evolution occurs by random chance.
While some aspects of the creation of life are chance, such as the creation of the first monomers which would become modern life forms in the future — the explanation of when life began isn’t part of evolution, but of abiogenesis — the aspects which make one variation prevail over another is not random chance. As there are mutations and differences in the DNA inside a same species, the offspring inside the same species will not always be the same. The survival of one trait, and therefore the specialisation of the whole surviving species, depends entirely on the fact that the trait passed on is needed to survive.
If there are two giraffes, one which has a long neck, and the other one which has a short neck, which one will survive in a place where trees are tall? This way, the one which survives will have offspring with long necks, which will henceforth be the main trait in the species, as all which have short necks will die soon in their lives and never be able to reach adulthood and give birth to small giraffes. This, as we can see, is not chance at all, but the natural selection of the fittest in a specific terrain. If, perhaps, 100 kilometres away from the two giraffes there is another couple, and there are no trees, but low-lying bushes which the tall giraffe cannot reach, then the one with the short neck will survive, making short necks the prevalent trend in that region.
Evolution is a theory, just like the theory of Intelligent Design
This is a semantics misconception, just like the God of Einstein. There is a mayor difference between me saying that I have a theory that the 2006 Football World Cup was rigged by aliens and the Illuminati because Zidane would never ever risk his reputation and hit Materazzi in the chest, and the theory of evolution. One is a far-fetched, made up theory, and the other one is a scientific, verifiable theory.
A scientific theory has verifiable data, investigation and the ability to be testable, studied and verified by others. It is not just a hunch, or idea as it might mean in colloquial, everyday speech. However, both Intelligent Design and creationism do not have any proof, other than a the fact that humans are complex animals, which must absolutely mean that there’s a creator.
While I am sure we don’t yet have all the answers, I find that doing my part in clearing up some misconceptions and deliberate attempts at distorting the truth in order to fit the conclusion and facts into a pre-made hypothesis.
