Science vs. Religion: (Chapter 4) (Humans)

by Balance_Maintained , U.S.A., Wednesday, July 27, 2011, 00:01 (4664 days ago) @ xeno6696

I wanted to handle this separately. Natural Selection explains why we're here and not Neanderthals. It explains how life traveled from single-celled to what we see today. It explains how most people living in Northern Europe are resistant to Bubonic Plague. It explains why you find polar bears in the arctic and not in the sahara. It explains why taking antibiotics too frequently can harm you. (Google mRSA.) It explains how, at least one bacteria was able to eventually eat lactose again after having that part knocked out of its genome. It explains why software projects work better using agile vs. waterfall.-Natural Selection-A process in nature in which organisms possessing certain genotypic characteristics that make them better adjusted to an environment tend to survive, reproduce, increase in number or frequency, and therefore, are able to transmit and perpetuate their essential genotypic qualities to succeeding generations.-
ex·plain (k-spln)
v. ex·plained, ex·plain·ing, ex·plains
v.tr.
1. To make plain or comprehensible.
2. To define; expound: We explained our plan to the committee.
3.
a. To offer reasons for or a cause of; justify: explain an error.
b. To offer reasons for the actions, beliefs, or remarks of (oneself).-Here is why I say NS has no explanatory power. NS does not say WHICH genotypic characteristics will survive, as you can see clearly by the pure definition. Only 'those that make them better adjusted to the environment', which makes it scope so broad, so malleable that it can and IS used to call anything and everything natural selection. -Natural Selection explains why we're here and not Neanderthals.
No. All evidence indicates that the Neanderthals and modern humans merged. Additionally, the evidence also indicates that Neanderthals were MUCH better suited for the environment than humans. If that were not enough,NS has yet to come up with any real explanation as to why we are here instead of Neanderthals. What it does is say that we are here, and they are not, so it must be Natural Selection. -It explains how life traveled from single-celled to what we see today.
If NS defines, expounds, or makes how we evolved from single celled organisms plain and comprehensible, then please enlighten me. DHW and I have been going back and forth on the issue of speciation(which is not proven), and have no answer. According to you, NS explains this, so please explain it. Make it plain and comprehensible.-
It explains how most people living in Northern Europe are resistant to Bubonic Plague.Not really. NS does not explain WHY they were resistant in the first place. It also does not account for those who are NOT resistant, or did not die through the original plague, or for those that did not pass on their resistance to their children. In fact, it does not explain anything regarding heredity except that it exists. That is the province of evolutionary theory.-
It explains why software projects work better using agile vs. waterfall.
Definitely not, and a classic example of my statement that it NS is much to broad to have any explanatory power.