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by Mawgan on November 23rd, 2006

Mawgan

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Is there any reason why today's reptiles shouldn't one day evolve back into dinosaurs?

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  • by IdeaSniper on December 8th, 2006

    IdeaSniper

    Since evolutionary theory predicts both an increase and decrease in genetic information, species do not have to "improve" over time. Evolution simply says that species are shaped by their environment. To claim that reptiles could not evolve to dinosaurs would require knowledge of future environments. Also, as we can see with penguins and polar bears, a single environment is capable of shaping very different organisms. So, no evolutionist can claim that it’s impossible for today’s environments to shape a dinosaur, nor can anyone claim to know what future environments will be like. According to evolution, it’s entirely possible that humans evolve to trees.

    In short, using neo-Darwinian theory, no one can possibly state that today’s reptiles could not be the ancestors of future dinosaurs.

    While the claim that evolution is "not random" comes from the fact that the environment shapes the species, nothing is guiding the mutation responsible for rearranging the genetic code. Hence, an organism’s traits will appear entirely at random. Whether the organism survives is dependent on the environment. So, evolutionists say that variation is random, but selection is not. Whether you want to call evolution random or not, one thing’s for sure, in evolution, anything can happen (including the formation of sentient beings who can postulate theories in which anything can happen).

    Comments

    • "It's entirely possible for humans to evolve into trees"? While the rest of your argument is fairly sound, I don't think it is biologically possible - due to basic cellular structure, circulatory function (ect). Mammals tend to stay mammalian; even whales are still mammalian.

      Anonymous

      by Anonymous on June 22nd, 2008

    • "I don't think it is biologically possible"
      The mantra of the evolutionist is (and must be), that given enough time, anything is possible. There is no possibility that evolution will not admit. Perhaps you think it too extreme a concept that humans could evolve to trees, but within the evolutionary paradigm, it is absolutely possible for anything to evolve into anything: that is the very premise of evolution. To say that one living being could evolve into another is not saying much. Darwin himself suggested that life evolved from non-life, so if you don't think that one life form can evolve into another, I'm not sure you should accept evolution at all.

      IdeaSniper

      by IdeaSniper on June 24th, 2008

    • Evolutionary theory does not say that anything can evolve into anything else; what it states is that life arose from a singular source of organic material and branched out in significantly different ways. There are four base kingdoms that taxonomy has separated life into: Protista, Fungi, Animalia & Plantae. There is no evidence at any point in the fossil record of any species belonging to one kingdom spontaneously evolving into another taxonomic kingdom. For instance, a bird has never been found to be in an evolutionary transition to fungi. Because this is the case, no evolutionist would ever extend the theory to state that "anything can evolve into anything else". That's too broad, rather simplistic and doesn't reflect at all what is observed in nature. Evolutionary theory is based upon observation, not outrageous jumps in logic or faith.

      Anonymous

      by Anonymous on June 25th, 2008

    • You are absolutely right about the four base kingdoms arising from a single source. But even famous evolutionists life Dawkins, Gould, and Dennett agree that if evo were to happen again it would not be the same; it might produce 2 kingdoms, or 2 million. Evo theory makes no predication about what a thing will evolve into; rather it merely says, life came from a single source. Now that's an unprovable belief if I ever saw one.

      IdeaSniper

      by IdeaSniper on July 1st, 2008

    • They don't say it WOULDN'T happen the same way, what they say is that if evolution is based purely upon chance, then it is unlikely to occur in exactly the same way. No scientist will ever say it wouldn't happen the same way because it already did so the best we can extrapolate is that under the same conditions it will occur the way it did once with 100% probability. All of the best evidence points in a completely different direction in which life operates on the basis of self-organizing principles. That basic structures arise naturally in highly energetic systems in order to dissipate the energy in the system most efficiently - appropriately enough, these are called "dissipative structures".

      Anonymous

      by Anonymous on July 1st, 2008

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