Yahoo! Answers Reply
Hello,
Thank you
for your reply.
Yes, I
agree with you. Evolution is incompatible with the belief in God and if true,
God cannot also be true. Having said that, I do not agree that evolution is
detrimental to humans.
1) Let me
answer your questions.
1. Blood
came first. Early organisms did not need a heart to pump the fluid that
contained nutrients around their body.
2. Gills
came first. Transitional form between fish and land animals had a transitory
apparatus that allowed them to take little gasps of air outside the water for
short periods of time.
This is a
nice video:
How Fish
Jumped out of the Water: Evolution of the Lung
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWGrMxKALzc
3. Brains
came first. Early organisms had very rudimentary brains and then they got
larger and more complex. Then it became encased by a skull in some vertebrate
lineages.
4. No.
bodies developed symmetrically from symmetric fins on early fish. We first had
four legs then 2 of the 4 legs became arms in the early hominid lineages.
5. During
the origin of eukaryotic cells, when mitochondria were engulfed by the host
cells, the host genome was bombarded by bacterial introns and increased
mutation rate. So sex was the only mechanism that helped survival because it
improved the efficiency of selection, allowing good genes to recombine away
from the junk residing in the genetic backgrounds. That is the origin of sexual
reproduction. It happened quite early at the eukaryote lineage .
Any more
questions about evolution? I would recommend this very nice “summary” video:
Tree of
Life video HD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6IrUUDboZo
2) Let me
show you there is proof of evolution.
1. The
fossil record combined with dating methods shows a radiating pattern of life in
a tree-like fashion. Also, there are many transitional forms.
2. DNA
evidence suggests common ancestry and the same radiating pattern.
3.
Endogenous Retroviruses (ERVs) scattered in vertebrate genomes also show a
clear radiating pattern of common ancestry. If not using evolution, how do you
explain that?
4.
Speciation has been observed experimentally.
5.
Beneficial mutations have been observed experimentally (example:Adaptation to
High and Low Temperatures by E. coli (Bennett, A.F., Lenski, R.E., &
Mittler, J.E. (1992). Evolutionary adaptation to temperature I. Fitness
responses of Escherichia coli to changes in its thermal environment. Evolution,
46:16-30.)).
6. The
formation of the first cells is dealt with in abiogenesis. It is a theory
separate from evolution. The first cells were either RNA replicases enveloped
in a fatty acid bilayer or proteinaceous membranes with co-evolving RNA and
protein. The formation of RNA has been demonstrated experimentally under
pre-biotic condition. In other words, there is experimental proof that even
under the early Earth’s conditions, RNA can form
(http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v459/n7244/abs/nature08013.html).
3) I would
like to show you that according to a literal interpretation of the Bible, God
is evil.
Leviticus
25
God says
it’s okay to have slaves from other nations.
Genesis 3
God
punishes ALL women with the pain of childbirth and subjugation to man just
because of the sin of just 2 people.
Genesis 11
God
intentionally confounds the languages of men to impair their communication.
Genesis 7
God murders
the whole of humanity and kills all animals on earth except for Noah and co.
Exodus 11
God murders
hundreds of children (first born).
Exodus 32
God
punishes people for making a golden calf.
Judges
3:26-37
God helps
Ehud kill lots of Moabites.
1 Kings
20:30
God kills
Syrians by causing a wall to fall on them.
Ezekiel
9:6-7
God orders
the killing of women and little children without pity.
1 Samuel 15
Samuel
hewes Agag into pieces in front of God.
1 Samuel
15:1-3
God
instructs the murder of women and children and animals.
Leviticus
24:10-17
God
instructs the public stoning of a man who blasphemed.
2
Chronicles 21:12-16
God
intentionally gives a person bowel disease.
Judges
16:26-33
God
inspires Samson to kill men and women who weren’t attacking him.
2 Kings
2:23-25
God sends
bears to rip up children for calling Elisha bald.
4) I would
like to show you the Bible is scientifically incorrect.
Genesis 1
The
formation of the universe is inaccurately described.
The Earth
was formed after the sun, not the other way around.
Stars are
described as “lights in the firmament of the heavens”. That is not correct.
The origin
of animals and humans is incorrect.
The
timescale of the formation of the universe is incorrect.
The origin
of sexual dimorphism is incorrect.
Genesis 5
The
longevity of early humans described is impossible.
Genesis 7
The global
deluge described is impossible for several reasons.
Genesis 8
The
repopulation of the Earth’s human and animal population on the ark is
impossible for several reasons.
Leviticus
11:13-19
Bats are
not birds.
And there
are also some other scientific falsehood that I left out.
5) The
religious claims of Abrahamic religions are a destructive belief system. They
caused many wars and conflicts:
1. The
crusades
2.
3. The
Spanish inquisition.
4. The
Israeli-Palestine conflict
5.
Indo-Pakistani war
6. Domestic
discrimination of religious minorities throughout history solely because of
their religious beliefs. This includes the burning of innocent women as
witches.
7.
Christianity was the dominant system in the Dark Ages, one of the most brutal
periods of history.
8. Islamic
fundamentalism is one of the reasons for the scientific decline in the Islamic
world.
6) I would
like to show that atheism is a more healthy belief system.
1. Atheism
correlates positively with IQ (http://www.citeulike.org/user/acrmartins/article/4444501).
2. Only 5 %
of scientists in the
3. Atheist
countries do better in indicators of social welfare.
4. In the
So I do not
agree that evolution is bad. I think that the belief of God is surely worse
than evolution, and evolution is true, whereas the belief in God (as he is
depicted in the Bible) is probably not.
