Why Evolution Is True

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Vestigial Structures are structures left over from generations ago that serve little purpose today in the body of many species. There are many examples of vestigial structures in the human body, the male nipples, the appendix, and the tail bone to name a few. These are leftovers from common ancestry once serving a purpose. Any good designer would not include vestigial structures in their design which proves humans evolved.

Atavism occurs when animals are born with features that have long disappeared. The term atavism is sometimes called an “evolutionary throwback”. Atavism can be seen in Whales. It is said that millions of years ago the ancestor of the whale walked on land leaving remnants of their lineage with a pair of “Hind Legs” imbedded in their tissue

Chapter 4, 5

Continental drift can explain how different species can evolve similar body forms across the planet. The landmasses on Earth’s surface are constantly moving. They are carried by immense forces generated by convection currents in the liquid rock in the mantle of the planet. By plotting these movements backward, we can reconstruct the landmasses as they were millions of years ago. At one point 250 million years ago, all the continents were combined in a single landmass called Pangaea (Greek for “all land”). Over millions of years, this broke up into our present-day continents.

The Mesosaurus, a type of lizard that is now extinct is a great example for proof of Continental drift. Its fossils are found only in South America and South West Africa. When Mesosaurus was alive, South West Africa and South America must have been joined.

Convergent evolution is when similar features evolve between species with different lineages. The term analogous is used to describe similar features derived through convergent evolution. The Coral snake and the Scarlet King snake are perfect examples of convergent evolution. The King snake mimicked the coral snakes color pattern to a degree in order to fool predators.

Natural selection is the theory that organisms change over time. There are five basic steps, Inheritance, Selection, Variation, Adaptation and Time. Basically the best suited organisms for the environment will survive to reproduce a similarly well suited descendent. After a few generations of filtering, poorly suited species die out

Chapter 6, 7, 8

Micro and Macro Evolution. Microevolution generally means a species slight genetic change over time, usually over a few generations. Gradualism is a term used to describe this long term gradual change. Generally organisms that undergo microevolution are not considered a “New Species”.

Macroevolution is a term used to describe organisms that change significantly enough to warrant the labeling of a “new species”. The environment and natural barriers contribute to macroevolution blocking gene flow for speciation to occur. This new species, which if reunited with their predecessor, would not be able to mate successfully

Human Evolution H. habilis was probably the first known member of the genus Homo. It had longer arms compared to its legs, the brains were about the size of a chimpanzee’s and there is evidence habilis used tools.

H. erectus used fire as a tool and its cranial capacity was approximately 850 cc.

H. Neanderthal was probably the most related relative of modern day Homo sapiens. They were known to wear clothing and because of their general size, they had a bigger brain capacity than H. sapiens. It is thought that H. sapiens wiped out Neanderthal due to various reasons leaving H. sapiens as the sole winner in the Hominid race.

Summery

The biggest Philosophical question is “What is the purpose of life”? Why are we on this Earth? Is there a purpose beyond our daily activities leading to a greater goal? We all have our own personal views, some would like to think that there is a greater purpose given to us by what some would say, “A creator”.. There are so many unanswered questions about “Life” itself. Yes, we are a living breathing being but there has to be more. A soul? Are we here to learn a lesson? And what happens when that “Lesson” is learned? It’s hard for me personally to believe that the ‘Human being” developed randomly from a single celled organism. How do you explain love, hate, want, that gut feeling you get and finding out it was right. All mere traits due to “evolving”?

According to the video in module 7, “We”, early humans, spent a million years with just a hand ax, basically a sharpened stone swung with the arm. But, in more recent history, “We” went from barely a light bulb to landing on the moon to instant communication around the world all in less than 100 years. That alone is enough to disprove the evolution theory.

My Theological philosophy is, be the best person you can possibly be. Is there an almighty creator looking down and judging? Did God create the heavens and the Earth? Who really knows for sure? Then there’s the Ancient Alien theory. Whether they actually created us, or just simply showed us the way, they appeared as gods to our ancestors because of their technology and knowledge. A great book I recommend reading is, Marshall Klarfeld’s “Adam, the missing link”. Combines religion and science into a pretty convincing theory.

Social Behavior. “The reason the theory of evolution is so controversial is that it is the main scientific prop for scientific naturalism. Students first learn that "evolution is a fact," and then they gradually learn more and more about what that "fact" means. It means that all living things are the product of mindless material forces such as chemical laws, natural selection, and random variation. So God is totally out of the picture, and humans (like everything else) are the accidental product of a purposeless universe. Do you wonder why a lot of people suspect that these claims go far beyond the available evidence?” ~ Phillip Johnson (b. 1940) Professor of Law at Berkeley

This brings about the “Nothing to lose” attitude we see in a lot of the younger generation. Live for today, screw everyone else, me first, get what you can because when you die your gone, nothing to lose. There is no one to answer to for your behaviors on this Earth.

I’ve learned a lot from these two books, “Why Evolution is True and “Your Inner Fish”. Two books I never would have picked up if it weren’t for this class. But there still remains many

unanswered questions.