What does Evolution Mean to you?

[Ugly Dougly]

We shall always be in struggle with our bestial nature:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wbVIgVi66k[/youtube]
Sometimes the beast wins.

[theCryptofishist]

"Evolution is very badly taught in schools so the results of the survey don't surprise me. On the other hand, creationism has traditionally been an issue in North America and there is a big problem in Australia and Turkey. It matters if people don't understand how science works."

Can I get an amen?

[OnceTheDustClears]

"Evolution is very badly taught in schools so the results of the survey don't surprise me. On the other hand, creationism has traditionally been an issue in North America and there is a big problem in Australia and Turkey. It matters if people don't understand how science works."

Can I get an amen?

Yes. You can.

[ygmir]

"Evolution is very badly taught in schools so the results of the survey don't surprise me. On the other hand, creationism has traditionally been an issue in North America and there is a big problem in Australia and Turkey. It matters if people don't understand how science works."

Can I get an amen?

isn't this the part where you hit someone in the forehead and cast out their demons?............

[gyre]

Does that work?

I've been doing it all wrong!
I'm going to be really busy for awhile.

[ygmir]

ask Jimmy Swaggert...........

[gyre]

ask Jimmy Swaggert...........

Ask him what?

[ygmir]

ask Jimmy Swaggert...........

Ask him what?

if slapping someone on the forehead and casting out demons works...........

I'm sure it has to do with whether you're wearing a condom or not.........

[Simon of the Playa]

you can ask him ANYTHING big boy...

[ygmir]

could we use a Ouiji board?

[gyre]

Simon, your record collection must be something.

[ygmir]

his record is getting longer and longer.............

[anthony paul]

I may dress up as a robot. Considering evolution, and the way things have evolved, it's only a matter of time before robots take over the planet. I may as well join them. :lol:

[Simon of the Playa]

i have a terrific collection of terrible music.

one day, it will cross that magical line from Ridiculous and land firmly in the world of the sublime.

as soon as i get rid of all the Alan Sherman Lp's.

[Oldguy]

Comedian Ben Stein Cancels Speech Over Evolution Controversy
Tuesday, February 03, 2009

BURLINGTON, Vt. — Comedian Ben Stein has withdrawn as the University of Vermont's commencement speaker because of complaints about his critical views on evolution in favor of intelligent design.

UVM President Daniel Fogel said he chose Stein based on the warm response to a lecture he gave on campus last spring. Fogel said, however, he was deluged with e-mail messages from people offended by Stein's views of science.

When told about the criticism, Stein — who was to be paid $7,500 — backed out of the May 17 commencement, Fogel said.

"I did not ask him not to come," he said. "I was not going to let him be blind-sided by controversy."

The former host of Comedy Central's "Win Ben Stein's Money" quiz show, Stein has drawn fire previously for criticizing evolutionary theory and speaking in favor of intelligent design. That view holds that life is too complex to have developed through evolution alone, implying that a higher power must have had a hand in creation.

Stein told the Burlington Free Press that he was not "anti-science" as some critics have labeled him.

"I am far more pro-science than the Darwinists," Stein wrote in an e-mail to the newspaper. "I want all scientific inquiry to happen not just what the ruling clique calls science."

He said the controversy over him as commencement choice was "laughable" and "pathetic."

Fogel said he was sorry that he did not anticipate the extent and intensity of the concerns expressed about Stein.

Stein, 64, a graduate of Yale Law School, worked as a Federal Trade Commission lawyer and wrote speeches for presidents Nixon and Ford. As an actor, he is best known by some as the droll teacher in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off."

In a 2008 documentary entitled "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed," he asserted that scientists are afraid to challenge the theory of evolution because they fear they'll be ostracized or fired.

............................

I suppose Mr.Stein felt the $7,500.00 honorarium was not worth the trouble of intellectual discussion. But wait, this was just to be a commencement speech. Better to have no press than bad press...

[Oldguy]

More on UVM from Burlington Free Press:

Fogel said he had invited Stein — a comedian, lawyer, commentator and financial columnist — to speak about the economy, as Stein had done at another speech at UVM last spring. Fogel said he had been “vaguely awareâ€

[gyre]

So Ben Stein believes in the old 50s science fiction theories that aliens created mankind?
Possible, but I am aware of no science in the field.


And people wonder why the country is so fucked up.

[anthony paul]

It could be possible. Not saying I believe aliens put us on the planet, but just saying that the possibility does exist.

[gyre]

It doesn't seem likely with what we know now.

The more alarming possibility is that life is inevitable all over the universe, but sentience as we experience it (some of us anyway) may not be an attribute favored by nature, or ever necessary.
It's certainly the exception over the span of earth's time.

Maybe we're a fluke.
Alone.

[ygmir]

It doesn't seem likely with what we know now.

The more alarming possibility is that life is inevitable all over the universe, but sentience as we experience it (some of us anyway) may not be an attribute favored by nature, or ever necessary.
It's certainly the exception over the span of earth's time.

Maybe we're a fluke.
Alone.

well,
I posted this elsewhere, but, it seems to bolster your theory..........

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faU-SK0pHCI[/youtube]

[Ugly Dougly]

The problem is, most public schools emphasize memorizing science facts, rather than understanding the scientific method. The reslut is hordes of Americans who don't get the why and how of evolution and global warming, to name two. When told that these are "only' theories and probabilities, they scoff and turn to superstition. Which I guess it easier to believe.

[theCryptofishist]

It could be possible. Not saying I believe aliens put us on the planet, but just saying that the possibility does exist.

Then why does our DNA so closely resemble the DNA of (other) Great Apes?
Not to mention why does it so closely resemble the DNA of worms?

[ygmir]

It could be possible. Not saying I believe aliens put us on the planet, but just saying that the possibility does exist.

Then why does our DNA so closely resemble the DNA of (other) Great Apes?
Not to mention why does it so closely resemble the DNA of worms?

IIRC it doesn't take much change in DNA to have a completely different organism............

start with chicken stock,

add celery, maybe some shrimp..........

or, add meatballs and mushrooms..........

[theCryptofishist]

It could be possible. Not saying I believe aliens put us on the planet, but just saying that the possibility does exist.

Then why does our DNA so closely resemble the DNA of (other) Great Apes?
Not to mention why does it so closely resemble the DNA of worms?

IIRC it doesn't take much change in DNA to have a completely different organism............

start with chicken stock,

add celery, maybe some shrimp..........

or, add meatballs and mushrooms..........

So you're saying that the aliens came down with their DNA lab and created us, and raised us in incubators or chimp surrogate mothers?

[ygmir]

It could be possible. Not saying I believe aliens put us on the planet, but just saying that the possibility does exist.

Then why does our DNA so closely resemble the DNA of (other) Great Apes?
Not to mention why does it so closely resemble the DNA of worms?

IIRC it doesn't take much change in DNA to have a completely different organism............

start with chicken stock,

add celery, maybe some shrimp..........

or, add meatballs and mushrooms..........

So you're saying that the aliens came down with their DNA lab and created us, and raised us in incubators or chimp surrogate mothers?

sure, I'll go with that........
why not?
it might help with the missing link stuff............
might explain populations appearing in different area of the globe
why we are slightly different, depending on heritage.

If I were going to perform an experiment, like that, I'd probably put several small populations, with slightly different attributes, in different locations and see what happens.......

so,
they took whatever "donor" animal, changed the dna slightly, and, made a breeding stock and set "us" loose...........

I bet it way more entertaining than a sit-com or reality show.............

[theCryptofishist]

The "Missing Link stuff" is more an artifact of journalistic science writing than of any actual unexplained gap in the fossil record.

Anyway, Occum's Razor has no problem slicing through your imaginary aliens.

[ygmir]

find me the theory that can't be cut with said razor............

are you saying there are no significant time gaps in the human fossil record?

I"m sure you know much more than I on this, please, enlighten me...........

[gyre]

In what we have located so far.
Storage conditions seem to be an issue.

[mojo]

IMHO, evolution is all about that "tangled bank" that Darwin wrote about. It makes me consider the vast differences and incredible similarities among the species and how each has adapted to its environment via natural selection.

[theCryptofishist]

find me the theory that can't be cut with said razor............

are you saying there are no significant time gaps in the human fossil record?

I"m sure you know much more than I on this, please, enlighten me...........

There are time gaps in the human fossil record, but what happens is that you have, for instance, "ape" and "man" and you have a missing link called "apeman." When "apeman" is found then they start clamouring for "apeapeman" and "manapeman." Ad nauseum. At this point they don't really know how the disparate fossils fit into the hominid family tree (a tendency that is exasterbated by the fact that whoever finds the newest fossil instantly declares it the actual human ancestor and all previous ones to be dead end side branches.) There's little or no doubt amoung serious palentologists that chimps, bonobos and humans descended from a common ancestor, but there is endless quibbling about how this occured. The arguments tend to create more light than heat; the not particularly well informed members of the lay public and the anti-scientist, anti-evolution religiously motivated public muddy up the waters even worse than the professionals.