Evolution Q & A

Evolution Q & A

Spirituality

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Can evolution occur in reverse? In other words, is it possible that humans could revert to being apes?

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@moonbus said
As I suspected. You don't know what you're talking about. There is no level checking going on inside a molecule or a virus or DNA. You impose an arbitrary human pattern on a mindless process. One could just as well assign to molecules the values do re mi fa so la te do, and then I could accuse you of willful deafness that you don't hear the melody.

Of course there is some ...[text shortened]... emical reaction c occurs, then the Hand of God intervenes to check it and make it right if it isn’t.
You have sounded 8 notes. Actually you repeated do.

As far as level checking, it can be done with a stick to.

Have you ever considered the body's endocrine system? It's constantly checking, and adjusting all the key processes going on in the body.

The endocrine system in the body is constantly checking hormone levels and adjusting them as needed. This process is essential for maintaining homeostasis within the body. Hormones are the body's chemical messengers that carry information and instructions from one set of cells to another. The endocrine system regulates how much of each hormone is released, which can depend on levels of hormones already in the blood, or on levels of other substances in the blood, like calcium. Many things affect hormone levels, such as stress, infection, and changes in the balance of fluid and minerals in the blood.

IP

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@pettytalk said
Can evolution occur in reverse? In other words, is it possible that humans could revert to being apes?
No reversal or reversion is necessary. Our brains have evolved to the point where we can imagine life beyond death, and invent divine, all - powerful beings. We as a species overpopulate and by degrees destroy the only planet upon which we can live, and the only atmosphere that we can breathe. We understand genetic inheritance as being a part of a natural process, and discriminate against those who inherit different genes; I give you skin pigmentation, sexuality and such. We invent and develop 'belief systems' and kill others who don't share them. We invent plastic and don't know what to do with it once it is no longer useful, so we dump it in the ocean. We are smart enough to prevent, cure and in some cases as good as eradicate certain diseases, and smart enough to make weapons which can kill millions of us at the press of a button. We understand that we are very closely related to the chimpanzee that we see caged up in a zoo, but aren't smart enough to make the connection.

All of these things we do, and we kid ourselves that we are somehow 'above nature' and yet....Stand next next to the wrong person in the bus queue and you can catch a virus that can kill you. We are as much apes as the chimp in the zoo, and always will be, and the sooner we realise it, the better.

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@moonbus said
As I suspected. You don't know what you're talking about. There is no level checking going on inside a molecule or a virus or DNA. You impose an arbitrary human pattern on a mindless process. One could just as well assign to molecules the values do re mi fa so la te do, and then I could accuse you of willful deafness that you don't hear the melody.

Of course there is some ...[text shortened]... emical reaction c occurs, then the Hand of God intervenes to check it and make it right if it isn’t.
I recognize what is occurring right in front of me, which is factually true, you can deny it, but that changes nothing. It doesn’t matter if what is taking place is occurring digitally or biologically, to maintain levels mechanisms in both systems will require a means to monitor levels, both systems require a means to react to bring the levels back to normal processing parameters.

It’s laughable that you can say once a threshold is reached things occur and describe processing while denying it.

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@indonesia-phil said
No reversal or reversion is necessary. Our brains have evolved to the point where we can imagine life beyond death, and invent divine, all - powerful beings. We as a species overpopulate and by degrees destroy the only planet upon which we can live, and the only atmosphere that we can breathe. We understand genetic inheritance as being a part of a natural process, and ...[text shortened]... as much apes as the chimp in the zoo, and always will be, and the sooner we realise it, the better.
That’s a low view of people, and a overly optimistic one of a mindless process.

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@indonesia-phil said
No reversal or reversion is necessary. Our brains have evolved to the point where we can imagine life beyond death, and invent divine, all - powerful beings. We as a species overpopulate and by degrees destroy the only planet upon which we can live, and the only atmosphere that we can breathe. We understand genetic inheritance as being a part of a natural process, and ...[text shortened]... as much apes as the chimp in the zoo, and always will be, and the sooner we realise it, the better.
What you are saying, basically, is that evolution is a failure if we cannot survive in the environment we are destroying. But that very failure puts a large stumbling block in the pathway of evolution for the survival of the species.

It seems that apes protect their environment much better than humans. A reversal in evolution, devolution, seems to be in order. If in the end we are going to destroy ourselves, and in the process take with us most, if not all lifeforms on this planet, I say to hell with evolution, and whoever or whatever is responsible for the cause of evolution.

I'm old school, and long ago I accepted that 'everything that becomes or is created must of necessity be created by some cause, for without a cause nothing can be created.

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@pettytalk said
What you are saying, basically, is that evolution is a failure if we cannot survive in the environment we are destroying. But that very failure puts a large stumbling block in the pathway of evolution for the survival of the species.

It seems that apes protect their environment much better than humans. A reversal in evolution, devolution, seems to be in order. If in the ...[text shortened]... r is created must of necessity be created by some cause, for without a cause nothing can be created.
Evolution isn't trying to fail or succeed, and doesn't give two hoots whether one species survives another, ourselves included; there is undeniable evidence that the overwhelming majority of species which have existed have gone extinct. We are unique as a species not only in the catastrophic damage that we are doing to the biodiversity of our planet, but in the realisation that we are doing it. We cannot 'unlearn' what we know, from here on we either stop making a dogs' breakfast of the future of our dear old Earth or we don't, and I think the smart money is on the latter.

In the end it doesn't really matter, I'm not moralising, and if we leave the planet to the cockroaches then so be it, evolution will carry on in its' own sweet way with us or without us.

And by the way you're still making a distinction between 'apes' and 'humans'; they (we) in terms of taxonomy are one and the same thing.

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@pettytalk said

I'm old school, and long ago I accepted that 'everything that becomes or is created must of necessity be created by some cause, for without a cause nothing can be created.
There is a particular parasite who's sole purpose is to infect the brain of an ant. It then turns the ant into a zombie like creature and has it climb the highest thing around (usually a tree). At the end of a branch a spore then bursts out of the ants head dropping further spores to the ground below, ready to infect other ants.

What is the created necessity of this parasite? Where is God in its existence?

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@pettytalk said
What you are saying, basically, is that evolution is a failure if we cannot survive in the environment we are destroying. But that very failure puts a large stumbling block in the pathway of evolution for the survival of the species.

It seems that apes protect their environment much better than humans. A reversal in evolution, devolution, seems to be in order. If in the ...[text shortened]... r is created must of necessity be created by some cause, for without a cause nothing can be created.
Asking what caused evolution is like asking what is north of the North Pole. It's a nonsense question. Some things are a-causal. Evolution is one such 'thing'. Nothing caused it. But it is also not self-caused (which is a nonsense). "Evolution" is a very general term which covers a multitude of causes operating independently of each other (such as chemical reactions in cells and seasonal changes and the availability of food and the existence of predators and the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere and so on).

So far, humans have been around nowhere near as long as dinosaurs. Nothing guarantees that we will survive as long as they did. There is no such thing as devolution. There is change, but no directionality. And, yes, it is entirely possible that we as a species are too stupid not to render our own habitat inhospitable to us.

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@ghost-of-a-duke said
There is a particular parasite who's sole purpose is to infect the brain of an ant. It then turns the ant into a zombie like creature and has it climb the highest thing around (usually a tree). At the end of a branch a spore then bursts out of the ants head dropping further spores to the ground below, ready to infect other ants.

What is the created necessity of this parasite? Where is God in its existence?
If you cannot come up with a reason then God couldn't have one is that what you are suggesting?

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@moonbus said
Asking what caused evolution is like asking what is north of the North Pole. It's a nonsense question. Some things are a-causal. Evolution is one such 'thing'. Nothing caused it. But it is also not self-caused (which is a nonsense). "Evolution" is a very general term which covers a multitude of causes operating independently of each other (such as chemical reactions in cells ...[text shortened]... irely possible that we as a species are too stupid not to render our own habitat inhospitable to us.
It is not a nonsense question not having an answer is as revealing as it gets, there is no reason at all for a mindless process that deals with information to come forward out of an ocean of chaos and bring with it law-like precision in integrated systems in life performing highly specified tasks. There is no mindless reason for the proteins in life to behave in language-like manners so they can be read, or act like programmed computer languages, so there are forms and functions in life. Mindlessness doesn't have reasons, and so it is idiotic to think such a thing could arise out of chaos.

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@kellyjay said
If you cannot come up with a reason then God couldn't have one is that what you are suggesting?
There is no God.

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@ghost-of-a-duke said
There is no God.
So you say, but then you say a lot of things.

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@pettytalk said
Can evolution occur in reverse? In other words, is it possible that humans could revert to being apes?
Evolving simply means change, so evolving to improve or degrade would be no different from one another. It is more logical to degrade than improve over time.

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@ghost-of-a-duke said
There is a particular parasite who's sole purpose is to infect the brain of an ant. It then turns the ant into a zombie like creature and has it climb the highest thing around (usually a tree). At the end of a branch a spore then bursts out of the ants head dropping further spores to the ground below, ready to infect other ants.

What is the created necessity of this parasite? Where is God in its existence?
Why bother bringing up someone (God) you claim isn't real, and asking about where is God in the parasite's necessity? You are not very consistent in your worldview that there is no God if you are always trying to convince others He isn't real. Who are you trying to convince, yourself?