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Originally posted by tinfoilman
Now maybe after a few hundred thousand years you'll get an entirely different animal gradually that doesn't fit in the stables anymore, but the farmer will be long dead by the time that happens, and the farmers that come after him will never really notice. It'll just be this gradual thing as farming adapts over time as well and they find new uses for different animals.
"In short, we shall have to treat species in the same manner as those naturalists treat genera, who admit that genera are merely artificial combinations made for convenience. This may not be a cheering prospect; but we shall at least be freed from the vain search for the undiscovered and undiscoverable essence of the term species.
- Origins of the Species, 1859, pg 485
Originally posted by AlphaBetaGammaX
How do these interesting threads always turn into arguments over issues that can't be tested? Perhaps the non-testable ideas that people believe in are the ones they want to prove the most, so they start seeing proofs for them everywhere?
Originally posted by madnessinmysoul
Philosophies aren't what we're talking about here.
Originally posted by madnessinmysoul
...oh, and abiogenesis (which doesn't require a creator) can explain how the 'inanimate' became living.
Originally posted by madnessinmysoul
...no such thing as an 'evolutionist' unless there is also such a thing as a 'circuitist' and a 'gravitist'.
Originally posted by madnessinmysoul
Straw man straw man straw man...I'm sorry, but it's just so blatant I had to repeat it thrice. Who is saying that life isn't alive? And it's relativism that is saying that truth isn't necessarily true...not 'spiritual humanists'.
Originally posted by madnessinmysoul
Last time I checked, blind zealotry doesn't involve a system of testing your ideas as thoroughly as possible in the off chance that you're wrong...so...no.
Originally posted by dbates
Well, that's the point the Ring Species video is trying to make, that things change over time, however the implication is that "Two similar birds don't mate! ZOMG there is no creator!"
What's not highlighted or explained is if the birds actually can't mate or if they're just not attracted to the similar variation of bird due to feather color changes or song pattern differences.
I was curious about this so I did a little looking around. The two different variations of warblers that don't mate are the West Siberian (P. t. viridanus) and east Siberian (P. t. plumbeitarsus). As it turns out they can mate and produce offspring but they just don't like each other's accent and the plumage variation.
Originally posted by dbates
Well, that's the point the Ring Species video is trying to make, that things change over time, however the implication is that "Two similar birds don't mate! ZOMG there is no creator!"
What's not highlighted or explained is if the birds actually can't mate or if they're just not attracted to the similar variation of bird due to feather color changes or song pattern differences. Does this mean they do not breed or that they can not breed? Are we talking about DNA filters that would prevent the fertilization of eggs or just a lack of interest?
I was curious about this so I did a little looking around. The two different variations of warblers that don't mate are the West Siberian (P. t. viridanus) and east Siberian (P. t. plumbeitarsus). As it turns out they can mate and produce offspring but they just don't like each other's accent and the plumage variation. There are no physical issues with them mating, they're just not attracted to each other. This is basically the same thing as saying that the Irish and Africans are different species because they don't like to mate and have different styles of music. So basically the warblers are racist.
The two birds in question, the East Siberian and Western Siberian warblers.
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/98795b21f5e6.jpg[/atsimg] [atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/695a3e281497.jpg[/atsimg]
I don't know how you get from this that the two birds are in fact totally different species. I think this was one of the main issues brought up in Darwin's time. Evolution it would seem wants you throw away the gradient scale and instead put things into neat little boxes. This was actually brought up in The Origin of the Species.
"In short, we shall have to treat species in the same manner as those naturalists treat genera, who admit that genera are merely artificial combinations made for convenience. This may not be a cheering prospect; but we shall at least be freed from the vain search for the undiscovered and undiscoverable essence of the term species.
- Origins of the Species, 1859, pg 485
So okay, fine these birds are different "species" if you want to draw the line because they don't like to mate with each other. To follow this rabbit trail as a proof of evolution is vain since the term "species" itself is speculative and just a convenience for the evolutionist who draw lines at whim in the rainbow of life on Earth to suit their needs.
Originally posted by Dasher
First let me say that I do not have an opinion regarding Evolution or Creationism or Intelligent Design since all are theories and I am waiting for scientific evidence before I sign up with a camp.
However, Life being alive is simply a fact. Life is alive because that is what Life is. Life is living. Or it would be dead.
Originally posted by madnessinmysoul
Philosophies aren't what we're talking about here.
Macro-evolution is plainly unproven
(which is the obvious conclusion forced upon us by it's own definition when considering our inability to observe such gradual changes properly
and combined with all of the contrary evidence which would make evolution even more miraculous to believe than that there are living things "above" our current spectrum of scientific observations)
and, thusly, is only a form of knowledge to ponder, study, and uncover as truth or fiction. If Evolution is the way we have risen up from before there was any realm, then so be it.
However, it, like Creationism/ID, is only a theory of ideas. Ideas are spiritual/philosophical.
Don't think like an ignorant child and take spiritual things to simply mean something that strikes wonder into the hearts of us animals. Spiritual things exist besides our observations.
Originally posted by madnessinmysoul
...oh, and abiogenesis (which doesn't require a creator) can explain how the 'inanimate' became living.
No, I'm sorry, it is overtly ignorant to justify yourself by facts and then ignore them (or lack thereof).
Despite blind scientists pleading with the restrictive laws of physics to insert semi-plausible/workable theories into academia, there is no proof whatsoever of spontaneous life
let alone spontaneous hierarchically and relationally dependent encoded and boundary-observable programs such as DNA/Laws of physics
(despite the whole idea of any encoded data or even "harmonious laws" existing by chance being borderline psychotic).
Within a cut-off limb there is DNA, which is doubly like other physical substances (principles of the periodic table ordered and squared, to put it in a more relatable way, even if only allegorical), but life is more similar to fire and, like the lost limb, can be smothered while the fuel to the fire remains (the limb itself remains intact and with genetic instructions). Fire is a law which we can certainly play with, but we cannot insert new laws.
DNA is a code we can play with, but we cannot write our own program in our own created language.
At this point in human understanding we are less than beginner hackers when it comes to working with genetic code.
Once we understand the language instead of using brute force attacks (which easily will take hundreds of years or more),
we might then be able to rationalize and materialize a basic programming language to create living creatures, but I am fairly sure we will "wisen-up" by then.
Originally posted by madnessinmysoul
...no such thing as an 'evolutionist' unless there is also such a thing as a 'circuitist' and a 'gravitist'.
Actually, this is blatantly wrong and distracting from proper semantics and proven facts.
Evolution is not a fact
Originally posted by madnessinmysoul
Straw man straw man straw man...I'm sorry, but it's just so blatant I had to repeat it thrice. Who is saying that life isn't alive? And it's relativism that is saying that truth isn't necessarily true...not 'spiritual humanists'.
You were not following what I am saying. It would be helpful to you to read some materials on different religions/philosophies because you are stumbling over yourself when you reach the borders of scientific philosophy and philosophy of the unseen.
For example, you treat Life as though it is "dumb."
You are not understanding fully what it means for a larger scale life-form to be living.
Dust is a "dumb" life.
Trees are less dumb life.
Humans are more alive than even the animals because we are spiritual dust. And yet; Life is more alive than human dust.
Originally posted by madnessinmysoul
Last time I checked, blind zealotry doesn't involve a system of testing your ideas as thoroughly as possible in the off chance that you're wrong...so...no.
Yes, it does.
Truth is not testing as much as you are able, but truth is what is true.
Limiting truth to such a lowly capacity, and misunderstanding what it means for a greater system to be living while also putting trust into an unprovable (by our current abilities to observe) theory is exactly why I warn you of blind zealotry.
Please take the time to read what I wrote carefully and think it through. I do not care to take more time being misunderstood unless you are truly striving to understand, even if you do not care to agree afterward.
All very fascinating but do not see how this disproves creationism.