Smullyan-esque

[spock]Interesting[/spock]

Then I assume you have done very well for yourself in a scientific field of some sort, yes? How exactly DO you make a living, Elijah? I am assuming that comics, tantra, and weed are not your primary daily activities...

If you have not yet begun to use you powerful mind for personal gain, then I might suggest enrolling in a university. Very smart people are able to get things called "scholarships", and if their smarts hold up to the test of time, they can get things called "advanced degrees", which permit them to get good, high-paying, secure jobs.

Of course, many people who think that they are smart end up discovering, to their dismay, that they can't back up their inflated claims. Actual study in a scientific major tends to make it very hard for people to pretend they are intelligent. You and I both know that YOU would never suffer that fate. Right, Elijah?

Vicious Love

[janeway]HOLY HELL I'VE EVOLVED INTO A GODDAMN NEWT O GOD HOW DID THIS GET HERE I AM NOT GOOD WITH SCIENCE[/janeway]

Ah, basic evolutionary theory. So ludicrously easily to understand, but so rewarding to misunderstand.

ck1

But how do you think this happens? How does something in the environment make a specific change in the DNA resulting in a specific adaptation.

This scenario may seem intuitively obvious to you, but intuition is often wrong when put to the test.

Do you think that random copying errors do not happen?

Coragyps

Nobody post a link to Kruger & Dunning's paper Unskilled and Unaware of It. Such an action might be interpreted as unkind. Don't even Google it unless you are somewhat modest.

Sauron

Ooh, good idea.

Elijah, how about jumping into the nearest salt water and staying under the surface, until you force yourself to evolve some gill slits?

Elijah

Not impossible.
Dolphins used to be dog like land animals that went back into the ocean. Whales to I think. Evolution whether it's lamarkist or Darwin isn't going to cause drastic changes in one generation, but subtle genetic ones over a long periods of time.

Elijah

You eat it. You do something or go someplace you weren't doing/at previously to get the food. Using your body in a different way creates actual changes that i think in a Lamarkist view can be passed down genetically to the offspring. I also think Sunlight has a lot to do with it and how much you get. When An animal leaves the shade or goes into the shade I think has an effect genetically pretty quick. Or say if it goes from eating plants to eating other animals.

Go someplace cold and your fur coat thickens go someplace warm and it thins go in the water you lose it all together.

I think errors happen I just don't think they drive evolution.

mung bean

Elijah, the question is why do you think that? What do you base your position on? We know what you think but so far you have provided nothing to back it up.

Elijah

Because the other side hasn't offered me convincing evidence that random mutations drive evolution or that the mutations are random. If I had some solid evidence that productive random mutations are the cause of evolution I would believe that or that the mutations were random. Not that I don't believe in evolution I just differ on what is driving it.

deadman_932

Mung: I think it's because he's observed that he, [cousteau voice]like zee playful dolphing,[/cousteau] could evolve gills. Just disregard the blowhole...Wow, that's like one o' them thar double-entendres.