A Mathematician's View of Evolution

The Mathematical Intelligencer ^ | Granville Sewell

[Tallguy]

Even a modern American jogger can run a dog to death on a summer day. Dog's can't get rid of the heat fast enough. the same is true of nearly all four-legged mammals.

I see your point, but it probably misses a larger truth. Humans would probably be carrying, or escorted by the young, old & infirm. Now from a population standpoint, the canine strategy of pushing their prey makes complete sense. It's the old joke about how fast do you have to run to escape a hungry bear. Answer: faster than you.

You or I may be able to outdistance a single dog, but dogs taking turns sprinting at you, attempting to hamstring you might succeed, since all they have to do is revert to a trot after an individual foray to stay in the hunt. We, on the other had, would have to maintain the pace regardless of injury or exhaustion.

[metmom]

firs=fire

Spell check doesn't catch it if it's spelled right. *sigh*

[js1138]

And disadvantages; like sunburn, sun poisoning, exposure, and frostbite. Seems like those would present a greater handicap than the ability to lose heat more quickly in a warm environment only while running.

The advantages would be evident on the African Savanna. Whiteness and susceptibility to sunburn is a recent trait.

[MineralMan]

No problem. I understood the word. I've made my own mistakes here, spelling-wise.

[metmom]

Wolves raised by humans don't count. They have little fear of humans.

Not necessarily.

Woman kills neighbor’s wolves in self-defense (OH)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1670122/posts

Westmoreland woman found dead in wolf pen
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1670057/posts

Woman Killed By Pet Hybrid Wolves
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1668204/posts

[js1138]

What part of "don't count" are you incapable of reading and understanding. Wild wolves will not attack humans. A caged rabbit is capable of biting you.

[jwalsh07]

Evolution is neither random nor designed

Not really. Darwinian evolution relies on random mutations as the engine of change. No random mutation, no evolution. NS acts after RM rears its ugly head. Natural selection alone gets you black moths instead of white moths in heavily polluted forests. That's it and for NS to do even that alleles for white and black moths had to be a precondition.

[js1138]

Here's a thought experiment. Images of two kinds of crystals. Which ones are the result of natural processes, and which ones could only be the result of design?

[FreedomProtector]

The thought experiment isn't very interesting. All of the crystals are the result of design. Matter as well as life was designed.

[js1138]

All of the crystals are the result of design. Matter as well as life was designed.

Do you have a point?

[jwalsh07]

Wolf Attacks on Humans

[jwalsh07]

Crystallization ain't helping you with Sewells argument. Moving from a higher energy state to a lower energy state is not an "improbable event" since it makes Mr SLOT a happy guy.

[jwalsh07]

Now if you can get the Sun to shine on the fieldstone pile in my backyard and assemble it into that wall I've been meaning to build, you will have thoroughly destroyed Sewell's hypothesis.

[js1138]

So which of the two crystals is necessarily not the result of natural phenomena?

[jwalsh07]

Dunno, duncare.

[metmom]

Interesting. Thanks.

[Last Visible Dog]

Dembski is definitely the Pee-Wee Herman of mathematics. It's fun to watch his web site, wondering what Nigerian email scam he'll fall for next.

js1138 - you are an evo-troll. You pop on the thread to spew personal attacks and totally unsupport statements along with childish "victory dances" (when you have added nothing at all whatsoever to the thread)

I am so sick of evos like js1138 trolling these debates with nothing to add but crap.

[Last Visible Dog]

"The author of this piece is an idiot, with a diploma from a degree mill, who is such a fool, he probably couldn't even get a job teaching at Bob Jones."

Do you actually think you can counter an argument by merely spewing a personal attack? Run along evo-troll

[FreedomProtector]

The same point the author of the article was making. The world as we observe it today whether it be the design of crystals or the design of life cannot be logically explained as an accident. The presupposition that matter is all there is and matter (including crystals) and life arrived by accident doesn't fit observed world.

Whether or not some of the crystals in the picture where chiseled by a human, and some where merely mined with a chisel by a human is irrelevant to the point the author makes in the article:



"If a billion engineers were to type at the rate of one random character per second, there is virtually no chance that any one of them would, given the 4.5 billion year age of the Earth to work on it, accidentally duplicate a given 20-character improvement. Thus our engineer cannot count on making any major improvements through chance alone. But could he not perhaps make progress through the accumulation of very small improvements? The Darwinist would presumably say, yes, but to anyone who has had minimal programming experience this idea is equally implausible.

Major improvements to a computer program often require the addition or modification of hundreds of interdependent lines, no one of which makes any sense, or results in any improvement, when added by itself. Even the smallest improvements usually require adding several new lines. It is conceivable that a programmer unable to look ahead more than 5 or 6 characters at a time might be able to make some very slight improvements to a computer program, but it is inconceivable that he could design anything sophisticated without the ability to plan far ahead and to guide his changes toward that plan."

[Last Visible Dog]

If the United States is descended from England (via the colonies) then why does England still exist?

Because evolution was not the mechanism by which this country was formed - actually there is no relationship at all.

Not only have apes evolved, they have evolved at least as much as humans have evolved.

Do you have any supporting evidence for this claim?