Evolution question...

Soldato
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1 Feb 2006
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Just been reading a few threads about this and one or two questions in my head about it.

1) If we evolved from something else how is it possible to go from speaking in 'moo' or 'baa' language to suddenly speaking a proper language as we know it today?

2) If this happens, will we continue to evolve and therefore can I expect one day to maybe wake up and be able to speak Spanish??

3) Does it still happen or has it stopped? How do we know?

4) Religions would state that humans have a soul. Animals not so. How can we go from one to the other? The same goes for a conscience. Do animals have one? Can they differentiate between right and wrong? How can we go from not having a conscience to having one?

Just keen to find out what people think on these things as I cannot really fathom it.

Lets see what this thread does!
 
the first 3 question are stupid, so why are you taking the **** if your not taking the **** your understanding is that of a 10 year old
 
1) If we evolved from something else how is it possible to go from speaking in 'moo' or 'baa' language to suddenly speaking a proper language as we know it today?
extremely slowly. With millions of small steps. Modern languages only happen fairly recently when they where standardised.

2) If this happens, will we continue to evolve and therefore can I expect one day to maybe wake up and be able to speak Spanish??
No taht is simply knowledge of the language. genetics can't contain that information.

3) Does it still happen or has it stopped? How do we know?

yes, evolution at it's basic is a gradual change of genetics.

4) Religions would state that humans have a soul. Animals not so. How can we go from one to the other? The same goes for a conscience. Do animals have one? Can they differentiate between right and wrong? How can we go from not having a conscience to having one?

!
that depends on what you define as a soul. if you use the bible as your religion. then you shouldn't believe in the normal English church tradition. As the bible says you will be resurrected at the 2nd coming. Until then you stay dead in the ground. Only a select few go to heaven which are named in the bible.

As conscience at the moment I don't think there is any test you can do. but I expect all animals have language and some sort of conscience I think the whole animals are totally stupid thing, is to make people feel better about who they are and what they do.
 
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1) If we evolved from something else how is it possible to go from speaking in 'moo' or 'baa' language to suddenly speaking a proper language as we know it today?

'Moo' or 'Baa' language? It didn't. It went through a sequence of intermediates of various complexity. Monkeys have a variety of verbal and non-verbal communication techniques that signal social bonding as well as warning signals and the like. Chimps communication is sufficiently advanced to plan hunting parties.

The details of how human language evolved are not at all clear (obviously language doesn't fossilise so it's very hard to figure out) but there is growing evidence that complex verbal language followed after we evolved complicated sign languages.

2) If this happens, will we continue to evolve and therefore can I expect one day to maybe wake up and be able to speak Spanish??

You don't evolve. Evolution occurs across generations, not across a single generation.

3) Does it still happen or has it stopped? How do we know?

Mutation, and natural selection both still occur, so evolution still occurs. Nothing has changed to stop it.

4) Religions would state that humans have a soul. Animals not so. How can we go from one to the other?

If people want to believe in dualism, it's for them to figure out how to twist their beliefs into reality.

The same goes for a conscience. Do animals have one? Can they differentiate between right and wrong? How can we go from not having a conscience to having one?

Higher apes have consciences too, as do dolphins and probably most social animals. Or did you mean consciousness?
 
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3) Evolution hasn't stopped, if we all drink a lot of red bull for the next 1000 years then humans will be born with wings :D
 
1) If we evolved from something else how is it possible to go from speaking in 'moo' or 'baa' language to suddenly speaking a proper language as we know it today?

Lots of animals comunicate, as the ones we evolved from got bigger brains they could crate more complex languages.

2) If this happens, will we continue to evolve and therefore can I expect one day to maybe wake up and be able to speak Spanish??

No, you don;t evolve during your lifespan ie you wont suddenly evolve to have a third arm, your sperm may be crap and your kid have some weird mutation though, if it's good it might spread.

3) Does it still happen or has it stopped? How do we know?

yes it happens, it can be seen in studies of bateria (some studdies lasting tens of thousands of generrations and spanning decades)

4) Religions would state that humans have a soul. Animals not so. How can we go from one to the other? The same goes for a conscience. Do animals have one? Can they differentiate between right and wrong? How can we go from not having a conscience to having one?

Why does the religion have to be right?
 
heres a theory... with all this flat screen technology out now will humans start to evolve with flat faces :D, or at least flat eyes! :eek:
 
1) extremely slowly. With millions of small steps. Modern languages only happen fairly recently when they where standardised.


2) No that is simply knowledge of the language. genetics can't contain that information.

Do these two things not contradict each other? I mean how can one be put down to simply knowledge of the language when this is done extremely slowly as you say. A spoken/written language is much different from animal communications. No? Maybe I am misunderstanding you.

op looks like troll to me

How so? I'm sure this topic has been discussed many times on here. A forum is for discussion yeah? Get a life.

Curiosity is good :) Read some books man, none of these questions are unanswerable.

Indeed. Pure curiosity. Nothing more nothing less.
 
Do these two things not contradict each other? I mean how can one be put down to simply knowledge of the language when this is done extremely slowly as you say. A spoken/written language is much different from animal communications. No? Maybe I am misunderstanding you.
.

Not at all. the evolution affects the metal capabilities of interpretation and mental skill. You also don't learn all language which comes before you. You only learn what your parents teach you. So it evolves other many generations. Both genetically and knowledge based. You do not need to know every step of the language., to be able to use it.

The other is purely knowledge.
 
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Not at all. the evolution affects the metal capabilities of interpretation and mental skill. You also don't learn all language which comes before you. You only learn what your parents teach you. So it evolves other many generations. Both genetically and knowledge based. You do not need to know every step of the language., to be able to use it.

The other is purely knowledge.

Ok. I see how you mean in general about evolving from one creature to another through mutations and all that stuff but going from an animal like language to a spoken language just seems a bit strange how it can happen. Like going from animal noises to perfectly formed sentences of spoken language seems hard to grasp.

How then do different languages come into it? I am sure that animals all over the world would speak a standard animal speak? But yet humans speak different languages? Its a strange one!
 
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