Nitefly's Guide to Evolution

Monkey Puzzle · 11 Jul 2007 at 13:35

To quote Bill Hicks (R.I.P):

"Get this, I actually asked one of these guys, OK, Dinosaurs fossils - how does that fit into you scheme of life? Let me sit down and strap in. He said, "Dinosaur fossils? God put those there to test our faith." I think God put you here to test my faith, Dude. You believe that? "uh huh." Does that trouble anyone here? The idea that God.. might be.. ****in' with our heads? I have trouble sleeping with that knowledge. Some prankster God running around: "Hu hu ho. We will see who believes in me now, ha ha." [mimes God burying fossils] "I am God, I am a prankster." "I am killing Me."

Nitefly · 11 Jul 2007 at 14:00

Monkey Puzzle said:
Both of those questions often come up in discussions regarding evolution and are often used in the case against and for evolution. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_of_the_eye http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argument_from_poor_design etc..I thought that was one of the reasons you started the thread?

And, no, I'm not just trying to sound smart - I haven't studied any embryology for 5 years and even then it didn't really float my boat, and I figured you would know more about it - a friend of mine had to study embryology as part of his biology degree.

Sorry for the delay, was just browsing your link (And eating, and showering, and...)

Please don't think I was being dismissing (Infact I have actually noticed you as someone who actually makes a decent contribution to discussion - dispite your post count, which is admirable). It is an interesting part of evolutionary discussion - but I have honestly never heard of anyone come up with it outside the biological circle.

I confess I have not studied embryology in such detail, and for the reasons in an above post I would be reluctant to go into such depth on something which would require me to put so much time into. The examples in detail (beyond that of your link) will go way beyond the forum's standard of biology.

What were you studying?

I have studied only bits of developmental biology but mostly based on Drosophila.

Monkey Puzzle said:
To quote Bill Hicks (R.I.P):

Kol · 11 Jul 2007 at 14:03

Nitefly said:
I am studying biology at the University of Bristol, it was in the thread, somewhere.

P.s. ... I feel really silly about that caffeine arguement still

Don't worry about it, I felt silly with my comments. We were both correct. My mates at Bristol, I was looking to go there but settled closer to home in the end, plus it would have been just pharmacology there, rather than neurosci which is my interest.

Cheers man!

Monkey Puzzle · 11 Jul 2007 at 14:32

for the reasons in an above post I would be reluctant to go into such depth on something which would require me to put so much time into.

ok fair enough.

What were you studying?

- was studying pre-clinical medicine at the time - purely scientific with no clinical med in the first couple of years - they taught us in great depth about things like mechanisms of DNA repair, metabolic cycles, G-proteins etc (on the off-chance we might want to go into research I think), and covered anatomy in about 3 weeks! :eek:

Mint_Sauce · 11 Jul 2007 at 14:34

Nice job, was good to read!

Nitefly · 11 Jul 2007 at 15:21

Monkey Puzzle said:
was studying pre-clinical medicine at the time - purely scientific with no clinical med in the first couple of years - they taught us in great depth about things like mechanisms of DNA repair, metabolic cycles, G-proteins etc (on the off-chance we might want to go into research I think), and covered anatomy in about 3 weeks!

Cool, what are you doing now then? I thought G Proteins were great, how could you not admire them? Not as good as the rather complex tyrosine kinase receptors though

Again (To other members), thanks for possitive feedback

Kol · 11 Jul 2007 at 15:27

ignore this one.

Nitefly · 11 Jul 2007 at 15:31

I will if you so wish

*There was a ninja edit in there*

Monkey Puzzle · 11 Jul 2007 at 15:37

Just started my final year at medschool :eek:

finals in January :eek:

Nitefly · 11 Jul 2007 at 15:42

Monkey Puzzle said:
Just started my final year at medschool finals in January

Best of luck

mcast123 · 11 Jul 2007 at 16:03

Good post, I've read a few of Dawkins books but you're much easier to understand!

I'm still waiting on the creationist nuts to have their say :rolleyes:

Kol · 11 Jul 2007 at 16:37

Nitefly said:
I will if you so wish

*There was a ninja edit in there*

There was an uber ninja edit... just me getting all happy about particular receptor families... but didn't want to take your thread even more off topic!

Brian Stuart · 11 Jul 2007 at 16:58

Excellent post

it's really helped me to get more of a handle on the theory of Evolution. Hopefully it will assist me in my discussions with any creationist that i come across.

Well done and thanks

R.O.S.S.I · 11 Jul 2007 at 16:59

I'm not being funny or anything, but why would you bother doing all that?!

Brian Stuart · 11 Jul 2007 at 17:03

CDj-Rossi said:
I'm not being funny or anything, but why would you bother doing all that?!

I can't answer for nitefly but it is to perhaps have a comprehensive reference to be able to
1 produce valid and cohesive arguments for the theory of evolution
2 to move the threads on "God v Darwin " to a more intellectual level.

It would be nice to see a similar thread as nitefly's written from the point of a theologian.

THMRK · 11 Jul 2007 at 17:05

Brian Stuart said:
I can't answer for nitefly but it is to perhaps have a comprehensive reference to be able to
1 produce valid and cohesive arguments for the theory of evolution
2 to move the threads on "God v Darwin " to a more intellectual level.

It would be nice to see a similar thread as nitefly's written from the point of a theologian.

Do you mean someone whos a theologist and belives in creationism or I.D.? Or just a theologist in general? Because evoultion and God aren't mutually exclusive (e.g. the Roman Catholic church believes in theistic evolution...).

Brian Stuart · 11 Jul 2007 at 17:10

Woody__ said:
Do you mean someone whos a theologist and belives in creationism or I.D.? Or just a theologist in general? Because evoultion and God aren't mutually exclusive (e.g. the Roman Catholic church believes in theistic evolution...).

Depends I suppose on the arguments being put forward. I would think the two most likely opposing views to evolution would be Creationism and ID as you said so some more detailed info on these viewpoints would help to provide balance.

Nitefly · 11 Jul 2007 at 17:16

CDj-Rossi said:
I'm not being funny or anything, but why would you bother doing all that?!

Because people on these forums often come out with things like:

Evolution is only a theory guys...... I prefer to rely on fact

How come if humans would mate with monkeys, we wouldn't get a half monkey half human then? This theory of evolution really makes sense, doesn't it?

A dog has never evolved into a cat. FACT

There are no acurate fossil intermediates that have ever been found.

Why don't humans evolve into new species today?

And on and on and on.

Hopefully by a read those which have such misunderstandings will get a better overview of the topic, and we will see less cringeworthy posts on the forum.

Smoking Man · 10 Mar 2012 at 10:42

I just came across this. Was a good read. Cheeky bump. :x

StonedPenguin · 10 Mar 2012 at 10:44

Nice thread man.