Evolution - intelligent design or the result of random chance?

[EastEnder]

Gene mutation is almost random (not quite: there are rules), but the adaptations which may result from those are selected for by environment (and sex). Natural selection favours those mutations best suited to the immediate environment. Giraffes didn't evolve long necks entirely by chance, but because those individuals with longer necks turned out to be better at surviving and passing on their genes.

I wouldn't bother. The nature of the OP leads me to suspect the question was not asked by someone who's interested in rational arguments.

 

[Kaka Tim]

Snowflakes - all entirely different and beautiful. Clearly they must all be handcrafted by some intelligent designer.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Why? What do you think?

Oh come on. Surely you've noticed by now that NoEgo doesn't.

 

[ViolentPanda]

In the same way ants dont understand how a car works. We dont know how the wider universe works.

Only by putting ourselves in a state of ignorance can we experience this existence.

You total flares-wearing velveteen collared hippy wanker!

 

[Gmart]

There is no way of knowing if 'random chance' is or is not affected by a supreme being in the vague terms that the religious accept - and so therefore there is no answer to this question, just faith and thinker/prover.

On a logical point though there is a simple proof that states that the fact that there is DNA in all living beings indicates that we all share a common ancestor, as the alternative (that two or more beings somehow evolved independently with DNA) is absurd.

 

[Hocus Eye.]

I barked my shin on a chair leg. It hurt so much that I concluded that the human body is not the result of Intelligent Design. An intelligent designer would have put a protective shield around the shin bone.

 

[ViolentPanda]

There is no way of knowing if 'random chance' is or is not affected by a supreme being in the vague terms that the religious accept - and so therefore there is no answer to this question, just faith and thinker/prover.

On a logical point though there is a simple proof that states that the fact that there is DNA in all living beings indicates that we all share a common ancestor, as the alternative (that two or more beings somehow evolved independently with DNA) is absurd.

Not just living beings. We also share some of our DNA with the vegetable world.

 

[toggle]

Not just living beings. We also share some of our DNA with the vegetable world.

trying to resist the urge to comment about who is more closely related to cabbages

 

[ViolentPanda]

trying to resist the urge to comment about who is more closely related to cabbages

I had to sit on my hand with regard to that, too.

 

[toggle]

can i perhaps suggest creationists would be a good option

 

[EastEnder]

trying to resist the urge to comment about who is more closely related to cabbages

We're more closely related to mushrooms than cabbages.

Clearly intelligent design at work.

 

[Gmart]

Not just living beings. We also share some of our DNA with the vegetable world.

How does the word 'beings' exclude vegetables?

 

[ViolentPanda]

How does the word 'beings' exclude vegetables?

Is there any depth you won't plumb in order to avoid being wrong?

A vegetable can't attain a sufficient level of sentience, of awareness and self-awareness, and the ability to express those, to fall within the category "being".

 

[Gmart]

Is there any depth you won't plumb in order to avoid being wrong?

A vegetable can't attain a sufficient level of sentience, of awareness and self-awareness, and the ability to express those, to fall within the category "being".

A vegetable still is though!!

I sense that you are messing with me

 

[Spud Murfy]

"Hello, how long have you been a cactus?"

 

[TruXta]

I have very fulfilling conversations with the palm tree in my garden, thankyouverymuch

 

[ViolentPanda]

I have very fulfilling conversations with the palm tree in my garden, thankyouverymuch

You're a Scand. We expect a few whimsical oddities from a race that used to submerge their urge to communicate with plants in swathes of pillage, rapine and plunder.

 

[TruXta]

You're a Scand. We expect a few whimsical oddities from a race that used to submerge their urge to communicate with plants in swathes of pillage, rapine and plunder.

I was expecting admonitions to lay off the drugs, but you had to make it racialist didn't you?

 

[ViolentPanda]

I was expecting admonitions to lay off the drugs, but you had to make it racialist didn't you?

Of course.
Some of us are well-acquainted with the historical Scandinavian fondness for drinking reindeer piss and then spending days talking to the pines, spruces and firs, and how y'all suppressed your piss-drinking, plant-communicating urges.

 

[goldenecitrone]

How does the word 'beings' exclude vegetables?

The Unbearable Lightness of Beans?

 

[TruXta]

Of course.
Some of us are well-acquainted with the historical Scandinavian fondness for drinking reindeer piss and then spending days talking to the pines, spruces and firs, and how y'all suppressed your piss-drinking, plant-communicating urges.

Blame the Siberians, they're the ones who taught us that stuff in the first place.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Blame the Siberians, they're the ones who taught us that stuff in the first place.

Oh, I do. It always comes down to those Kamchatkan weirdies!

 

[TruXta]

Oh, I do. It always comes down to those Kamchatkan weirdies!

I'm not sure they came from that far away... Anywayayayay.