Evidence for evolution

I always have questions.What is the empirical evidence for life evolving from non-life?I know that is not the TOE proper. But it's rather important.

For one thing, that living things are made out of the same things as non-living things, and moreover, are constantly incorporating non-living things into their life processes. Much as a single Lego remains the same whether or not it's in a model of a rocket ship or a castle, matter seems to care not a whit whether it's part of a living thing or something non-living.

Not very persuasive. You got anything else?

How is that not persuasive? You asked for evidence that living things came from non-living things, and I pointd out that you observe living things turning non-living things into living things universally and constantly. And you don't find that persuasive?Well, so what's your big idea, smartypants? What's so different about living things and non-living things that, despite all indications to the contrary, they can't be made from the same matter? The lack of some hitherto-undetected "vital force"? Good luck with that.

Are you talking about humans and chimpanzees, for example, having a whole lot of similar genes--that sort of thing? What does that prove, in and of itself?

What are you talking about? Do you mean we eat an apple and it becomes part of our blood stream or something? What does that prove?

You might at least mention amino acids or something.

No.In the same way that you can construct genetic inheritance trees from, say, genetic samples from members of your family, you can construct inheritance trees for members of different species. It's a process called "molecular phylogenetics" and it's the study of the inheritance trees developed from genetic information.It's not just a matter of finding shared genes between two individuals. The degree to which a number of individuals share genes with other individuals, and not with others, and the genes that they do or don't share, can be used to construct these family trees.And when we do construct these family trees, relying on nothing but the genetic information, we find that they match up quite well with the family trees that the guys studying the fossils come up with, even though we were all working independantly. That's exactly the opposite of what we would expect if evolution was not a fairly accurate history of life on Earth.

I'm answering your question. You asked what the evidence was that life can come from non-life. Well, we observe it every instant of every day. How is that not evidence?If you don't like the answer, maybe you need to rephrase your question.This message has been edited by crashfrog, 12-14-2004 11:22 PM

"quite well"?That means they match up so well there is no doubt about it, or they match fairly well, and probably . . .?

They match up so well that the probability that they do so by chance is mathematically infintesimal. Where they don't match, it's usually because the fossil guys got it wrong; after all fossils don't tell you who they're related to, you have to infer it from stratiography and morphology. Sometimes they infer incorrectly.At any rate, they match so well that it's obvious that there's really something to the proposed evolutionary history; that it's not all made up. Much as if you got on one scale that returned 150 lbs, and then got on a pan balance that returned 150 lbs, you can be pretty sure that you weigh about 150 lbs, because the odds of both of those different measuring tools giving you the same result in error is pretty low.

We incorporate non-living things in our life processes. What does that mean? Give me an example.

Some of it is a little vague to me, but I got the general idea. Thanks.

Apparently, there is no evidence that life came from non-life, other than the fact that we can take a chemical pill and incorporate it into our blood stream.I'm not asking if there is evidence that life CAN come from non-life. I'm asking if there is any evidence that it DID. Any real evidence.

It means that living things take mineral matter, like elements from the soil, and convert them into their own structure. You might consume a dead animal, and that matter becomes a part of you.Really, I don't know how I can explain it any better than that. If this isn't clear to you yet then I'm not sure how it can get any clearer.