male/female

Greetings! I am a new member and have enjoyed everything I have read so far. I love intelligent debate, as I almost always learn something new.
I have a question regarding the sexes. I was asked recently by a Christian, "How did male and female evolve?"
I'd like any references that anyone could direct me to, as well as any specific answers.
Please correct me if I am wrong, but I told him (and I chose my words carefully) that I would get back to him, but I thought that the diversity in sexes was a result of simple organisms that were procreating via mitosis, becomming more complex. Thus, mitosis was no longer viable and the organisms (the mechanism I am not sure of), in order to survive, developed either gradually or rather quickly, the neccessary sex organs.
I apologize in advance for my ignorance, but that is why I'm asking, to find the truth.
On a side note, I have been looking for a forum such as this for awhile; I am glad I found it.
Tim[This message has been edited by Pogo, 06-26-2003]

Well, it's been demonstrated that sexual reproduction, for whatever reason, is better at eliminating harmful traits from the gene pool. Give that a few minutes' thought and it may make some intuitive sense to you.(and that's not a dumb question at all - the only newbies that have a hard time here are those who show up thinking they know everything)

That makes sense, with respect to eradicating traits that would not prove beneficial, or even harmful; still, where can I research this on my own? You can imagine the fun I had typing in, "Sexual reproduction" (without the quotes) on Google! Some interesting hits, but not what I was looking for. BTW, I chose this forum because while I am a Newbie, I did try posting it under the Miscellaneous Forum, but was unanswered for days (still no answer).
As with anything, the answer exists and it is up to me find it; of course, a little help along the way doesn't hurt.
I really wish I could articulate how much I've enjoyed this site; I feel like I', no longer alone.
(X-Xian)
Thanks again, and any books/essays/links on the subject of the origins of male/female seperation would be greatly appreciated.Tim

I wish I knew more about this particular topic. Hopefully someone 'round here with more biology training can shed some light.

You could try googling "W D Hamilton" or "R A Fisher". They were the leading theorists on the subject. I'm not going to do it myself at this time of night

Thanks, I have a lot of reading to do.
As I mentioned, I was asked by a Creationist the question of the origins of male/female distinctivness, but I wanted to know it, too. I used to believe as a christian (I try not to say that I 'was' a christian, since I am then referred as backslidden). and it wasn't until I started reading and thinking for myself that I became a freethinker. No religion (of course we are accused of atheism being oyr religion by some), and I am far more happier than I have ever been as a result.
I'll post on some other forums so we can close this as I do not want it to go too long.
Thanks again Chavalon and everyone else! :-)

You will almost certainly get some good answers/leads at Internet Infidels' C/E forum:
Oops! We ran into some problems. | Internet Infidels Discussion Board

One might wish to consult the "Design evidence #177: male & female" topic also. At the moment, it runs 101 messages.Moose

Hi Pogo,
If you are interested in the primary scientific literature on evolution of sex you can also check out
National Center for Biotechnology InformationIf you go to Pubmed on this site you can search evolution and sex etc. without the pornographic distractions you get with a google search.cheers,
M

short version derived from information science:Every time you take a copy of data, in this case of DNA or RNA, you risk introducing an error.If you have two originals, you can synthesise the copies to minimise the chances of introducing an error.Thus, sexual reproduction endows a competitive benefit by making the reproduction of the species more reliable and less prone to disastrous copy errors which may produce congenital defects.

Of course, this principle applies to many things such as making copies of audio or video tapes, photocopies, etc. etc. ------------------

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All the boys think she's a spy

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this has puzzled me at times as well. why would life turn from something else that worked(the way many micro things do) but I guess mutations would explain it