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Author Topic:   Macro and Micro Evolution
lpetrich
Inactive Member


Message 206 of 301 (69708)
11-28-2003 12:50 PM
Reply to: Message 199 by Sonic
11-28-2003 5:50 AM


First, there is nothing in the idea of descent with modification that rules out an afterlife; some of us could be reincarnated dinosaurs or anomalocarids.
Sonic writes:
Macro-Evolution: Naturally occurring, beneficial change that produces increasing and inheritable complexity. Increased complexity would be shown if the offspring of one form of life had a different and improved set of vital organs.
I'm not sure about what Sonic has in mind -- a big jump that happens in one generation?
Please note that Macro-Evolutions difference to Micro is that in Macroevolution you would observe the evolution of a eye, or a brain, or a heart, organs which seem vital during time as time passes.
These evolve from simpler structures; one can see a variety of complexities of eyes, brains, and hearts in present-day creatures -- including none at all.
Now Microevolution would occur if after the eye was formed a small change occured, such as being able to see in color and not just black and white.
I'm reluctant to call that a "small" change, since that requires the origin of a new photoreceptor. But such an origin can easily happen by way of gene duplication.
Now days the only vital organs are the brain and heart, if we where to observe macro-evolution in our time those would be the effected organs.
We'd need a LOT of medical assistance if we were to try surviving without many of our other organs. Though several of them we need because we are just plain big. If we were protist-sized, we would not need lungs or kidneys or a circulatory system or even a very fancy digestive system; diffusion would accomplish all those tasks very nicely.
Paulk asks about DNA, so regarding DNA I think the DNA differences are large enough to suggest common creator and not evolution. Sure DNA is similar for humans and apes but the different is big enough to suggest common creator instead of evolution.
How does one work out the boundary line? Creationists have had a variety of opinions on what's in a "created kind" or baramin.
Some creationists think that Felidae, the cat family, is one created kind, even though felines have come in a variety of sizes and even though some felines have/had divergent features like long saber fangs, roaring, sociality, and maned males. Present-day felines share an ancestor that lived about 10-15 million years ago, and the ancestors of sabertoothed felines like Smilodon had diverged earlier.
So this means that the most divergent felines have had greater genetic distances than human-chimp.
Some creationists have proposed even larger baramins, like IIRC all bacteria(!) The genetic distances between many "species" of bacteria are gigantic by human-chimp standards.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 199 by Sonic, posted 11-28-2003 5:50 AM Sonic has not replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 208 by NosyNed, posted 11-28-2003 2:15 PM lpetrich has not replied

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