Post by jdeleon on Sept 27, 2016 4:42:29 GMT
1. Why is the theory of evolution so important in understanding how human beings behave?
The theory of evolution is so important to understanding how human beings behave because we need to understand where we came from to understand how we got to how we are now. According to Darwin 101, Darwin coined natural selection as the "survival of the fittest", but natural selection is better understood as "natural elimination". Only the organisms with the best genome for their specific environment will survive. Genomes include codes for everything about a person, including their personalities and their physical characteristics. Natural selection and variation help us explain why whole groups of people don't die during an epidemic. For example, giraffes with short necks are more likely to die in areas with tall trees than giraffes with long necks because they are less likely to find food sources. This elimination of "unsuccessful" traits occurs with behavior too. Patterns of behavior evolve through natural selection also. We don't tend to live in caves and hunt for our own food anymore because it's deemed "caveman-like" and we are apparently millions of years too old for that. The majority of people prefer to stay in their air conditioned homes and buy their food from their local grocery store. As the world advances, our behavior changes.
2. Which questions do you think evolutionary theory cannot answer?
I think that evolutionary theory can't explain how the first creature came to inhabit the earth because living things must come from other living things. I know the big bang theory is the popular scientific explanation of how the universe began. But the Earth wasn't always as inhabitable as it is today and it actually used to have unlivable conditions. The first living thing on earth must have come from another living thing and not from a nonliving thing like a rock. I understand the evolution of the first living organism, which was thought to be a simple organic molecule, but who were its parents? Where did it come from? Another thing that evolution can't explain is who the original "parents" of all the living things on Earth were. How could this first living thing reproduce if it had no gender-counterpart to reproduce with. If the first living thing was a male, how could he reproduce if there were no females to reproduce with, and vice versa.
The theory of evolution is so important to understanding how human beings behave because we need to understand where we came from to understand how we got to how we are now. According to Darwin 101, Darwin coined natural selection as the "survival of the fittest", but natural selection is better understood as "natural elimination". Only the organisms with the best genome for their specific environment will survive. Genomes include codes for everything about a person, including their personalities and their physical characteristics. Natural selection and variation help us explain why whole groups of people don't die during an epidemic. For example, giraffes with short necks are more likely to die in areas with tall trees than giraffes with long necks because they are less likely to find food sources. This elimination of "unsuccessful" traits occurs with behavior too. Patterns of behavior evolve through natural selection also. We don't tend to live in caves and hunt for our own food anymore because it's deemed "caveman-like" and we are apparently millions of years too old for that. The majority of people prefer to stay in their air conditioned homes and buy their food from their local grocery store. As the world advances, our behavior changes.
2. Which questions do you think evolutionary theory cannot answer?
I think that evolutionary theory can't explain how the first creature came to inhabit the earth because living things must come from other living things. I know the big bang theory is the popular scientific explanation of how the universe began. But the Earth wasn't always as inhabitable as it is today and it actually used to have unlivable conditions. The first living thing on earth must have come from another living thing and not from a nonliving thing like a rock. I understand the evolution of the first living organism, which was thought to be a simple organic molecule, but who were its parents? Where did it come from? Another thing that evolution can't explain is who the original "parents" of all the living things on Earth were. How could this first living thing reproduce if it had no gender-counterpart to reproduce with. If the first living thing was a male, how could he reproduce if there were no females to reproduce with, and vice versa.