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EnderNow1
New Member
USA
21 Posts |
 Posted - 01/10/2008 : 14:00:10
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A friend posed this question to me, for which I didn't have answer. Maybe someone can help me out.
Okay....so what experiments do we have supporting, corroborating, or suggesting human evolution transpired? In addition, what experiments do we have to support the claim our complex DNA was the result of evolution?
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It's a magical world out there, let's go exploring! |
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H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard
USA
4574 Posts |
Posted - 01/10/2008 : 14:02:30 [Permalink]
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Why experiments and not discoveries? Is your friend under the impression that science must always involve experiments of some kind?
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"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman
"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 01/10/2008 : 14:13:23 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by EnderNow1
A friend posed this question to me, for which I didn't have answer. Maybe someone can help me out.
Okay....so what experiments do we have supporting, corroborating, or suggesting human evolution transpired? In addition, what experiments do we have to support the claim our complex DNA was the result of evolution?
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Wow! That is a huge topic; far to big to explain in a couple of paregraphe in a forum. I suggest that you go here for starters. | This web site is intended to provide an overview of the study of human evolution, and of the currently accepted fossil evidence. It also contains a very comprehensive treatment of creationist claims about human evolution. If you are not interested in creationism, you can easily skip those pages. If you are interested in creationism, you can go directly to the pages on creationist arguments; they contain links to the fossils under discussion when necessary. |
The evidence for human evolution is overwhelming.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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EnderNow1
New Member
USA
21 Posts |
Posted - 01/10/2008 : 14:30:54 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by filthy
Originally posted by EnderNow1
A friend posed this question to me, for which I didn't have answer. Maybe someone can help me out.
Okay....so what experiments do we have supporting, corroborating, or suggesting human evolution transpired? In addition, what experiments do we have to support the claim our complex DNA was the result of evolution?
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Wow! That is a huge topic; far to big to explain in a couple of paregraphe in a forum. I suggest that you go here for starters. | This web site is intended to provide an overview of the study of human evolution, and of the currently accepted fossil evidence. It also contains a very comprehensive treatment of creationist claims about human evolution. If you are not interested in creationism, you can easily skip those pages. If you are interested in creationism, you can go directly to the pages on creationist arguments; they contain links to the fossils under discussion when necessary. |
The evidence for human evolution is overwhelming.
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What my friend is asking about specifically is for experiments, not just observations.
Are there falsifiable experiments being done that supports the claim that complex DNA is a result of evolution.
Is there anyway to test that |
It's a magical world out there, let's go exploring! |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 01/10/2008 : 15:14:52 [Permalink]
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Sure, plenty of 'em on this page alone. Prehistoric DNA to Help Solve Human-Evolution Mysteries?
John Pickrell in England
for National Geographic News
March 25, 2004
It may be possible to extract DNA from the bones of human ancestors and other hominids who died up to one million years ago, researchers believe. Hominids are primates that walk upright, including humans and extinct human ancestors and related forms.
Experts speaking at a chemistry conference held in Chicago earlier this month argued that ancient genetic material could be used to better understand the relationships among hominids and answer questions about the evolution of speech and other defining traits of humans.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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JMack
New Member
1 Post |
Posted - 01/10/2008 : 15:18:47 [Permalink]
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I just have to point out that DNA is DNA. Human DNA is not anymore complex than any other animal. Technically the only difference between human DNA and bacterial DNA is how the DNA is "packaged" and how much genetic material there is. All DNA has nucleic acids and a phosphate and sugar backbone.
As far as experiments go, I'm not sure what you mean. As much science is done based on observation as by direct experimentation. |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
Posted - 01/10/2008 : 15:35:02 [Permalink]
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I think your friends, Ender, thinks that "falsifiable" necessarily means "by experiment," but that's not the case. Predictions based on hypotheses can be falsified by simple observation. For example, our knowledge of common descent suggests that we should never find a fossilized bunny in Devonian rocks (other than through artifice, of course), so if we were to simply observe such a rabbit, we would know that something is wrong with our theory.
Further, if I can nit-pick, "complex DNA" is a meaning-free term, because nobody has ever put forth a definition of "complex" that's made any practical sense other than (for example) a measure of its Shannon Information, in which case computer simulations (experiments) show that evolutionary mechanisms can indeed increase "complexity." But then again, if we use Shannon's definition, then simply making DNA more random increases its information content (the opposite, I'm sure, of what your friend intends). |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 01/10/2008 : 15:40:04 [Permalink]
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Ender,
First, you need to nail down a definition for "complex DNA". Ask your friend to specifically define that term. It is often a creationist code-word, and its definition is whatever they want it to be at the moment. Is DNA complex? Well in comparison to a simple polymer chain, yes. But it isn't complex when compared to some protiens and how they fold.
Is your friend maybe talking about "information" in DNA? Sadly, often, a person who denies evolution is less than well informed about the basics. They use some buzz-words that they have heard on the internet and tend to make little sense at all.
But let me give you three examples of expiriments and observations that support the idea of darwinian evolution.
1: The nylon bug. Nylon is a synthetic polymer that does not exist naturally. It did not exist on planet earth prior to 1935. A species of flavobacterium was discovered in 1975 that can digest nylon and use it for chemical energy. The bacteria evolved a new, and novel, metabolic pathway to take advantage of a food source.
2: Endogenous retroviral insertions. From time to time these sneaky viruses end up inserting themselves into the genetic code of an organism, and then do not activate to reproduce the virus. We can examine the genetic code of related species and determine the evolutionary sequence (who came first) by looking for these retroviral markers. This is a profound piece of expirimental evidence in support of common descent.
3: Human chromosome 2. Another expirimental confirmation of human evolution. If humans and chimps are closely related, then we have to be able to explain the difference in chromosome number. A detailed analysis of human chromosome 2 shows a clear fusing of 2 older chromosomes. The link provides a great explanation of this bit of evidence.
Feel free to ask any questions you may have.
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Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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bngbuck
SFN Addict
USA
2437 Posts |
Posted - 01/10/2008 : 16:34:05 [Permalink]
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EnderNow1.....
Some specific answers to your friend's general question can be found HERE and also HERE!
With respect to human evolution THIS might be of help!
Tell him to stay with Google for a while and he will find more!
D'know about the DNA, but I'll bet there's something of value in the Journal of Human Evolution. Get an index page and use some keywords.
Just found nine articles concerned with human DNA in an evolutionary context.
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| Edited by - bngbuck on 01/10/2008 19:46:17 |
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Human evolution question
