Carl Sagan's billions wrote:

Very good overview of evolution:

http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-intro-to-biology.html
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/comdesc/

Many people deny that evolution of species occurred on earth,
mostly because of two reasons:

1) emotionally they cannot accept something that is in direct
conflict with the Bible and the beliefs of Christianity, and

It's not in conflict with the Bible. That is, I'm pretty sure that the
bible makes no comment about mechanisms for the origin of species. They
came about, but the bible does not say how god did it.

It is in conflict with the stated opinions of some christians, but not
with the tenets of christianity.

There are simply a sizeable number of christian "leaders" who are
simpletons and half-wits, anti-progress, and mean spirited.

This is the
result.

On 17 Feb 2007 22:01:26 -0800, "Carl Sagan's billions"
<mm2terra@yahoo.com> wrote:

Very good overview of evolution:

http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-intro-to-biology.html
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/comdesc/

Many people deny that evolution of species occurred on earth,
mostly because of two reasons:

1) emotionally they cannot accept something that is in direct
conflict with the Bible and the beliefs of Christianity, and

2) their total education in science has been abysmal

While most people have never had any science education, most people
aren't Christian and have very little idea of what the Bible says.

There is also other theories that state that life on earth is a direct
experiment of Aliens. Or an experiment that gone wrong. Or we could be

descendants of Exploring Research Aliens lost in space and crushed on

Or we could have been the evolution that took place on some comet or
meteorite that crushed onto earth! There are other theories too!

"Carl Sagan's billions" <mm2terra@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1171778486.066380.63990@p10g2000cwp.googlegroups.com...

Very good overview of evolution:

http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-intro-to-biology.html
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/comdesc/

Many people deny that evolution of species occurred on earth,
mostly because of two reasons:

1) emotionally they cannot accept something that is in direct
conflict with the Bible and the beliefs of Christianity, and

2) their total education in science has been abysmal

If you die and get buried, how much of your body would be left after
100 years, how much after 1000 years, how much after 10,000 years?

Most of us will agree that most mammal bodies after 10,000 years would
be completely gone. What after 100,000 years? What after a million
years? What after 10 million years?

Conclusion: Remains or fossils of mammals from thousands or
or hundreds of thousands or millions of years ago are very rare.

Evolution is a fact. Darwin was a great scientist. Some of the
possible mechanisms of evolution, even now, are not well understood
by many people. One of the main enablers is TIME --
and millions of years of it!

The following simple example explains one way in which the
characteristics of a population can change over time.

Assume a population of ancestors of giraffes had short necks,
e.g., average neck length is 12 inches. This is an average, the real
neck length for the population of course varies over a range
around 12 inches.

Assume for the sake of discussion that the length varies roughly
from 9 and 15 inches. Environmental drivers (food, water, diseases,
trees, parasites, carnivores, selection, etc., etc.,) and random
mutations will usually change this population slightly in an arbitrary
direction. Some populations hardly change over millions of years.
Others change rapidly within tens of thousands of years.

Assume due to environmental factors giraffes with the longer necks
in this population are favored ever so slightly, e.g., due to
wide spread diseases in low growing vegetation or due to
many more other competitors for the low growing
vegetation they eat. So in every generation in this population
the animals with the slightly longer necks have a small advantage.

This segment of the population then thrives a little more and
produces just a tiny bit more offspring, e.g, the average neck length
for the total population increases say with only 0.001 inch per
generation (= every 20 years). This is really a very tiny shift in the
average neck length in the total population.

But now comes the amazing part:
If we assume a steady trend, this means in 1 million years, the
average
neck length of the total population would have increased by
1,000,000/ 20 times 0.001 = 50 inches = 4 ft and 2 inches!!!!

Of course trends are often not linear. They could happen much slower
or much faster or even in spurts of no, slow, backward or fast change.
And of course trends or changes are not confined to one characteristic
at all (such as neck length in this example).

The above is only an example of how the mean of one characteristic
of a total population can shift considerably over time. This is only
an illustration of how the mechanism works.

My main point is that many people cannot understand that if you
multiply a huge number (time, 1 million years, 10 million years, 100
million years) times a very small number you get a sizable
number, and thus a remarkable change in the total population.

We only see a snapshot in time. So we do not observe a change
because our lifespan is way too short. So we deny change,
we deny evolution - we know we are against 'it'.
Michael M Terra