I'm sure you've heard it before; humans and chimpanzees are about 98.8% similar. What does that really mean though? This number refers to comparing single nucleotide changes in the DNA, or changes in the sequence of the A,C,G,T code.
Comparing genetic duplications in genes, the number lowers to 96%. What's a duplication? As Even Eichler of University of Washington says, if we consider the genetic code as a book, entire pages will be repeated in one species but not the other. So conservatively, we are 96% alike with out closest cousin. Here's some other common animals and our genetic similarites (these numbers are consistent across all reliable sources):Cat: 90%
Cow: 80%
Mouse: 75%
Fruit Fly: 60%
Banana: 50%
Interesting to look at. What I find most fascinating is the 50% match to bananas! Animal and plant life share so much ancient DNA coding from way back when plant and animal life diverged approximately 1.5 billion years ago.
The sequencing technology allowing for genetic comparison has been huge for anthropologists and evolutionary biologists. Anthropologists have used comparisons of genes between humans and our closest cousins to better understand when and how genetic variations occurred. Evolution was already well established before this technology existed with fossil records, embryology, comparisons of skeletal systems, study of vestigal appendages, and finally the understanding of the driver of evolution: natural selection. Genetic sequencing confirmed our understanding of species divergence and evolution, and also allowed scientists to better understand and build the the fascinating "tree of life."
The banana thing is interesting, but for me the fruit fly thing even more so. I don't know if you remember the 2008 presidential election, but Sarah Palin got caught making a big deal over the federal government funding fruit fly research (her point was that big government had gotten too big and was bordering on the absurd). Others followed up with the point, however, that what was funded was actually genetic research on fruit flies, which was intended to benefit people who were born with genetic anomalies. Like Down's Syndrome, which Palin's son has.
ReplyDeleteIt's a political stretch on both sides, these arguments, but pretty fascinating to see how it all plays out. Would have been even more interesting if she had picked on banana research!
Yes, but spending will happen in the private sector if the government isn't there and the private sector will be much more flexible, moving with the development of the technology than the government can possibly be. I've worked in both sectors and have see it first hand. Also no one knows the future, so investing everyone's wealth in a few government mega-progams run counter to the need for diverse investment that the private sector does give in a real free market (which we don't have). Check out http://mises.org Also look up Stefan Molyneux on youtube and freedomainradio
DeleteComing from an overly religious town (small town in the south), I know a lot of people that fight the opposite side. They claim genes are a perfect display of "God's work". The fact genes are so similar and the animals (or fruit!) are different means God created us from the same material, but gave us different lifestyles.
ReplyDeleteIf you ever get the chance, talk to someone that has that view. I haven't met anyone up here that is like that- but it makes for an interesting conversation!
Cam's viewpoint is fairly well represented in the documentary Expelled, which some of your fellow students suggested I watch. It's not a fantastic documentary, but it does provide an interesting counterpoint to pro-GM arguments.
ReplyDeleteWhen considering just the genetic percentage similarities I presented above, it is a very easy argument to make that God created life: since God made humans similar to chimps, slightly less like mice, and very different from bananas, the genetic percentages work out.
ReplyDeleteWhen considering that these percentages reaffirmed evolutionary biologists' already constructed "tree of life", and that this genetic information is only a small slice of the large pie of evidence for evolution, the argument Cam presents is difficult to make.
As I have heard and read, the similarities argue for a common designer.
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Deletenice! were common ancestors with a bananas too.
ReplyDeleteDoes that mean when we eat cows or bananas we are cannibals?
ReplyDeletei hope your not serious
DeleteSo please tread carefully and eat mindfully with the knowledge that the grass we walk on and the plants we harvest and animals we kill are our relatives and have a right to live on this earth as we do!
DeleteThis is why 2500 years ago Buddha went barefoot and only eat before midday what he had collected in his alms bowl.
No.. It means we're canabananibals.. Jk I hope you enjoyed my joke
DeleteHaha! I love this! ^^^^^^
DeleteHa! That was awesome. Well played!
Deletegod created human being from a soil, we are connect to earth. so as bananas grow theru soil, surely we might even have similarities to an apple?
ReplyDeleteDid god really now? We have substantially more proof that the gods are the products of man's imagination, than the other way around. But that is a topic for another forum.
ReplyDeleteI'm quite pleased about the banana, I'm even more pleased that my banana isn't 50% of my body.
Maybe plants are gods because they appear to suffer less than animals and provide us with food, shelter and peace?
DeleteDepends on which part of your body..... I can think of a place where being part Banana would help
DeleteOr, is it just simple... I mean, really- when God created the Earth- why would He not use similar features? Just like when you paint a painting- everything you do is not 100% different- yet the painting is never the same. It is simple common sense.
ReplyDeletePeople are so confused. Devolution is actually what is happening, not evolution. Some of us are DEvolving, and the devolved subject may devolve even further, and so on.
ReplyDeleteI don't agree with this bit...
ReplyDelete"the driver of evolution: natural selection."
Natural selection is not the driver. Mutation and genetic drift is the driver. The genetic body would be the car. Natural selection is the road, and all the road blocks in it. If you don't have the proper car, you can't navigate the different roads or their obstacles.
Nothing ever evolved because they died (natural selection). They evolved because they survived, had offspring and mutated over vast amounts of time. All the mutated versions of organisms lived and died by the laws of life. Natural selection hacks the branches and gives us what we see. But the actual branching, the drive of difference, is mutation.
I find it hard to believe that mutation is a driver of evolution. I have never heard of a positive mutation. Mutations delete information, they don't add information. Also why haven't we found a "missing link" as they call it? For evolution to work you would think that there would be millions of remains of creatures in the in between stages of evolution. Yet the missing links that we have found have all turned out to be fakes. (Nebraska man was thought to be the missing link. But all scientists found was a tooth. They made great drawings of Nebraska man's lifestyle and what he looked like. But in the end it was found that this 'Missing link was no more than a PIGS TOOTH!) In all I have ever heard about missing links, all science has found has been just a few bones. Most times these bones are hundreds of feet sometimes even miles apart! If you put some of my bones with the bones of someone else (even a couple of others) you would come out with a very bizarre result. Some might even think it was the missing link.
DeleteSome say our DNA is so alike because of a common ancestor, I say our DNA is so alike because of a common creator. Think about that.
You have totally got that the wrong way round. Mutations are the roads and natural selection is the driver steering the vehicle towards solutions. IMO.
ReplyDeleteHow about God being the designer that built the vehicle and the roads. Our own conscience being the determinent factor that decides which roads we take and our own good choices being the type of vehicle we choose to drive these roads? Different perspective....that's all. I also believe in the big bang theory. I just know who banged it....God.
DeleteSo true Lisa! Science finds that the world came into existence in just a fraction of a second. That was the second that God spoke the universe into existence.
Delete“I can see how it might be possible for a man to look down upon the earth and be an atheist, but I cannot conceive how a man could look up into the heavens and say there is no God.”-Abraham Lincoln
weenies
ReplyDeleteHE LAWS OF NATURE.
ReplyDeleteWe live in a world of natural laws and would not be alive without them. We test & observe such laws with modern science.
So while evolution remains full of limitless possibilities & fanciful claims for 150 years (and counting), thankfully modern science allows us to now decipher it's mixture of facts from fairy tales.
Example; natural selection & mutations are facts, and are considered key mechanisms & drivers of evolution.
Now for the fairy tale; evolution also states that humans evolved from pond scum to fish to humans to whatever is next, say flying unicorns.
But is this even scientifically possible?
Such a transition requires, first of all the origin of live matter, DNA & coding requiring precise programming, then new DNA would need to be added somewhere along the way, say for our next step of evolving into unicorns.
So start looking at the whole picture, and you begin to see the greater part of evolution is illogical nonsense.
When you look at the human form you see a well constructed, fully functioning form with incredibly complex functions & features. We can observe & appreciate the incredible complexity of our own forms from an outside perspective.
Now try and picture what evolution is saying; unintelligent matter was able to in time, create the human form at random with no logic, no outside perspective, no intelligence, no knowledge, no thought, no purpose & no concept of design or function.
It's like giving a group of deaf dumb & blind people wood & nails & expecting them to work together & build an entire mansion, so long as they are given long enough.
It's completely illogical.
Yet evolution says this is how humans & all life forms were made, because enough time was given to allow this process to take place.
So lets add time to this equation, say billions of years, as the evolution process requires plenty of time to make millions of fully functioning humans & other species.
What does your logical mind conclude?
My logical thinking mind tells me that time does little to change the original factors of unintelligent random matter. Add natural selection & mutations, and you still have the original problem of explaining where the DNA information, coding & crucially precise programming come into existence.
Dude, Evolution is a Natural Law.
DeleteIt happens, whether you choose to believe or not.
Please do mankind a favor, and don't get on any school boards.
Even our eyes are more advanced computers than any man made computer on earth.
ReplyDeleteYet evolutionists continue to claim that unintelligent, randomly selected matter created all life. Even our functioning, rational brains? So unintelligent matter is more intelligent than us and can create more complex computers & functions than the human race could ever attempt? And does our intelligence & logic come from no intelligence & no logic?
If I told you my perfectly landscaped garden randomly did so by itself over millions of years you would probably consider that illogical nonsense and conclude that I am not in touch with reality. Yet if millions of people started claiming it is true and began constructing theories in how it came about & began writing many books about it, would you start believing it?
It's hard to believe how something as simple as a garden could organize itself without a gardener or landscaper. Yet many believe that all the millions of complex & fully functioning life forms, the earth, ocean, billions of planets and so on, all created themselves from a spec of matter & energy, with no programmer creator or designer necessary.
Evolutionists continue to dodge important points & truths that may jeopardize their beliefs or power. Why? Because evolution is a way to take God out of the equation, so it HAS to work. Therefore, as with any man made religion, ignorance, power & control are crucial in order for it to survive.
Perhaps power, human pride & ignorance are the true drivers of evolution.
Take pride out of the equation, seek the truth and you shall find it.
1. Did you know that scientists are mapping out the genes and mutations that made our eyes? Yes, it was through evolution.
Delete2. Life is not a perfectly landscaped garden. All living things have a host of problems to deal with. Thats why your perfect landscaped garden does not exist in nature.
3. Evolution may be hard to believe, but like all science, when an over whelmeing amount of evidence supports an idea, then hover improbable, that idea is probably correct. How probable is it that all matter is made of atoms? Have you seen an atom? Scientists have found an overwheling evidence that all matter is made of atoms, hence the Atomic Theory.
4. Evolutionary scientists do not dodge truths, thats a myth in your head.
Human Pride, power and ignorance. Exactly right! But do not forget Money, Books, jobs, federal and also private grants are at stake if you claim to be wrong.
DeleteEvolution implies the belief that given enough time, anything is possible. This is untrue. The truth is given enough time, anything is possible WITHIN THE LAWS OF NATURE.
ReplyDelete(oops this is the missing part of my first post above)
I actually respect Darwin's THEORYS on how things MAY have evolved over time, but how anyone can come to the conclusion that "Intelligent Design" does NOT exist is beyond me(!?) It is so unfortunate how so many of us get STUCK "inside the (DARWIN) box" when there are such factually compelling & less contrivercial "outside the box" examples ... the very FACT that we reside on a giant sphere which is SPINNING at apprx 1000 Miles/Hour WHILE simultaniously WHIRLING AROUND THE SUN at apprx 67000 Miles/Hour...is just about all the compelling proof I need to understand that Darwin's Theory of Evolution is NOT the final, end all "say" against the highly probable likely hood that an "intelligent designer" does indeed exist.
ReplyDeleteGenetics identifies the mechanics of inherited characteristics and mutation that are necessary to validate Darwin's original theory.
DeleteIf genetics proved otherwise, evolution would have failed this crucial test and have long since been rejected as a valid scientific theory.
How much proof do you need?
And I can easily look at "Intelligent Design" and declare it bunk because it can't be tested, unlike evolution.
The engine of evolution is NOT natural selection. The driving force creating new types and greater diversity of life forms is in fact hybridisation, while natural selection is in fact the opposite, it is the agent of extinction.
ReplyDeleteWhen new life forms are created by hybridisation, their genomes are in turmoil and their fertility is low. NAtural and sexual selection starts to get to work on the new genome immediately, adopting hte characteristics which enhance breeding success and survivability. In doing so, natural selection starts to eliminate variability from the genome. Innitially, the new life form prospers from its greater fertility and survivability, but as its genome becomes increasing more uniform, its ability to adapt to changing environmantal pressures is reduced, exposing the life form eventually to the fate of the great majority - EXTINCTION.
See the theory which shows that Darwin was wrong.
http://www.macroevolution.net/support-files/forms_of_life.pdf
Evidence of hybridisation driving diversity is all around us.
Derek Smith