http://www.npr.org/2013/09/27/226837803/...-than-ever

You won't have to decipher a two horned goat to comprehend it either.

http://news.discovery.com/earth/global-w...130422.htm

(06-12-2015 09:58 AM)Machiavelli Wrote:  Memphis Tiger. Humans are evolving. Our eyesight is getting far weaker. Eyesight is no longer a trait you need to survive.

Don't need sight to survive eh? Computer screens are ruining people's eyesight.

(06-12-2015 09:58 AM)Machiavelli Wrote:  People are getting taller. Peoples lung capacityies are getting larger. That's just off the top of my head.

Food hormones.

wouldn't being taller be a survival trait? you know, being able to reach apples and sh1t in trees?

Correct, because we have these thing s called glasses and contacts now. The gentleman said we are no longer evolving. Categorically WRONG. Our skin color is also changing. In a 100-200 years we will all be a mocha color.

(06-12-2015 10:29 AM)Machiavelli Wrote:  Correct, because we have these thing s called glasses and contacts now. The gentleman said we are no longer evolving. Categorically WRONG. Our skin color is also changing. In a 100-200 years we will all be a mocha color.

is that "evolving" or just mixing races?

so do you believe that humans evolved from bacteria?

I know that's not as detailed and easy to portray past events in code. A six toed wombat holding a green snake in its clutches. You guys buy that stuff hook line and sinker, but it is evidence of evolution.

(06-12-2015 10:02 AM)Machiavelli Wrote:  http://news.discovery.com/earth/global-w...130422.htm

We're thoroughly in the weeds on this thread, but I'll comment. I agree with you about AGW. However, short term economics will trump the needs to address carbon reductions. I also know that if our own country and Europe were serious about doing something about it, we'd see fast tracking of new Nuclear Power plants today AND we would be putting gobs of money into research to make nuclear power safer. U.S. nuke pants are archaic compared to the technology available today. Also, Germany wouldn't be shutting down their nukes in favor of 19th century and medieval era technologies for their power needs, i.e. windmills and "water wheels".

That's the problem, Mach. There are way too many diverse lobbying groups that are united for a common cause: to ultimately let the earth warm anyways. Climate change is not a primary concern of anyone or any country despite what you see in the media. Because if it was, we would be doing EVERYTHING in our power to find high density energy sources that are not based on CO2 as a byproduct. Big oil wants hydrocarbons. Big coal wants hydrocarbons. And yes, Big Solar, Big Wind and Big Water wants hydrocarbons. How can this be? How could the renewables also want hydrocarbons? Simple. They want their share of the energy pie; however, the energy production is small relative to the resources required to support the renewables. So how do they bridge the shortfall? Hydrocarbons. On top of that, China and India will NEVER curtail hydrocarbon use.

There you go Mach. AGW is real, but the world leaders do not care.

(06-12-2015 10:31 AM)NCeagle Wrote:  

(06-12-2015 10:29 AM)Machiavelli Wrote:  Correct, because we have these thing s called glasses and contacts now. The gentleman said we are no longer evolving. Categorically WRONG. Our skin color is also changing. In a 100-200 years we will all be a mocha color.

is that "evolving" or just mixing races?

Impossible.

biology : a theory that the differences between modern plants and animals are because of changes that happened by a natural process over a very long time

: the process by which changes in plants and animals happen over time

: a process of slow change and development


Yes skin tone is an evolution. White skin was an evolution to better process a Vitamin. The lack of it causes Ricketts. Vitamin D I think.

so do you believe humans evolved from bacteria?

No. We evolved from hominids. Bacteria evolved into Protists. You have three distinct classes of Protists. Which are the three multicellular Kingdoms of Fungi, Planate, and Animalia. We share genes with bacteria and a distant distan common ancestor but we did not evolve from them. You are looking back 3 billion years of evolution.

YouTube has an excellent series from the BBC on the Origins of Us. Might want to take a look.

where did the hominids come from?

(06-12-2015 09:58 AM)Machiavelli Wrote:  Memphis Tiger. Humans are evolving. Our eyesight is getting far weaker. Eyesight is no longer a trait you need to survive. People are getting taller. Peoples lung capacityies are getting larger. That's just off the top of my head.


As for global warming. Sea levels are rising. Ice Glaciers are melting. Trees are blooming earlier. Birds are changing migration patterns.

People are living longer and have better nutrition. Be careful with your short term evolutionary assumptions as those implications would not make you comfortable

The better question is why can't other people politely ignore them? Don't say you can't, because you don't HAVE to be their friends.

Evangelicals/Baptists/Fundies believe they are doing the right thing by 'bothering' you. I understand that many will disagree with them that it is the right thing, but they obviously believe it. That's why they do it. To convince them not to is to make them not be E'd/B's/F's.

Do exactly what you do when the people ignore your sign about solicitors and come to your door selling raffle or magazines or whatever. Say thank you as politely as possible and then gently shut the door and go about your day.

(06-11-2015 04:11 PM)ODU06 Wrote:  I understand the belief in a god or gods. In other words, the concept that there is a god or are gods that created the universe etc. What I never could understand is how strongly people believe that their god is the true god and that all the billions of other people in the world and throughout history are wrong. People seem to believe that more strongly than they believe anything.

I don't have a hard time understanding that at all. From a religious standpoint, god-belief is central to what most people are really concerned about. That is, we have a powerful psychological need to believe in an afterlife, and much of that need is centered around a belief that it will be better than our physical life (which for most people is pretty hard). It is that need, more than curiosity about how we got here in the first place, that demands that we postulate the existence of a loving god.

The question of the existence or lack thereof of a creator god is an intellectual curiosity. But if there is no afterlife, that's all it is. Once done (creation), it, and the creator, no longer have any relevance in our lives. But the possibility of an afterlife - and the requirement that we somehow must "earn" eternal happiness - has important behavioral implications. Without the corollary belief that the god we have postulated is the "true" one, what would be our motivation to follow the rules of whatever religion we are born into or adopt?

It's a lot easier, intellectually, to believe there is some life after death, than to believe that we will all suffer the same fate when we die that befalls roaches, mosquitos, tigers, possums, etc. That is, that after we die we will simply cease to exist - that our ultimate fate is oblivion. Most people simply can't accept that possibility.