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Wednesday, November 5, 2014

A big believer in science

This text that appeared in a comment box visibly deserves more attention because Shri Antony Sagi from Dubai gives solid examples that support Evolution - Editor
Antony Sagi 

I am a big believer in science,Evolution has been proven in many ways. Although it may still be considered a "Theory" It is still proven and there will be a significant amount of proof after the first theory of Darwin.For eg why were males an average of 5'5" 400 years ago but today are an average of 5'11"? This only points to one thing. Humans, as well as all other living creatures, adapt to there surroundings and better themselves for the new climates or whatever they may face.The mutation of virus and bacteria are continuously changing their form in labs. One of the best example is HIV virus .
There are many simple examples which support the Theory of Evolution.They are

1. The universal genetic code. All cells on Earth, from our white blood cells, to simple bacteria, to cells in the leaves of trees, are capable of reading any piece of DNA from any life form on Earth. This is very strong evidence for a common ancestor from which all life descended.

2.The fossil record. The fossil record shows that the simplest fossils will be found in the oldest rocks, and it can also show a smooth and gradual transition from one form of life to another.

3.Genetic commonalities. Human beings have approximately 96% of genes in common with chimpanzees, about 90% of genes in common with cats (proven details), 80% with cows (Its also proved ), 75% with mice (proved ), and so on. This does not prove that we evolved from chimpanzees or cats, though, only that we shared a common ancestor in the past. And the amount of difference between our genomes corresponds to how long ago our genetic lines diverged. This is the main reason that most of the medicines are experimented in animals.

4.Common traits in embryos. Humans, dogs, snakes, fish, monkeys, eels (and many more life forms) are all considered "chordates" because we belong to the phylum Chordata. One of the features of this phylum is that, as embryos, all these life forms have gill slits, tails, and specific anatomical structures involving the spine. For humans (and other non-fish) the gill slits reform into the bones of the ear and jaw at a later stage in development. But, initially, all chordate embryos strongly resemble each other. In fact, pig embryos are often dissected in biology classes because of how similar they look to human embryos. These common characteristics could only be possible if all members of the phylum Chordata descended from a common ancestor.

5.Bacterial resistance to antibiotics. Bacteria colonies can only build up a resistance to antibiotics through evolution. It is important to note that in every colony of bacteria, there are a tiny few individuals which are naturally resistant to certain antibiotics. This is because of the random nature of mutations.
When an antibiotic is applied, the initial innoculation will kill most bacteria, leaving behind only those few cells which happen to have the mutations necessary to resist the antibiotics. In subsequent generations, the resistant bacteria reproduce, forming a new colony where every member is resistant to the antibiotic. This is natural selection in action. The antibiotic is "selecting" for organisms which are resistant, and killing any that are not.

This details are shared to have a panoramic view about the evolution which many believe that a Theory only . The scientific evidence in support of evolution has often been described by experts as "overwhelming."In fact, I would go so far as to say that any intelligent individual who seriously and unbiasedly investigates the evidence for evolution will become thoroughly convinced.

Reference - National Geography ,Gene Study , Wikipedia , Chordate Study , Genome research

6 comments:

  1. Thank you Mr. Antony for taking your time to compile such a list. Since we are in this sort of discussion let me add some points.

    1. ['Theory' in 'Theory of evolution'] The word 'theory' in 'theory of evolution' does not mean its some sort of propositions awaiting proof. No, the general nature of scientific knowledge is that they can only be "proved" wrong, never "proved" right. Proving something wrong is easy, if one experiment does not meet the prediction. (In fact it is what happened in the case of Bigbang, I will add that story below). No matter how many experiments confirm the predictions it only "corroborates" the theory, never "proves" it right (In this sense it is often said that scientific theories are corroborated, not proved, in contrast to mathematics where theorems are proved rather than corroborated). Because we can never exhaust all the facts out there in the universe. In this regard we speak of theory of gravitation, theory of optics, theory of computation, theory of electrodynamics, quantum theory etc. But these theories are so robust that for all purposes one can think of we can call them true (It is often said of quantum theory that its predictions are as accurate as predicting the width of North America up to the width of a single hair).

    2. [Accepting of evolution] Many people have difficulty in accepting evolution, but most often it does not stem from a lack of scientific evidence. But because it strikes at the root of their belief system, the predominant of them being that humans are special creatures. As Carl Sagan puts it Darwin's idea was the last of the great demotions. Over millennia humans discovered that earth is just an ordinary planet revolving around an ordinary star, one of many billions of stars in an ordinary galaxy, one of many billions again. But Darwin's idea goes even further, it says that we are just as natural as any other living being, not even a slightest bit special. This does great violence to our constructed notions of morality, justice, civility, etc, because of course "survival of the fittest" is the antithesis of "justice". But in our present situation such a demotion or humility is exactly what we might need, we are overreaching and our civilization might implode if we continue to place ourselves above nature and disregard it.

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  2. 3.[Story of Bigbang] In 1915 Albert Einstein presented his theory of general relativity, some say the greatest achievement of the human intellect. What is general relativity? It is a relativistic theory of gravitation. All of us are familiar with Newton's theory of gravitation. But when taken to the extremes this theory does not work. (For example Newton's theory can not explain why light bends when it goes around galaxies). Einstein's theory is a set of equations that one can solve for any system and it will give a description of the system. For example when we solve it for the sun we will get the solar system. Einstein applied his theory to the universe and found that according to his equations the universe should be expanding. But of course the predominant belief of the day was that the universe is static and eternal without a beginning or an end. Hence to overcome this problem he modified his equations. But soon, scientists tested his theory and found that their experiments confirmed the predictions made by the theory. Moreover they found that the universe is expanding! Hence the "steady state theory" was abandoned, even though it is much easier to believe in it. In later years a catholic priest from the university of Louvain solved Einstein's field equations for an expanding universe and presented what we know today as Bigbang theory. Today there is overwhelming evidence of this cataclysmic expansion that brought everything we see around us into existence. We can precisely measure the age of the universe. But it does not mean we know everything. For instance we don't know if the universe is infinite or whether it has a boundary, we don't know what causes the expansion, in fact there is a lot more we don't know than we know.

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  3. The debate on the technical aspects of scientific innovations are excellent and enriching. Thank you Georgekutty and Antony Sagi. Do not ever think that all the people visiting this blog are just religious rebels only. There are elite gentlemen also here. Powerful posts that pass through just prove that. Both of you are only sparingly heard. Keep contributing; esp. Georgekutty has a beautiful style of content management.

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  4. To Editor Almayashabdham
    Why do you delete my comment on this topic? I am a reader of this blog. It was very relevant comment and I don't accept that decision. Anyway its your blog, and you may have your on criteria. I am capable of writing much better than this but unfortunately I don't get time after the hard work I am doing these days. I wrote in a decent language. What I see is "You are all mutually praising each other and devaluating others comments as non-worthy is a shame on you Mr.Editor"

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  5. Sorry Manees, It was not because of any objectionable content that we deleted it. In between lines, it appeared here with tremendous space. Comments are not editable and so it was deleted. Kindly check the postings position before you leave the comment box. For your information, agreeing or disagreeing comments make no difference.
    Of the many comments that appear here for approval, except those on fake names and that containing statements in bad shape, we let in everything. All readers are precious for us. We request Shri Manees not to take things otherwise. Almayasabdam will continue to be an open forum of all church citizens.
    Administrator

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    1. Right, the reason for deleting is accepted. I don't get time for detailed reading nowadays,writing, editing etc. I scanned heading and contents and leave the comment in a hurry.The comment was about a newly evolved Mammal Okapi with Zebras body and Giraffes head and a vast number of newly evolved species discovered in nature; Which are significant proofs to Darwin's evolutionary Theory about which Antony Sagi mentioned.

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