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Has man stopped evolving?

AndromedaRXJ

Active Member
Even though I agree with the vast majority of the above, we do know that smaller groups tend to evolve faster largely because phenotypes can much more quickly become genotypes because the gene pool is much smaller and because most mutated genes are recessive. I'm not a geneticist, but this is what I have read, including an article recently in Scientific American that mentioned this.

That makes sense too. It may have to do with selection pressure. I think under low selection pressure, smaller populations may be the ones to evolve faster since a given gene will spread through the population quicker. Whereas with a larger population, a given gene will take longer to spread to every member of the population. But on the other hand, if there's high selection pressure, then the larger populations will have better adaptability due to more genetic variety. Smaller populations become at risk of being wiped out completely.

So I guess to put it another way, smaller populations generally evolve faster. But larger populations have more adaptive potential.
 

Thief

Rogue Theologian
Funny, I never mentioned bacterial resistance. It is, however, evolution. It is a change in the allele frequencies of the population over time. That is evolution. Not to mention that some of the mutations I mentioned do give the organisms abilities that they didn't have before (such as nylonase and aerobic citrate metabolism).
omg...check tuberculosis!
 

Thief

Rogue Theologian
expanding from that....I have heard...
as much a 4pounds of our weight could be non human
and we NEED some of those foreign items to live

they are likely evolving with us.
our changes in diet will affect them first
other life habits will also do so....

what if they evolve on step quicker?
 

Milton Platt

Well-Known Member
Bacterial resitance is not adequate to substantiate your position:

"Evolutionists frequently point to the development of antibiotic resistance by bacteria as a demonstration of evolutionary change. However, molecular analysis of the genetic events that lead to antibiotic resistance do not support this common assumption. Many bacteria become resistant by acquiring genes from plasmids or transposons via horizontal gene transfer. Horizontal transfer, though, does not account for the origin of resistance genes, only their spread among bacteria. Mutations, on the other hand, can potentially account for the origin of antibiotic resistance within the bacterial world, but involve mutational processes that are contrary to the predictions of evolution. Instead, such mutations consistently reduce or eliminate the function of transport proteins or porins, protein binding affinities, enzyme activities, the proton motive force, or regulatory control systems. While such mutations can be regarded as “beneficial,” in that they increase the survival rate of bacteria in the presence of the antibiotic, they involve mutational processes that do not provide a genetic mechanism for common “descent with modification.” Also, some “relative fitness” cost is often associated with such mutations, although reversion mutations may eventually recover most, if not all, of this cost for some bacteria. A true biological cost does occur, however, in the loss of pre-existing cellular systems or functions. Such loss of cellular activity cannot legitimately be offered as a genetic means of demonstrating evolution."

https://www.trueorigin.org/bacteria01.php

Keep trying!

This is a link from a creationist website and not a scientific journal.

You don't get anywhere with this kind of stuff.....trying to disprove entire bodies of knowledge in multiple scientific disciplines with drivil from fringe creationists doesn't cut it. You must present a theory which takes into account ALL of the knowledge we have on biology, chemistry, genetics, the fossil record, etc. which does a better job of explaining all of that evidenve without doing damage to or ignoring part of it.

You try again.......
 

Thief

Rogue Theologian
Not sure what the relevance is to my post. Are you saying that tuberculosis is an example of evolution or what?
we humans have taken a diversion from evolution.
and in this and previous century, we have tinkered with our chemistry

now the biology that we have resisted has become resistant
TB was bad when it was discovered.
far worse now
the everyday antibiotics won't work
the stuff we use now takes half a year and maybe two years to (maybe) work

evolution leans to the strong
with each event we either survive ....or not
the germs are still playing the game, even though we don't want to

so we get weaker as we rely on man made chemistry......that we not suffer a sniffle or cough
the germs are evolving....because we have left them no choice

survive or die
 

metis

aged ecumenical anthropologist
That makes sense too. It may have to do with selection pressure. I think under low selection pressure, smaller populations may be the ones to evolve faster since a given gene will spread through the population quicker. Whereas with a larger population, a given gene will take longer to spread to every member of the population. But on the other hand, if there's high selection pressure, then the larger populations will have better adaptability due to more genetic variety. Smaller populations become at risk of being wiped out completely.

So I guess to put it another way, smaller populations generally evolve faster. But larger populations have more adaptive potential.
I can live with that.:)
 

Guy Threepwood

Mighty Pirate
That makes sense too. It may have to do with selection pressure. I think under low selection pressure, smaller populations may be the ones to evolve faster since a given gene will spread through the population quicker. Whereas with a larger population, a given gene will take longer to spread to every member of the population. But on the other hand, if there's high selection pressure, then the larger populations will have better adaptability due to more genetic variety. Smaller populations become at risk of being wiped out completely.

So I guess to put it another way, smaller populations generally evolve faster. But larger populations have more adaptive potential.

That's one of the flaws with Darwinism that has emerged

populations that are large and/or without selection pressure, are stable- they resist evolution and are observed to remain in stasis for hundreds of millions of years, they don't evolve

So significant change requires small stressed populations... which are small stressed populations.. unstable, even more susceptible to deleterious mutations through stress and inbreeding and total extinction
 

metis

aged ecumenical anthropologist
That's one of the flaws with Darwinism that has emerged

populations that are large and/or without selection pressure, are stable- they resist evolution and are observed to remain in stasis for hundreds of millions of years, they don't evolve

So significant change requires small stressed populations... which are small stressed populations.. unstable, even more susceptible to deleterious mutations through stress and inbreeding and total extinction


Evolution never stops as all societies change one way or another over the centuries, and small changes tend to add up over thousands and millions of years.

Also, even though most mutations are deleterious or have no effect, the positive ones, and even some of those that seemingly have no positive effect at first, do increase the variability of the gene pool and have a greater chance of being passed on to future generations. Many negative mutations either die out through miscarriages, still births, or those who die young prior to reproduction.

BTW, if you think that God plans all human life in advance, why is it that there are miscarriages, still births, and seriously deformed children?
 

idav

Being
Premium Member
Has man stopped evolving?

Other than being a little taller from a better diet and choosing taller mates what evolution is happening in modern man and if it has stopped why?

What do you think would start and/or stop the evolution of a species and what could restart that evolution in modern man?
We are always evolving and changing. Though I am not sure we will see significant changes with as much intermingling we are doing. Humans are no longer only choosing the strong tall smart etc. and all humans on earth share some dna code because of it.

What would make a significant impact on evolution would be something like a mass pandemic, but that doesn't sound too fun. Most of us wouldn't really want our genes put to the test like that.
 

AndromedaRXJ

Active Member
I imagine sometime in the near or distant future, we humans will start modifying our DNA directly. That's probably going to be the next major step in human "evolution".
 

Etritonakin

Well-Known Member
Has man stopped evolving?

Other than being a little taller from a better diet and choosing taller mates what evolution is happening in modern man and if it has stopped why?

What do you think would start and/or stop the evolution of a species and what could restart that evolution in modern man?
Though I believe man was the intended result of that which produced man -and that mankind's future is the free gift of immortality -I also believe that humans will continue to procreate on earth at least through the thousand years after Christ's reign begins -and possibly eternally -so the question of evolution still remains.

I do not see any real reason for man to evolve drastically in form or function, because creativity allows man to change their environment rather than change for their environment.
As a newb, it seems to me that because man is able to stabilize their environment, evolution will not be driven to the same degree by a changing environment.
I also believe that God will stabilize the environment on Earth.
If evolution essentially produces species which are more fit to survive in part by some input-output system, then I suppose success would slow it down.
If evolution produces random mutations/changes for no particular reason, we would still evolve, but how would be based on which systems were affected by random internal changes -and which changed due to environmental factors.
I really don't know how that works.

Also to be considered is man's increasing ability to self-design and supersede evolution.

Mankind's actions have caused harm to human genes -so repairing human genes is also a possibility.

Receiving immortality as a free gift (by being given an invulnerable and extremely powerful body) would, however, fast-track the whole survival of the fittest issue.

(It is thought that giraffes have long necks because their food grew at increasing elevations -so I wonder if man's focus on going out into the universe could eventually cause changes which allowed man to simply fly through space -similar to birds taking flight.
;) )
 
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viole

Ontological Naturalist
Premium Member
Has man stopped evolving?

Other than being a little taller from a better diet and choosing taller mates what evolution is happening in modern man and if it has stopped why?

What do you think would start and/or stop the evolution of a species and what could restart that evolution in modern man?

Yes, man has stopped evolving. Unlike woman.

Ciao

- viole
 

Faronator

Genetically Engineered
No. Watch MMA clips from 1993 and now. Compare John Stockton to a modern Point Guard. Rub the back of your grandmothers flat head and feel the lump on yours. Look at 70s porn and then head on over to a streaming porn site. Anyone with a brain knows man has not stopped evolving.
 

Noitall

Member
Has man stopped evolving?

Other than being a little taller from a better diet and choosing taller mates what evolution is happening in modern man and if it has stopped why?

What do you think would start and/or stop the evolution of a species and what could restart that evolution in modern man?
Only the ones that believe in old fairy tale books have stopped evolving. The rest of us are evolving just fine.
 

Runewolf1973

Materialism/Animism
I firmly believe that humans will evolve with hunched backs, retracted arms and bent downward necks due to our constant use of smartphones.
 
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