If I tell you that my tree evolved into a chair, would you believe me?

Question

If your answer is no, then how the hell you believe that a much more sophisticated creature like humans evolved from anything even our own parents?

Answer 1

I would not. Philosophically, your tree might always have been a chair by the definition of "chairness."
Things evolve because those that survive and reproduce pass on certain characteristics, which might be different from the original species. If the requirement for surviving and reproducing was that you had to be able run at least 25 m/h or you'd fall prey to hyenas and people in your family had a mutation which deformed their legs, odds are, your family would not survive very long, and this mutation would die out. People with a mutation like longer legs, larger hearts, or lighter bones would allow for their survival and reproduction, and the species would evolve.
Examples of micro-evolution are obvious today. One species of squirrels was separated by the Grand Canyon. Now, they have evolved beyond the ability to interbreed; they are 2 separate species. In arctic regions, people evolve to be shorter in stature with a wider trunk in order to survive the cold. (This process requires a long lineage of people living in this climate in order to truly be cold adapted. At first, it just allowed those who were better suited, not always well-suited, to the cold to survive long enough to reproduce.

Answer 2

Ah, see, that's one of the great misconceptions of creationism right there. Individuals don't evolve; species do. Your tree no more evolves than I do, or you do, or one microbe does. However, through genetic drift and useful mutations, an entire species can slowly change into something else.

One individual is unlikely to have first, so many mutations that it looks remarkably different from its parents, and second, to be able to even survive such changes if it is so unlucky. One mutation is a tricky business; they usually aren't useful, but often are tragic and fatal. Many combined together? That individual is pretty much a goner. Also, the sort of changes you are talking about generally occur well before the individual is born. For a creature as complicated as a tree, that's a whole lot of cells you have to change. Yeah, cells mutate later- sometimes, we call this cancer. But for an across the board change? Easier to do when there's only a few cells.

Answer 3

There is no environmental driving force that would cause a tree to become a chair, it simply isn't advantageous to the tree!

And because there is no evidence (ie no 'tree' of intermediaries between your tree and a chair to suggest that this is an option.

To dismiss evolutionary theory in this way is to state that you don't believe in beagles. How can there be beagles? We know for a fact that there were no beagles in around 500BC, and yet now many people seem to have them. Were they selectively bred, as the 'unreliable' record suggests? (Historically documents must be interpreted with the same skepticism as scientific evidence) Or did God 'create' a fully-formed beagle breeding pair some time after 500BC?

Complexity is a lousy argument (possibly the poorest) against evolution.

Answer 4

If you sit in a tree does it become a chair.

Also after a number of steps and changes does a tree not become a chair, in other words evolve into one?

Answer 5

So you believe in inheritance of acquired characteristics, this theory was established by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck. Hate to break it to you but the theory has been discredited. Only those traits coded for by genetic information contained in sex cells can be inherited. So if your tree wants to become a chair, tough luck it's not going to happen. If you have any real questions in anthropology or biology, I would be happy to answer them thoroughly.

Answer 6

If you told me that a tree had developed a genetic mutation that resulted in its progeny having chair-like characteristics, and that chair-like characteristics gave the tree's offspring a selective advantage over other trees, so that over millions of years trees adapted to look like chairs, and you had reproducible scientific facts, like intermediate chair-like trees or their fossils to prove it, then yes I would believe you.

Otherwise, no.

Answer 7

My tree evolved into a guitar, I guess it was hanging around with a more active group of trees.

Answer 8

" Trees do not evolve, forests do ". I do not rely on belief, but I do rely on evidence. The evidence that is plain to see is; you could not analogize yourself out of a wet paper bag. Try again.

Answer 9

yes your tree did evolve into a chair, it just had some help.

Answer 10

At this stage of the game i would count you as one of evolutions failures.
I would never say anything against your parents but i would feel sorry for them.