Does Nature work to make us better or simply different?

Question

You know, I think deeply on universal matters often. I think heavily on the reasonings put forth by religious thought and scientific thought. I've concluded that neither have all the answers and both are just using different ways of understanding the world.
Sometimes without proof religion can explain something and sometimes it cannot. Sometimes science explains something and sometimes it cannot. Creation Vs. Evolution. I say Creavolution. We CERTAINLY evolve though we don't really understand exactly how this works (science is slow). We were CERTAINLY produced/made because something always came from something else (the intuitive logic sometimes used by religion).

But I look at the world sometimes & the thought that evolution is supposed to make us a superior species (natural selection, darwinism & all that) doesn't quite pan out to me.

Do you REALLY think Nature is designing life to become better, to survive better....or is it simply just designing life to merely make them different?

Answer 1

on behalf of the patronising prick above, apologies for his arrogance and delusional sense of self-importance.

Answer 2

Excellent question, and you hit upon one of the critical answers in your question. Evolution should not be thought of as an intelligent process by any means. Evolution actually occurs by mistake, mistake in the copying of DNA from a parent to an offspring. These changes occur randomly! They can be the result of a simple miscopy, or they can be induced by damage to the DNA (like how UV light damages cells and can lead to cancer). This involves additions of bases (A, C, G, or T), deletions, or substitutions. Note that this is how novel features can be created, different attributes can be combined in different ways in a population through sexual reproduction.

So, with all of these random changes the function will change (sometimes a little, sometimes a lot). Selective pressure is what determines the fitness of an organism in response to change. Pressure can be strong or weak. If the pressure is weak, then a change can be made without affecting the organism much and the mutation will continue to persist. If the selective pressure is strong, then the one or a few of the changes will dominate.

Selection can be positive or negative. A negative selection occurs if a critical behavior is lost due to change (like if you didn't have the ability to reproduce, your type would end pretty quickly). Positive selection occurs if one is better than another. For example, giraffes with longer necks would be selected if the only trees around were tall, and food at low levels is hard to find.

So mutation creates diversity, and selective pressure leads to the evolution.

Phylogenetic trees are often constructed from the DNA sequences of organisms (often called the tree of life) which are becoming more and more available now. This gives us a map of how closely things are related (but in no way does it directly prove or show evolution, which is usually just assumed to be the way things change). From these whole trees, some people like to put together a whole common ancestory. There are missing pieces, which may or may not get filled in. This is where the beliefs come in, and I think each person has to figure that out for themselves.

Answer 3

It doesn't make them "better" as a race, but adapts them to change so they can survive in their environment. These changes take thousands of years, the difference in white and black skin in humans is simply a evolutionary trait that evolved so that humans who migrated north could process the Vitamin D in sunlight that was less prevalent than those humans that lived in the South where sunlight was more prevalent. The more pigmentation you have in your skin the more sunlight you need to get the Vitamin D you need and the less you have the less sunlight you need. Does this make lighter skin people better, no, just different because they adapted to their environment. It's the same thing with larger noses in humid climates, etc. etc. Nature is making us different so that we can survive the environments that our ancestors have lived and evolved in. The Human Race though in the last century has grown so technologically advanced though that "races" as we know them may eventually disappear. That may be thousands of years away though. Evolution, like Geological Time, takes it's time.

Answer 4

Wooh.. DEEP ... But I'd say that nature makes life better on the same time,, different... Nature, includng us.. adjust to our environment for better livin'....... Hmmm
Hmmm. natural selection i.e. survival of the fittest.. It does make good sense and apply to all animals.. But every law has it's own excemptions and limitations.. I've seen a species of goat that gets paralyzed when it gets scared.. Meaning, if a predator sneaks up on it, w/ just one growl the predator can easily catch it because it will not in any way be able to move.. That is what scentists now are trying to understand.......

Answer 5

I think nature's just designing because that's what it does. Nature has tendencies to create complex things, but I don't think it has any agenda with them except to let them take part in nature and become the nature that carries on. regardless of whether it makes a species better or different. it's just another tendency of the more able to eventually (eventually, as in a long long time) endure circumstances better than the ones that are less able to adapt. (I don't think my words just made any concrete sense though...)

Answer 6

Evolution has no direction and is not progressive. You are quite confused here and I do not see the usual evolutionary theorists here tonight to educate you. I do not feel like taking you through your points and refuting them, one by one. So, you go to this web site and spend a couple of days of hard work trying to appreciate the effort being made for people like you on this site. I am going off the web now.

PS To that ineffable twit below me, Heathen. Didn't like my answer to you utter nonsense in anthropology? Why don't you bring that ridiculous nonsense about Egyptians and aliens over hear, where that other moron, social science lady, won't dare venture to join you in your delusion.

http://www.talkorigins.org Many links here also.

Answer 7

I think nature is made to design to live in. It provides food, shelter,water(of course people don't know how to take care of things). Lets say something happen to the world, things stop around us. No food, no shelter, of course bad water. Who we going to depend on. I'm going to depend on nature, I'm not going to follow you, I'm going my way to survive. Give yourselves a week off to go camping for one week. Don't bring food or a cell phone, just get lost in nature and find a place to set up camp. Tell me what would you do? Or who to run to? Nature is your friend good luck