If evolution is true how do you explain instinct?

Question

no - intinct is how a bird knows how to fly 10,000 miles to a specific place, so evolution passes down knowledge and inbuilt maps now does it!

Answer 1

i rest my case

Answer 2

The question makes no sense as evolution explains instinct! As other responders have said, through the slow changes of evolution through natural selection complex behaviours which we call instincts have developed. Not just the instinct to 'flight or fight', or to reproduce, or to parent but also instinctive forms of intelligence, like an instinctive 'sense of biology' / natural history or physics; social intelligence and some would argue in the case of humans even language is an instinct. Steven Pinker has written a very readable for the lay person book all about this, see below.

Answer 3

Evolution is the only credible explanation for instinct. The mechanism by which genes encode behaviour patterns is not fully clear, but this does not mean that the explanation is wrong. For instance, you probably have no clue how the component transistors in your computer work but it does not mean you cannot understand how to use it or that it works using transistors.

A good analogy is the immune system. You probably learned that the immune system "learns" to respond to pathogens and then mounts a defence. Pauling, however, proposed partly through evolutionary reasoning that it is more likely that the immune system has evolved to code for every pathogen it can respond to and simply "turns on" the defence when it encounters the pathogen. And this is PRECISELY how it works, and he won the Nobel Prize for it.

Answer 4

Instincts are passed on genetically. Successful 'instincts' which allowed greater rates of survival obviously became part of the particular organism's make up and habits.
E.g. you have an instinct to eat in order to keep you alive. This is manifested in the form of feeling hungry. Various mechanisms in your body tell your brain that you are running short of fuel and thus you feel hungry.

Answer 5

instinct has evolved through evolution as its necessary for survival

without the instinct to hunt and raise a family we wouldn't be here today

although it sounds like evolution skipped a few generations in your family.. probably comes from all the inbreeding

Answer 6

Dude, if evolution was true Adam and Eve would be monkeys. And I explain instinct the same way I explain life

Answer 7

Ravey is completely right on this one. Instinct is one of the main factors with evolution. Lets just agree to disagree though as you believe there is a God and I believe there isn't. Neither of us is going to change our views so please stop torturing us all with these types of questions.

Answer 8

I dont think they are necessarily connected. Evolution is what happens to a species as a whole and instinct is an individual thing.

Answer 9

instinct is paramount in evolution. survival of the fittest, fight or flight, its ALL ABOUT instinct
Now we have become a social lot, people interested in sociology will tell you animal instinct in humans has waned and should be ignored. I have always believed the opposite, we are clever animals, thats all and a lot more tuned in to the earth than we realise. if you feel fear run, if you feel jealous, thats animal protection of a loved one, if you feel hungey , you eat, if you are scared, your heart beats ( getting you ready to run)
all these are instinct and should not be ignored

Answer 10

I don't believe in instinct - I believe we experience lots of things and learn from them and the next time we experience something we used previous experience, or learned behaviour from someone who has already experienced it.

Most times instinct is just plain sense - i.e. fire is hot, I haven't seen anyone touch it, don't touch it

Answer 11

Its all part of the same process.

Instinct comes about because of evolution, its hardwired into us, because those that didnt have it died out, those that did thrived.