Evolutionists: You win, But?

Question

How does evolution account for the fact that man has evolved to the point of being able to destroy all living things? Is there any other species that evolved to soil its own bed?

Aside from providing food for worms, are there any significant life cycle interactions that can be credited to man? Example: If his nitch is basically parasitic: We might then show proof that man functions, among other things, as a disease vector.

Given that man evolved: What is his evolutionary and non-cognitive place and service in nature?

Answer 1

THAT is THE question EVERYONE is trying to answer. And it's the reason why we are so lost: we don't know our true place in the world. Religion tries to answer it, science, philosophy, art tries to answer it. But no one can. I think we do have strong tendancies to be parasitic, but I think we can overcome that. I think the best way to find out what HUMANS' purpose is in the world, you personally must find what your personal purpose is. Once everyone occomplishes that, then humans will have answered that question.

Answer 2

Actually most organisms will overrun their ecosystems - if not kept in check - which nature provides for. Humans managed to jump out of that cycle with technology. Now we are a relatively recent addition in the Earth's timeline but we do have services in nature. In some places where man has commonly set firs to burn off brush, plants have evolved to the burn cycle. We have eradicated, intentionally or not, some organisms which have allowed others to prosper. Now we are at a point where we can maintian or destroy whole ecosystems, and deternime not just our own evolution, but that of every organism on earth.

Answer 3

evolution gave us a brain to make us more successful and spread our-self, the most intelligent survived and made more and more children so on until their brain got so evolved that we raised above it the fact that we can destroy the world is just a testament to how successful we have been and continue to become as for the service in nature we have no service and no species has our only "service" is to spread and to transmit our DNA o and every species is a disses and operates in a similar way just like viruses and bacteria which are also under the same process

Answer 4

The human species is at the top of its respective food chain. What "service" does a grizzly bear or a tiger or a killer whale provide, other than to be at the top of its food chain and eventually to be turned into nutrients for the bottom of the food chain? The service the human species can provide is to take active steps to protect its own environment and that of other species. No dolphin or bear can do that.
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Answer 5

You are begging the question by making the assumption that man has to have a purpose. We are here because we are here. Now we can talk about what are good actions for a person to take. But the idea that human kind has to meet a standard or serve a function is basically a religious idea.

Answer 6

Actually, it's only man that is cognizant of the fact that he's dependent on his environment and certain food chains for survival. Other species have gone into extinction because they couldn't plan; man's ability to try and avoid the problems of ocean pollution, etc. If no, then man ceases to exist, just like any other species -- nothing special.

Answer 7

Hmm...good point about the species as disease-vector. Perhaps we've out-evolved evolution; I mean, evolution helps species evolve to best adapt to and master their particular environments. We've certainly evolved to do that, but perhaps along the way we've forgotten the most fundamental rules of existence - as you say, don't soil your own bed, don't kill more than you need to eat and thrive, don't kill your own unless your own survival depends on it (Sure, many animals fight for mating rights and territory, but they rarely kill each other over it). Perhaps we are now such masters of our own environment that we no longer understand any of this. If so, it's likely we're evolving down a blind alley, and will ultimately go extinct.

Answer 8

Due to our ability to create technology we are currently out of the reach of evolution.

Here's a simple example - The emergance of poor eyesight in individuals would limit their chances of survival in the animal kindgom, eventually removing all carriers of the genes that give poor eyesight. In humans, we created glasses to compensate for poor eyesight so the genes continue to be carried on with no problems. Even those who become blind because of their genes can live on and pass this damage on to their children. There would be no room for flaws in the wild.

Technically, this way of thinking could be the cause for attempts to purge mankind of flaws, allowing only those with non-defective bodies to reproduce. Fortunately we have developed a sense of altruism and can not sit by and watch such things happen.

Answer 9

Self awareness is key, I believe. Our specific path of evolution led to a certain brain configuration that afforded us the luxury of debating whether life makes sense after a couple of thousand years ;)

If you look at our forebears it would seem we would fit a similar evolutionary niche like the chimps do. And I'm sure if we hadn't developed ratio and self-awareness that that would be our place still.

Answer 10

The question you're asking isn't really about evolution, it's more philosophical. I think it's up to us as a species to figure out how to be something other than parasitic.