ATTENTION Atheists and Evolutionists. 3 Major Questions about evolution. I'm really curious about these...

Question

First read all for a fulfilling answer. I'll read all answers
Star the question if you like it...

1. Why did we evolve? Why didn't this cell or whatever it is decided to evolve and decided to stop when we are what we are?

2. If we are capable of giving birth to a child why didn't we evolve so that we could live forever. If we can generate a baby then we should be able to refresh all our body parts? To make people die and look like this is a test?

3. Why are there 2 genders, Men and Women? We could evolve so that we could easily breed by ourselves? Or from a Queen Human. Or something else. Is it to form human relations and passion and love and compassion so that this life can look like a Test?

Answer 1

This is of my own belief and I don't expect everyone to pick it up or take it as their own. The very fact that man has needed God or god's since recorded history is evidence enough to make an atheist convert to agnostic. Think about the theory of evolution for a second. We need water because random chemicals in motion evolved and adapted to water in order to maintain life. We need air in the same mannor, we need food in the same mannor. Basically, they assume we have adapted to water, adapted to food and adapted to air. (to the best of my knowledge this is what the theory is about) They suppose the things we need are provided because we grew around them. So if, since the beginning of recorded history, human nature has needed God or god's, why is it so hard to believe that He must exist? I'll go further to say that if God did not exist, the theory behind evolution is gone because our basic needs have not been provided. Human natures need for a creator.

However I could be wrong and this is only what I believe, I do not offer it as truth, simply suggestion.

Answer 2

I am not an Atheist, but I sure do want to answer your question(s)...

(1) Evolution, whether you like it or not is taking place right now. It happens all around us and there is nothing you or I can do to prevent it.

(2) No species on this whole planet lives forever, that is not possible. Every animal is born, lives for how ever long they live, and they die. I am afraid you are very confused about regeneration and reproduction processes. Regeneration allows animals to 'refresh body parts', however, humans 'reproduce' that is how the next generation of humans are born. I don't get the last part of this question... What do you mean by "to make people die and look like this is a test"?

(3) Um, almost every species has two genders, male and female, this is how they reproduce. There are a few that do not need the oposite gender to reproduce, put they are not in of the human genus. The way we look has nothing to do with our interpersonal relations and again what to you mean by "so that this life can look like a test"? The human species does not have a 'queen' because the animals that have these are not part of our genus.

I hope this is not way over your head and that I have done a good enough job explaining this.

Answer 3

1. Organisms don't decide whether or not to evolve. A species consists of millions of organisms. As the environment changes the species must adapt as a whole or perish. Those organisms which possess those genes that best adapt to the new environment have the best chance to produce offspring that will survive. Organisms lacking the traits needed for adaption have the least chance of surviving long enough to produce offspring. Over perhaps 1000 generations the species evolves through each reproductive cycle, until at some point it looks remarkably different. Species evolve for the same reason organisms have sex - to survive.

2. The human species didn't evolve to be immortal because immortality is not required for the species to survive. Individual people may want to live forever, but biology tends to make the minimal effort to adapt. So we must reproduce for the species to survive. We will use technology to control the course of our evolution as time goes on.

3. Asexual reproduction (used by hermaphrodite lifeforms) doesn't produce offspring with the greatest possible genetic variety. Sexual reproduction has this advantage. Species need variety to maximize its chance for survival, the more genetic diversity, the greater chance environmental change will favor a larger percentage of a species. Why this is I don't know. Most animal species reproduce sexually. That's why we have male and female.

thanks for the questions.
.

Answer 4

I think you've misunderstood a few fundamental things about evolution. You seem to believe that the "direction" of evolution can be "chosen." However, evolution is a process that uses the least amount of mutations to propagate genetic material.

1. A cell cannot "choose" to evolve any more than you can choose whether your child will be shorter than you, taller than you, male, or female. Genetic variations between generations are a natural thing, and a cell can't simply decide to stop evolving.

2. Again, we can't choose how we evolve. Evolution "chooses" the most efficient method of adapting organisms to their environment. The mutations coding for reproduction are likely simpler than the mutations required to code for immortality and therefore evolved sooner. After reproduction evolved, there was no reason for immortality because genetic material is passed on through reproduction.

3. There are two genders because at some point in the evolutionary timeline having two genders was a reproductive advantage. Therefore the genetic information that coded for two genders was preserved and eventually became universal in humans.

Answer 5

1) We evolve because climates change, the landscape changes, species move to different areas, they find certain aspects of their own species to be attractive, and will continue to breed along those lines, making those attributes stronger...there are MANY, MANY reasons why we evolve.

2) Life is finite. That's they way it is. We are however, over time, living longer and longer lives, as medicines improve and our species becomes stronger. Question #2 would actually be more appropriate to ask someone who believes in "Intelligent design". If God created us so perfectly, then why can't our bodies magically "refresh" themselves? If anything, the body's inability to live forever would be evidence of it's natural imperfection.

3) There are two genders because that's how OUR species works. There's a wide variety of different forms of reproduction spread throughout the species of the world. Some reproduce all by themselves by dividing. Some species have even been found to be able to self impregnate. Bees live with a Queen. The human species, as well as the majority of species on Earth, need a male and female. It has nothing to do with a "test."

Info on evolution:
http://www.creationtheory.org/
http://www.daltonator.net/durandal/relig...
http://www.geocities.com/capecanaveral/h...
http://www.abarnett.demon.co.uk/atheism/...
http://www.talkorigins.org/

Answer 6

Atheists and evolutionists?? Is that something like Methodists and nurses? Or Muslims and taxi drivers?? Where's the connection?? Anyway, I am a born again Christian and a biologist, so ...

(1) Who says we stopped evolving??

(2) Even animals that can regenerate body parts can't live forever, because cells are not immortal.

(3) Sexual reproduction didn't evolve in humans. It evolved in plants and simple invertebrates. It became the norm after that precisely because it is the system most favorable to evolution, providing far more variation for natural selection to work with than the various forms of asexual reproduction provide.

Answer 7

The fact that you post this in the religion & spirituality section, and not the biology section, has me wary.

Have you done even a minimal amount of research on evolution (and no, creationist copy-and-paste websites don't count)? Have you read a text book on evolution, or looked though any biology journals? Are you sincerely interested in learning about the subject, or are your just another attention-starved creationist trying to throw out rhetorical "stumpers"?

Having pondered that...

1) Nature does what it does, regardless of what after-the-fact significance or personal meaning you want to attach to it. Humans are not a special pre-determined spot that we "stopped" at. We evolved for the same reasons why every living species today evolved from something else: natural selection, genetic drift, genetic mutation, etc.

2) First of all, you seem to have fallen for the common misconception that evolution is always pointing in a pre-determined direction of what's "better". That's not quite how it works. Second of all, immortality is not necessarily good for a population. If organisms in a population don't die, then the population just gets so big that food sources and the like are depleted. And procreation doesn't follow the same mechanism as part regeneration (which some organisms like worms and I think crabs can do). Even then, our skeletal structures aren't the same for that.

(Though we might ask why a creator wouldn't have made humans with these things, if we're to fall for the argument-by-design that creationists always use)

3) This is like saying "Was gravity formed so that people would learn to live together on solid ground?" Once again, you're trying to apply after-the-fact reasoning to evolution. Again, nature doesn't work with a morally-driven purpose in mind. That's a philosophical reasoning humans attach to it later. Humans have 2 genders because we evolved from creatures that have 2 genders, whose start goes all the way back to the first organisms that weren't asexual reproducers.

Answer 8

1.) Life evolves to suit its changing circumstances. This cell or that cell mutated and found itself doing better than the other cells, and thus reproduced itself better.

2.) Cumulative erosion. Body cells can't replenish themselves forever due to gradual loss of DNA every time they divide. Humans have actually evolved to live much longer than most animals, but body death is still inevitable because bodies are physical in an ever-changing world.

3.) Only the much more primitive animals reproduce by division or from a Queen. Fish, reptiles, birds and mammals all have separate genders. It suits the more complex organisms better because it creates more genetic variety. Complicated organisms need more genetic variety because they have more genes and are thus more easily corrupted if they inbreed. With something like ants it doesn't matter so much.

Answer 9

I think I have one answer to all three of your questions:
We aren't done evolving yet.

1) We evolved because nature abhors a vacuum.
2) Maybe we will one day be asexual and no longer need to copulate to reproduce. This form of evolution tends to come from environments that are decidedly single-sexed, so it isn't likely to happen soon. And if we were to ever become asexual, there would be no practical need for the opposite sex....only emotional and physical ones.
3) I never thought of looking at life as a test, that's an interesting perspective. The universe is filled with duality, for every action there is a reaction. If there weren't two genders, the meaning of our lives would change considerably. There would no longer be gender politics, and if we engaged in sexual intercourse, everyone would be homosexual. If we assume that everything in the universe has its purpose, then two genders and all the different things they bring to the equation must all be part of 'the way things are supposed to be'. It doesn't mean, of course, that we haven't goofed things up in our interpretations (aka religious folks condemning homosexuality as against god's will and such). All homosexuality means is that we can't reproduce naturally. Alternatives exist for a reason, and these alternatives are all part of our evolution.

To wrap it up, I present my usual argument: if we were done evolving, if we have truly achieved our finished form and are as we are intended to be as residents of the planet earth, why do we still get sunburned? People have said we get sunburned because he defied evolution and started to live indoors, and that if God/the universe had intended us to live in dwellings that protected us from the sun, they would already exist. So by that logic, that means the need to create and build is against evolution. I highly doubt that.

Great questions, makes my gray matter ache a bit! :)

Answer 10

Evolution is a function of the imperfect replication of life and the finite resources. It requires no thought process.

An immortal being would fill the environment, until there were no resources to allow for offspring. Such a species would stop evolving as there would be no future generations. A mortal creature in a marginalized environment where it does not have to compete with the immortal group, would evolve until it could displace the immortal.

Sexual reproduction allows for genetic recombination accelerating adaptation. Some vertebrates in non-competitive, stable environments reproduce by parthenogenesis.