RTP76
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- Jul 21, 2019
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CC: @Aussie PeteI saw this mentioned and figured I'd respond.
Again, a bird doesn't need to evolve all of these features simultaneously. The bird doesn't need to think "oh I need feathers and hollow bones in order to use my wings to fly!" Then evolves all the millions of features all at once.
Agreed (in that I understand evolution doesn't suggest multiple changes to happen all at once); however, this gets into that really gray area for which there is no data-substantiated research and much is still based upon conjecture (the 'story-telling' Dr. Tour refers to).
With so little data, the arguments for and against will largely be based upon conjecture.
So the suggestion is that there were reptiles, with feathers (keeping in mind other reptiles without feathers were already flying), and they are jumping around in the air trying to get something to eat (though many sources of food would have been accessible on the ground, as it still is today the early bird gets the worm), then there would have been the development of a 'proto-wing' that would have eventually allowed for stable gliding, then bones would have hollowed themselves out and thus flight.
But the story for birds doesn't stop there...
We must also envisage changes to their their reproduction system, lungs, how their unique sound production developed, how their migration patterns and sense of direction would have evolved, then we must imagine how these delicate creatures would have survived the impact that wiped out the dinosaurs, and so on. This is like the metaphor where we can observe that evolution can demonstrably crawl 1 ft., (varying species of Darwin's 'finches of the Galapagos), but the conservative needs to data-backed empirical evidence that evolution will crawl-->walk-->run-->fly the remaining 5,279 ft to validate the claims of universal common descent.
Now I'm not looking to dive into a discussion on birds (I'm not particularly interested in birds), but just illustrating for the thread: none of this 'story' represents conclusions formed from data-substantiated research of the claimed mechanisms driving the changes, and no amount of conclusions inferred from cladistics and phylogenetics will substitute for actual data-substantiated findings (though I understand that the philosophy of thought behind what is accepted within evolutionary biology qualifies "evidence" without having to directly observe all 5,280 ft. being observed--I get that). For me, a scientist saying, "look there are genes and regions of DNA present over here and if we just copy/delete and/or do a bunch of flipping around (in a computer program algorithm) then we can come up how life [A] branched off into and [C] and therefore it must have happened that way", is insufficient as data-substantiated evidence... but that's me (some would agree, others disagree).
That said, more biologists today are saying that random mutations and natural selection are insufficient to account for the complexity and diversity of life (classic Darwinian evolution), and projects like ENCODE and the discovery of orphan genes is giving more indication for uncommonness--Tour touches on this in his lectures. Because of my own way of thinking and my views of God and His word, my bias leads me to believe the research will continue to show that all life has a common creator and all life has an ancestor, but not all life arose from the same shared universal common ancestor (or God would not have revealed differently in His word).
I wonder if much of the evolution/creation debate stems from where we, as individuals, have different levels of 'acceptance' based upon our own experiences and personal biases. It would seem if there should ever be an answer that is found, that it will continue to require both 'conservative-' and 'liberal-' minded folks working together. While I don't agree with evolution from a universal common ancestor, I do appreciate you sharing your view and reasons supporting why you believe.
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