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Why You can Believe in Religion and Evolution

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Why You can Believe in Religion and Evolution

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Recently, I had a conversation with a member for the church about race and religion. This page shows factual information about evolution in order to prove my point. People can both believe in religion and evolution as well as understanding that race has no affect on brain capacity.

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The main reasons I believe in evolution being possible is that we have evidence of macroevolution in species from fossils, we have the need for change in order to survive and reproduce, and we can spot microevolution in animals living today.

We have discovered fossils that can be compared to animals living today but with different qualities about them. For example, a fossil called Ambulocetus Natans was found that has been hypothesized to be an early version of a whale. This fossil had the ability to live and swim well in water with a tail but also had legs with hooves to walk on land. We find many other examples of modifications when we study skeletons of different species. Even if you don't believe this was an early form of what is now called a whale, this at the very least shows proof of extinction.

This brings me to my next point, which is that we must change to prevent us from extinction. This is a driving factor for evolution to occur. The idea of fitness suggests we must fight for the ability to survive and reproduce. The only way animals can manage this is by adapting to their specific environments. Examples of animals who have specific adaptations to help aid in sexual selection include male peacocks use their beautiful feathers to grab attention and big horn rams fighting so the strongest will be rewarded with partners.

Lastly, we have certain species that exist today in different locations that have different traits depending on their environment. Darwin discovered the differences in finches depending on which island they resided on his 5 year trip. We have spotted differences today in animals living on islands vs. the mainland. In the article What is Darwin's Theory of Evolution, Ker Than states. "Genes can be transferred from one population to another when organisms migrate or immigrate, a process known as gene flow." So if we think of our ancestors migrating and mating which then mixes up the genes, this is a form of evolution.

The idea of both God and Evolution can be accepted, but by stating that evolution is "dangerous propaganda" even with and abundance of scientific evidence, then I can also say the idea of all life being created by God only is propaganda due to a lack of evidence.

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These are changes in the physical structure, function or behavior that allow an organism to reproduce and survive.

For a trait to be considered an adaptation, it must promote sex and survival.

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The most well known example in history of adaptation is the Finches discovered by Charles Darwin. He noticed these finches had noticeable differences in their beaks throughout the different Galapagos islands.

The Monken people developed an adaptation to water where their pupils close so they can see twice as well.

In 1994, evidence came from a fossil called Ambulocetus natans which was proof of a swimming/walking whale.

Scientists believe the long neck of a giraffe could be due to their adaptation of trying to reach leaves on higher branches. They would stretch the tissue in their necks and pass that down to their offspring.

Bergman's Rule, which states that heat-adapted mammals will have smaller bodies. Allen's rule states that heat-adapted mammals will have longer limbs to maximize body surface area.

Populations born in higher altitudes have developed barrel chests, bigger lungs, bigger hearts, and will be shorter in order to get more O2 to their lungs and retain heat better.

When the Spanish came to the highlands, it took 53 years until they were able to produce a child that could survive. The Indians there were well adjusted due to the years of adaptation they had. They Spanish assumed it was due to witchcraft. This is a great example of natural selection.

As humans we have developed the ability to walk on two legs, use our opposable thumb, our S shaped backbone and most importantly our brain growth which set us apart from other species.

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With genetic engineering we find many solutions to problems that have plagued our world for centuries. We could have a way to end world hunger by modifying more food, a way to study organisms better and what different genes will do, and most importantly a way to improve modern medicine. I agree there are downfalls to the use of CRISPR that we can't ignore. It's very possible we will return to what happened in the 1920's-30's where people where sterilized for being "unfit" for society. But that will only happen if it isn't controlled. We can't ignore that fact that this engineering has made things possible like medicine for clotting factors, growth hormones, insulin and could possibly cure HIV and cancer. Those possibilities make exploring this specific science worth it.

On the downside, people may become fixated on modifying being set as the new standard. If we have the option to change the possibilities of an embryo growing up and having diseases, why not? But what stops us from changing everything else that makes us individuals. I think if we put in place structured laws against modification for anything that isn't absolutely necessary, we can avoid a future where modifications go way too far.

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Microevolution are the changes in a population over a short period of time.

Macroevolution are the large scale evolutionary changes in a species over a long period of time.

These two processes are caused by 1. Extinction and 2. Adaptive Radiation

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Evolution is the developmental process over time that allows a species to diversify.

Charles Darwin is known as the "father of evolution" because he developed the idea of it being possible due to Natural Selection. Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel came to the same conclusion about evolution. John Ray was the one to purpose the concept of species and taxonomy.

Natural selection is the process where species adapt to their environment in order to survive. If they don't adapt, they will go extinct.

This was a challenge to the Fixity of Species, which is the belief that all life has been created by God and that it cannot be changed.

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Race is a social construct.

At first, scientists attempted to organize race based off of differences in the skull which they believed to be linked to brain capacity. A hierarchy was created with Caucasian at the top.

Craniometry claimed that you could predict character, personality and criminality by head shape. This was used as a justification for Nazi Germany during World War II. Today, we know none of these hypothesizes are true.

There are a few possibilities for what adaptation occurred to our ancestors. It is hard to tell based off our limited information from fossils. Scientists think we all derived from East Africa. We started out hairy and when our ancestors started migrating, they lost their fur. Races where developed in different parts of the world due to the amount of sun being received. Different races of people have different amounts of melanin because they adapted to their environment.

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It is thought that the earliest human ancestors evolved from a species that lived 6 to 8 million years ago. This was when our lineages diverged from primates and that's why we don't see apes turning into humans.

Evidence from paleontology, genetics, zoology, molecular biology and other fields support the theory of evolution. Hundreds of studies verify evolution from the origin of new traits and species.