Evolution has been observed... right?

[SigurdReginson]

I suppose what I’m talking about is selective breeding. I have a very specific belief system (well we all do), but anarchism is central to what I believe. I believe the government is selectively breeding us to reduce our brain capacity, like pugs.

That's pretty far out there... Any evidence to back that claim?

 

[an anarchist]

That's pretty far out there... Any evidence to back that claim?

I would say plenty. There’s people and organizations who have devoted their entire life to creating databases of government activity in which this is the natural conclusion. That’s a rabbit hole I fell waaaaaaaaaay down for several years. I’m sure plenty of evidence I could post would be incorrectly touted as “conspiracy theory”. I’ll provide a nice site though if you’d wanna start that rabbit hole.
Theologically too, I think the Bible is wholly anarchist.
The Corbett Report

 

[SigurdReginson]

I would say plenty. There’s people and organizations who have devoted their entire life to creating databases of government activity in which this is the natural conclusion. That’s a rabbit hole I fell waaaaaaaaaay down for several years. I’m sure plenty of evidence I could post would be incorrectly touted as “conspiracy theory”. I’ll provide a nice site though if you’d wanna start that rabbit hole.
Theologically too, I think the Bible is wholly anarchist.
The Corbett Report

Ok. I'm not looking for the broad brush of your thoughts on government activity, though. I'm speaking of this government wanting us to devolve thing more specifically. What do you have that deals with this specific topic?

 

[Deeje]

Yes selective breeding to bring out desired traits is a human thing. Though in the wild evolution is being observed as you read this. Take for example the Langkawi bent-toed gecko (Cyrtodactylus macrotuberculatus)

Last time I looked, it was still a gecko......adaptation produces new varieties within a single species....isn’t this just another example?

 

[blü 2]

Pugs [...] That’s evolution, right? We’ve seen it happen. Am I getting something wrong here? I’m no scientist.

Pugs are the result of selective breeding, culling or breeding not according to the fortunes of circumstance and mutation but according to human purposes. Humans have been selectively breeding animals for at least seven thousand years, or perhaps earlier when we formed our symbiosis with dogs.

'Evolution' generally doesn't refer to selective breeding ─ though you could argue that what humans do is just another event in nature.

 

[an anarchist]

Ok. I'm not looking for the broad brush of your thoughts on government activity, though. I'm speaking of this government wanting us to devolve thing more specifically. What do you have that deals with this specific topic?

Alright, for example. The government controls everything we put in our bodies. From the water to the food to the medicine. All of it reduces the brain capacity. Fluoride in the water don’t drink the tap

 

[SigurdReginson]

Alright, for example. The government controls everything we put in our bodies. From the water to the food to the medicine. All of it reduces the brain capacity. Fluoride in the water don’t drink the tap

It's true that there are links to Floride and reduced intelligence. We didn't find this out really until later on, though. Do you think the government knew this initially? Do you have evidence to back this?

Also, how does that tie into evolution?

 

[an anarchist]

Ok. I'm not looking for the broad brush of your thoughts on government activity, though. I'm speaking of this government wanting us to devolve thing more specifically. What do you have that deals with this specific topic?

The obesity crisis, I think this can be argued of evidence of selective breeding. Whoever is in charge makes unhealthy food readily available to the greatest amount of people. And now an increased obesity rate has been observed. Selective breeding? Because obesity would serve to weaken the brain.

 

[blü 2]

Alright, for example. The government controls everything we put in our bodies. From the water to the food to the medicine. All of it reduces the brain capacity. Fluoride in the water don’t drink the tap

I can see you're not a man of science.

Perhaps you should seriously consider it.

 

[an anarchist]

It's true that there are links to Floride and reduced intelligence. We didn't find this out really until later on, though. Do you think the government knew this initially? Do you have evidence to back this?

Also, how does that tie into evolution?

Oh yes. It started because these companies had all this excess nuclear waste, so they had to sell it. It came in the form of fluoridating the water, and the government helped them do it. They knew what they were doing, they profited big! I’d have to dig up all the sources but what I’m saying is true. I could dig it up later. That site I linked is really good at providing such sources.
Also, selective breeding?

 

[SigurdReginson]

The obesity crisis, I think this can be argued if evidence of selective breeding. Whoever is in charge makes unhealthy food readily available to the greatest amount of people. And now an increased obesity rate has been observed. Selective breeding? Because obesity would serve to weaken the brain.

That doesn't make any sense... You do know that obesity is becoming a global problem, right? America doesn't even have the worst obesity rates in the world. Obesity really has nothing to do with selective breeding, too. How does obesity influence genetics?

 

[ChristineM]

Last time I looked, it was still a gecko......adaptation produces new varieties within a single species....isn’t this just another example?

What you call adaption to dis evolution is called evolution by those scientists who actually understand what is happening.

The gecko in question has split between forest dwelling and cave dwelling species, those that have moved into caves are evolving different markings and sight characteristics

 

[an anarchist]

That doesn't make any sense... You do know that obesity is becoming a global problem, right? America doesn't even have the worst obesity rates in the world. Obesity really has nothing to do with selective breeding, too. How does obesity influence genetics?

Well I believe all governments take part in what I’m talking about, not just America. I’m doing a lot of assuming here, ok, but it seems to me that obesity would have a negative effect on the brain. As I think the governments purposefully reduce brain capacity, I see them using obesity as a means to do this. This isn’t the only way they do this, just perhaps an observable example. I believe government makes fattening foods readily available, with ill intent. What’s going to happen in a couple of generations if the obesity crisis worsens? How will that affect us genetically? Will it at all? I think so
I recognize my views may be niche

 

[ChristineM]

Well I believe all governments take part in what I’m talking about, not just America. I’m doing a lot of assuming here, ok, but it seems to me that obesity would have a negative effect on the brain. As I think the governments purposefully reduce brain capacity, I see them using obesity as a means to do this. This isn’t the only way they do this, just perhaps an observable example. I believe government makes fattening foods readily available, with ill intent. What’s going to happen in a couple of generations if the obesity crisis worsens? How will that affect us genetically? Will it at all? I think so
I recognize my views may be niche

Have you seen the film Wall-e?
It's an animation though it proposes one possibility of civilization wide obesity.

It also has the advantage of being really cute and watchable (to me)

 

[Twilight Hue]

Pugs. Didn’t they use to have noses? Like, the old paintings of them, they have snouts! Full on noses, and they look happy too. Nowadays they look pathetic. We, humanity, observed that change, right? A change that affected a species as a whole. It was a result of our own buffoonery that doomed these poor fellas to pancake faces.
That’s evolution, right? We’ve seen it happen. Am I getting something wrong here? I’m no scientist.

Yes it has been observed. Some evolve faster while others take millions of years.

It all depends on the environment.

 

[an anarchist]

Have you seen the film Wall-e?
It's an animation though it proposes one possibility of civilization wide obesity.

It also has the advantage of being really cute and watchable (to me)

Saw it in theaters when I was a wee lad. I’ll have to give it another watch!

 

[RestlessSoul]

I disagree with this just because of my own views. I think humanity is devolving, and we have been since Adam and Eve.

We have to get ourselves back to the garden. But the true garden is within;

"...only add
Deeds to thy knowledge answerable, add faith,
Add virtue, patience, temperance, add love
...then wilt thou not be loathe to leave this Paradise, but shall possess
A paradise within thee, happier far."

Thus the angel Michael to Adam and Eve, Paradise Lost (John Milton)

 

[ChristineM]

Yes it has been observed. Some evolve faster while others take millions of years.

It all depends on the environment.

Yes some evolve very quickly, quick enough to observe change per generation. Some slower, like the pigmy sloth of Escudo de Veraguas evolving to its current state over 10,000 years and some don't evolve, the horseshoe crab and razor clam for example

 

[firedragon]

Evolution is the change in allele frequency in a population of organisms over many generations. An allele is a version of a gene. Blue eyes, green eyes, and brown eyes are different alleles of the eye color gene. For example, we might see a particular shade of fur become more common in a species population that has migrated to a new environment with a new palette of natural background colors.

The theory of evolution is a conceptual model that considers the implications of observable evolution occurring over vast amounts of time, which lets us accurately predict future experimental data like where a certain transitional fossil will be found that we haven't discovered yet, or how long it will take for a disease to develop resistance to an antibiotic. It has made hundreds of thousands if not millions of accurate future predictions, and is one of the most reliable theories in science.

It is very easy to observe evolution. You can take a bit of soil from your backyard with billions of bacteria in it, and place it in a container of nutrient broth that has very low levels of one vital ingredient (like poor amounts of any chemical containing carbon for the bacteria to use). Then, add a substitute for that ingredient that no bacterium can digest, like a new pesticide. Slowly increase the concentration of this chemical over time while growing the bacteria, and you'll see the evolution of a new metabolic pathway to digest this new chemical. You can sequence the DNA of the bacteria at the start and the end of this experiment, and see the genetic changes that result in a new set of enzymes to break up the chemical and transform it into something usable. This has been done many many times, and provides a strategy to clean up chemical spills, and is evolution.

When England was experiencing its industrial revolution, we saw moths evolve a darker color because the trees they perched on were becoming coated with soot. Any fruit or vegetable you can buy at the store is a product of evolution guided by humans. There are endless verifiable and repeatable examples.

Some people follow religions whose interpretations or doctrines require the earth to be extremely young. Otherwise, the internal logic of their beliefs breaks down. Without an Adam and Eve, for example, there would be no original sin, and there would be no need for Christ to redeem the sins we are born with and no need for his supposed death and resurrection. The theory of evolution directly refutes the possibility of an Adam and Eve. And so we see this cottage industry of apologetics to deny, miseducate, obfuscate, and selectively cherry pick information about evolution. One example is the "microevolution" and "macroevolution" distinction, which is meaningless to biologists because it's all the same evolution.

Debunking religion has become religious missionary activity of atheists and evolution seems to be a thumping tool. Almost an obsession. indoctrination.

 

[ratiocinator]

Debunking religion has become religious missionary activity of atheists and evolution seems to be a thumping tool. Almost an obsession. indoctrination.

It's actually certain religious sects that have the obsession with (denying) evolution. It really doesn't help atheism per se.