Why does evolution matter?

[original PM]

My kids have just hit that age where they pretty much know father christmas, tooth fairy easter bunny etc do not exist but they understand why the 'myths' are told to younger children.

However we then started talking religion at which point we got onto what/who 'God' was and we agreed - a mythical figure used to hold sway over you to get you to do what someone else wants (a la father xmas and only good kids get presents)

I though that was pretty sharp coming from a 10 year old

[NotAllThere]

So sanity is statistical then?

How else can it be defined?

[SpontaneousOrder]

How else can it be defined?

By one's ability to to use reason to integrate their sensory perceptions into a coherent model of reality, and their ability to use their faculty of reason to navigate that reality, rationally, in order to live and prosper as men.

The degree to which one is insane is to the extent to which that person's faculty of reason is impaired.


Of course, that's a lot of effort for the self-loathing, death-worshiping mystics who would rather cower in fear than take command of their own lives and their own destiny - hoping rather to prosper through self-delusion & wishful thinking.

[EternalOptimist]

Herring gulls and black-backed gulls: Evidence for Evolution - page 10

nope. they are still gulls and still capable of mating with each other.
thats not a different species.
I want to see a chair that can now perfom the functions of a washing machine

[Mich the Tester]

nope. they are still gulls and still capable of mating with each other.
thats not a different species.
I want to see a chair that can now perfom the functions of a washing machine

There are examples of interspecies breeding producing fertile hybrids;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_(biology)

Fertile canid hybrids occur between coyotes, wolves, dingoes, jackals and domestic dogs.

Wholphin, a fertile but very rare cross between a false killer whale and a bottlenose dolphin.

Colubrid snakes of the tribe Lampropeltini have been shown to produce fertile hybrid offspring.

[Pondlife]

Liliger - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lion(M) + Lion/Tiger(F) = Liliger?

[pjclarke]

By one's ability to to use reason to integrate their sensory perceptions into a coherent model of reality, and their ability to use their faculty of reason to navigate that reality, rationally, in order to live and prosper as men.

The mental wards are full of sane people, using that definition.

Sanity is a societal construct. The majority is always sane.

[EternalOptimist]

There are examples of interspecies breeding producing fertile hybrids;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_(biology)

nope.
dogs can mate with dogs.
but they have a common ancestor with cats.
Dont misunderstand me, I do believe in the theory and I thinks its the best explanation we have got. But the facts are thin on the ground

[SpontaneousOrder]

The mental wards are full of sane people, using that definition.

Sanity is a societal construct. The majority is always sane.

It doesn't surprise me at all that you would say that. After all, nihilism is easier than thinking.

[pjclarke]

<shrug>