Creative

30. November 2008 by admin.

“Evolutionary change is a powerful framework for studying our world and our place therein. It is a recurring theme in every realm of science: over time, the universe, the planet Earth, life, and human technologies all change, albeit on vastly different scales. Evolution offers scientific explanations for the age-old question, “Where did we come from?”

-SETI Institute

Why evolution occurs, and at an accelerated rate far greater than the Darwinian model:

Human beings are one of the fastest evolving creatures on this planet. We are a testament to change and adaptation, both genetically and externally. Our rapid and accelerated pace of technology has brought us to a position to be the dominant species that has the deepest understanding of life on this planet. Yet there are groups of people that forthrightly deny this to protect their political dominance or their spiritual influence. Such attempts often backfire, politically, as these groups are denied empowerment or recognition by the majority.

Mass extinctions or ELE’s (Extinction-level events) offer a clue towards the viability of static life on this planet. Organisms simply cannot survive without change, or some kind of modification in genome, whether caused by mutation (exposure to the environment) or selection (superior viability of certain types of individuals). Global catastrophes offer the greatest amount of trauma and hardship towards life on this planet, and these events are trial grounds for guaranteed survival of a entire taxa or branch of organisms for the next several million years.

In addition, there is a more finer but more poignant thought to mention that when a species or a family of species, both land and marine, dies out, it is game over for that group of organisms. Evolution comes to a halt, and creatures are forced to start from scratch. Thus, we traditionally say that evolution occurs over millions of years, perhaps the magnitude of several hundred million years. But geological evidence surmises that, great extinctions caused by a vast array of factors, such as meteorites, widespread volcanic activity, global warming or cooling, chemical changes in the atmosphere or ocean, falls in sea level, and/or gamma ray bursts - occur every ten to a hundred million years. That means that life only has the span of tens of million year period to develop. A significantly much shorter conception of life allowed for complex life to develop.

Models are susceptible to modification and change. No model can sufficiently document or encompass all possible scenarios, since the amount of scientific data is always on the rise to reconstitute missing links and holes in theories. Whoever creates better models and publishes a better book are generally awarded universal scientific recognition or a Nobel Prize. Empirically speaking, every year that passes we have more information regarding biology and life on this planet to succinctly encapsulate that evolution occurs more or less to some extent on this planet.

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