Friday, January 15, 2010

Men More Evolved?

Of all the dumb questions Creationists ask, one of the dumbest is "Why are there still monkeys?"

This shows a misunderstanding of two key points of evolution:

1) We didn't evolve from monkeys; We share a common ancestor.
2) Not everything is trying to evolve to become human.

This self gratifying assumption that everything has the exact same evolutionary "goal" is based on the notion of the great chain of being that Creationists seem to think Evolutionists (whatever the hell that means) say everything is trying to climb, towards the same goal.

This misunderstanding is prolific and extends well beyond Creationists (although Creationists love to take advantage of it). So much that it's slapped across the title of an article on ABC's website which proclaims: "Men More Evolved? Y Chromosome Study Stirs Debate".

DOH.

Unless you apply stupid concepts like the great chain, "more" and "less" evolved are completely meaningless. What the title should say is that the Y chromosome is accumulating genetic mutations more quickly. That doesn't imply that it's a good thing. Remember, most mutations are neutral and wouldn't have an effect on the evolution unless selected for.

Very little of this really comes through even reading the article.

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