thunder_runner32 wrote:What exactly does evolution have to do with functional science anyways? By functional I mean, medicine, technology, etc.
Animal testing relies on evolution to be correct.
It relies on the notion that we all had common ancestors and that the organs evolved early on. The earlier it appeared, the more likely it is to be similar to those of other species. The same go for biological processes such as apoptosis etc.
You know those scientific breakthroughs in cancer? Well, the studies in humans alone isn't valid enough. It has to be proved in other species using the equivalent genes or proteins in other species.
If evolution was not correct, animal testing would be completely unjustified. If evolution was incorrect, all scientific breakthroughs using model organisms that aren't human cells, would be completely unjustified.
All phamarceutical and biological medical research would hence be limted to humans, which are the most difficult species to work with in research terms.
Medical research would slow down. Breakthroughs would be less frequent.
And let's not forget research into Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD). It is a nasty little disease and most research I've seen uses embryos. Well, religious fundamentalists are against using human embryos, but if evolution was destroyed, scientists would have to use nothing but human embryos as the mouse embryos they use would thus become scientifically irrelevant to investigating the causes of DMD. That's not to say they don't use human embryos now, but without evolution, more would be used.
