How can you not believe in evolution? Also ideas on Genesis

You can't possibly split an atom because no knife could made sharp enough"

Rolling eyes won't do it, hep.

Michael Behe himself would be embarrassed by your ignorance of evolution. How can you possibly hope to dismiss something about which you understand so little?

If you said "You can't possibly split an atom because no knife could made sharp enough" you'd expect to be laughed at.....but because no church has decreed that nuclear science needs to be undermined, nobody is that silly. The only reason you make such a nonsense statement with such confidence is that an enormous number of people agree with it, and your church encourages it.

If the Roman Catholic Church itself has (eventually, grudgingly) admitted the fact of evolution, how dare you find the idea so ridiculous?

Hmmm... The linguistic explanation to why it is called a bluejay is probably that it is blue...

Evolution theories may be not entirey accurate, but we know evolution takes place, even though we cannot neccesarily describe it in detail.

It is blue becuase it can be. We are the way we are because we can be. The seamless interplay of forces create a delicate balance in which everything recieves it's attributes from it's own potential and the limits set by it's environment.

You mean "Why is a bluejay blue?". That question?

It strikes me as a useless question in the same category as "why is water wet".

As far as I can tell.

The only answer I can come up with is obvious: It was practical. This worked, so this bird got to pass on it's genes. If purple was a more suited color, then they'd be purple. Obvious.

I know I've asked this before but I just have to ask it again... if we "evolved" from say... gorilla's why are there still gorilla's? Doesn't "evolving" involve being evolved from one thing to something different? Therefore the original "thing" would no longer exist...

Oh wait... I know! We evolved from dinosaurs!! That's it! That's why they no longer exist!

if we "evolved" from say... gorilla's why are there still gorilla's? Doesn't "evolving" involve being evolved from one thing to something different? Therefore the original "thing" would no longer exist...

heph

I don't understand the question.

Why are you not a man? Why am I not a woman?

Blue Jays aren't really blue. It is the reflected wavelengths of light that make them look blue. You can grind some features up and not get a blue powder. You can also hold the features up between you and a light source and the blue will go away. Small particles in the feathers cause that refraction of light. In many respects, the explanation for why a blue jay is blue is similar to why the sky is blue: it is all a trick of light.

Parrots aren't really green either. They also have small particles like the blue jays. They have a layer of particles that scatter blue and a layer of particles that scatter yellow, causing them to look green.

I know that is not the kind of answer you're looking for. I just felt like talking a little bit Wink

As for your actual question of why they've come to be the way they are, I have no idea. I did a search on Google Scholar and I kept being fed a bunch of links to research concerning warning coloration in insects that effected the behavior of blue jays and how the blue jays come to realize certain colors are bad to for their diets. (One actually shown a picture of a Blue Jay throwing up the insect, lol.) The question you've posed is an interesting one though. Considering that I see bluejays all the time, I'm surprised I've never thought about the question before. Now the question is going to bug the crap out of me Razz

If anyone knows the answer, we would appreciate it if you enlighten us Smile

It is blue becuase it can be. We are the way we are because we can be. The seamless interplay of forces create a delicate balance in which everything recieves it's attributes from it's own potential and the limits set by it's environment.

When you find an actual answer to Hep's question, feel free to share it. I'm sure Hep and I both agree that the response quoted above does not answer Hep's question.

You mean "Why is a bluejay blue?". That question?

It strikes me as a useless question in the same category as "why is water wet".

Are they asking why a bluejay would have evolved to be blue and not purple instead?

As far as I can tell.

The only answer I can come up with is obvious: It was practical. This worked, so this bird got to pass on it's genes. If purple was a more suited color, then they'd be purple. Obvious.

This was the question you asked first, before the distracting bluejay question (which is actually a good question to be asking, especially when compared to this question above)

Do you have a link to the first time you asked about the bluejay, hep?

I seem to remember posting a very good site that discussed bird colouration and adaptation....which I doubt you spent much time reading.

There is a very good reason why bluejays are blue and science can answer the question. Not how....why.

You seem to have this wilful determination to dismiss science, yet you seem to understand so little about it. Why is that?

Evolution is a matter of mutations. If one gorilla among many has a mutation that gives it an edge, and is able to pass on that mutation genetically, evolution has happened. But that doesn't mean that all the 'old model' gorillas just fade away. If they can sustain their existence there will only be two species of gorilla rather than one.

But I suspect that the evolution of man has gone on for far longer than the evolution of gorilla. At one time man might have looked a lot like gorilla does today. At that time gorilla may have looked like something else entirely.

Human is the oldest form of primate we know of, and therefore the most advanced.