Wait a damned second...Vegetarian Spiders?

In 1981, Bill gates thought that moving from 64k to 640k was a generous memory limit.

I'm sure thousands of years ago people thought that bringing a male and a female of any "kind" of animal on a boat was enough to explain the multitude of varieties of species that would exist in the foreseeable future. Again, now we know better.

If Gates can misjudge memory management by five to six years, wisemen of the days of olde can certainly misjudge biology and genetics by another millennium.

Still it's fun to consider the Decay of Intelligent Design Constant that causes destructive mutations to become more prevalent. Coinneach or somebody should incorporate that mechanic into a table top game of some sort.

 

Depends on the mechanism, doesn't? If evolution is caused by mutation, then it keeps going. However if evolution is the decreasing of available genetic possibilities, then it stops as long as like breeds with like. Example: Dogs & breeds of Dogs -- Two dogs of the same breed can't create a new breed, but two dogs of different breeds can.

Remember, every chromosome comes in pairs. With two animals for unclean animals and seven for the clean animals that is a minimum of four different genetic permutations for every genetic trait that has more than one possibility. Multiple by the number of genetic traits, and you have wide variety of permutations.
To prove or disprove this requires the sequencing of genome of every know species and breed, determining what genes are the same for each "kind" and what genes possess diversity. Then, excluding genetic mutations, determine if the available diversity requires more than the number of the species permitted on the ark.
Add to that the difficulty of defining "kind" and determining what is and isn't a genetic mutation, I would say that I don't see this kind of analysis occurring within the next hundreds except for the fact that the progression is exponential instead of linear, so who knows. But then again, someone has be paid to do all that work and if no one funds it, it won't get done.

 

Actually, if they were kept in pens for an entire year, how didn't their muscles atrophy or something? And where did he put the fish? And what's the story with delaying the flood seven days after Methuselah died because he was so great? Surely he saw that coming; but it wouldn't have been a delay if he did; and if he didn't, why was he planning to kill him with the flood? :???:

 

Please stop talking, Xyle. Your stupidity and lack of understanding of evolution (at this point I am beginning to believe it is a refusal to understand) is starting to make my head hurt.

 

Your breed example is bad biology. Breeds of dogs are actually all within the same family, to the point that continued mating within the same breed causes negative genetic mutations, such as a predilection towards cancer, or vulnerability to dermatitis due to prodigious folds of skin, and even propensity for hip dysplasia. All dogs are of one species. This makes dogs the most visually diverse species in the world. A breed of dog is similar to perceived ethnicity in humans, but to a much greater degree. The sad thing is, in several wild animals, the same thing is happening; cheetahs are so closely related that a skin graft from one does not invoke an immune response in another. Tasmanian devils are all so closely related that if one gets cancer, and some of the cancer cells are spread to another, the cancer will continue to grow on the new devil as if it never changed bodies. The thing is, we don't see new species being made by interbreeding between related animals. Tigers and lions occasionally interbreed, but their progeny is effectively sterile and will not create a new species of ligers or tigons, despite both animals being a species of cat. Note that this is far different from the concept of breeds, because a particular breed of an animal is still within the same species. All known breeds of dog can interbreed and produce viable offspring that is, on the whole, healthier and longer-lived than its parents. This is not the case when a large breed's male (great dane) decides to mate with a small breed's female (chihuahua), because his penis can kill her, especially with how dogs like to go at it. This is similar to how any given human can be perforated internally by a full-size horse, and to a further degree, split wide open by any type of whale.
Now that I've given my explanation, I have to side with Magikot.

 

And how did they even build the thing in the first place? What the hell is 'gopher wood' and how did he get so much of it and build such a huge ship at over five hundred years old with only three sons to help him while still providing for his family? Did he work part-time? Did they all take shifts? How'd he even afford all the other building materials in the first place? And what about all the plants? How did they survive with no light? Also, what about non-domestic species that couldn't have come from any animals from his homeland? How'd he get them on the ark? I tell ya, I'm starting to think that some of this Bible stuff is a bit exaggerated!

 

BURN IT ALL!

 

Obviously a load of little miracles were going on behind the scenes to make all this happen. Honestly wayne, how did you not realise that? :roll:

 

Just got home, picked up a girl, banged her and she is sleeping atm. Love my phone with the internet stuff, yes I am on the net after doing it cause I love you guys that much. Anyway this thread had become a wall of text and it hurts my eyes. Please be more considerate in the future.

 

Sorry, Zanza. It just seems that not everyone who's gone through some form of education in the US understands biology, despite our schools being so awesome, and our country's adherence to science.

 

But my eyes, they hurt!

 

Hey, think of it this way; if you were blind, you'd actually have to listen to all that text. But, on the plus side, if you were blind you'd never suffer from tubgirl, or two girls one cup.

 

Who said I suffered when I watched them?

 

I guess it was a hypothetical. I mean, I certainly was shocked when I watched them, and guessed I wasn't the only person who was shocked. However, the first time I saw shitting-nipple-dicks I laughed my ass off. I'd say I've changed from my experience with tub-girl and TG1C, but I haven't really. Just made me more cautious. But, what if by "suffered", I had meant "time it was difficult to masturbate"? Again, hypothetical. And, I have a feeling that just because I would personally find it difficult, if floyd was here he would say it didn't go far enough.

 

You're doing it wrong.

 

Did you know that some textbooks list the scientific name of dog as Canis familiaris instead of Canis lupus familiaris? Gave me the impression that science considers the dog and the wolf (Canis lupus) different speices. Hence the mention of breeds. But let's forget I mentioned breeds and focus on the primary idea that I theorized.

Now how about snakes, they are considered to made up of different species aren't they? And yet God's curse that they eat dust is the same for all of them, isn't it? (Snakes "eat dust" in order to smell/taste the air/dust.) Therefore, if God only cursed one animal/kind, then it should, theoritically, be possible that all snakes descended from a single male-female pair. Apply the analytical criteria mentioned a prior to snakes and you have a scientifically testable hypothesis that may prove or disprove a genetic Great Flood theory: That all land and air animals may have survived a Great Flood upon an ark. (Or at the very least, test my understanding of it.)

But as it has been pointed out that I know little about biology (having read little), I am always open to new knowledge, but having read little, I don't even know enough to know where to look, and I don't have sufficient interest to spend days learning about the topic.

Will a bit of humor heal them? http://www.calamitiesofnature.com/archive/?c=518

 

Then school yourself more, and if you can't be bothered don't post here because you're just pissing people off acting like you know more than people who actually have an interest in these areas. You have a library near you don't you? Go read some books on evolution and taxonomy - or at least get a primer book on these subjects if you are too lazy to educate yourself in more depth.

Case in point a Jehovah's Witness has come round to my house on a few occaisons and instead of giving me a barely literate booklet like most of them do, he actually gave me a booklet which is well argued and told me to read it so next time I have a better understanding of his beliefs. I have read it now and so now I prepared to talk to him about it (though normally I wouldn't give religous types the time of day, this guy is polite and articulates his arguments well so I'm willing to hear him out), so even though I don't believe that which he advocates I'm in a more well informed position to argue with him now I have read his source material. If you can't pay people here the same courtesy, don't argue with others over matters of science which in your own words you don't fully understand.

 

Dogs are considered a subspecies of wolf, with all breeds of dog within that same subspecies. A subspecies can freely breed with its parent species, and what's interesting about the Canis genus is that it allows most of the existing species to interbreed and produce fertile offspring, because they have identical numbers of chromosomes.

As for snakes, while all snakes are directly related, certain examples of the "kind" would never need the assistance of Noah to survive the flood. 16 of 17 known genera of sea snake are completely unable to maneuver on land, and give birth to live young in the water. The only thing they do like regular snakes is breathe. These sea snakes don't eat dust, though their chemoreceptors work fine underwater, which allows them to hunt eels, fish, molluscs, and snails.
EDIT: damned National Geographic. Now there's DNA sequencing being done to snakes and lizards to find out what they're mostly related to. Apparently they're not as closely related to monitor lizards as would imply an aquatic origin of all snakes (which was previously thought thanks to the resurgence of the pythonomorpha theory).
Are you familiar with the bones of the inner ear? Mammals all have three, reptiles only have one. However, through the study of mammal and reptile embryos, it was shown that the extra bones in reptile jaws were actually analogous to the ossicles of the mammalian ear! This suggests a separation in the distant past that lead to the development of mammals from reptiles.

 

I've changed my mind about Xyle: now I think his posts are entertaining in their idiocy. On a side note, in case he's interested, his second paragraph above is rife with illogic and misinformation.

 

How do you explain minotaurs then? I know I've dated some cows in the past but that can't be right.