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DNA Analysis proves evolution

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Tim the plumber View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Tim the plumber Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 September 2015 at 1:22am
Originally posted by Quranexplorer Quranexplorer wrote:

Airmano, do you really understand the difference between a theoretical model and scientific evidence?

How can a theoretical model based on the theory can be the scientific evidence for that very theory?


It never is.

The evidence that the theory is right is that it makes profound predictions that are correct. That these predictions can be tested and can be failed. The more that it is expected that the prediction will fail but does not the more profound and strong the theory.

example;

In 1687 (thanks google) Newton, the most profound scientist ever, published Principia Mathematica. It was almost unreadable but did have the relationship between force mass and acceleration in it. That is the basis of physics.

From it it is possable to predict the fall of an object. This was so shockingly radical that people made livings going around and doing shows where they would have lead balls rolling down slopes above a drop and use maths to predict the point that they would land on on the floor. People were not used to the very idea that the world was predictable in this way.

Obviusly the artillery officers of the day were impressed by this and made use of it. The guys doing the stage shows soon found that they made a lot more money advising on other stuff and the consultant engineer was born.

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airmano View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote airmano Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 September 2015 at 1:36am
@QE:

What makes you say that the tree of life I linked above is a
"theoretical" model ?


Airmano
The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses (Albert Einstein 1954, in his "Gods Letter")
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Quranexplorer Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01 October 2015 at 6:57am
Airmano,

So do you have some empirical evidence to suggest it is anything more than a theoretical model?
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Quranexplorer View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Quranexplorer Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01 October 2015 at 7:15am
Originally posted by Tim the plumber Tim the plumber wrote:


It never is.The evidence that the theory is right is that it makes profound predictions that are correct. That these predictions can be tested and can be failed. The more that it is expected that the prediction will fail but does not the more profound and strong the theory.

example;In 1687 (thanks google) Newton, the most profound scientist ever, published Principia Mathematica. It was almost unreadable but did have the relationship between force mass and acceleration in it. That is the basis of physics. From it it is possable to predict the fall of an object. This was so shockingly radical that people made livings going around and doing shows where they would have lead balls rolling down slopes above a drop and use maths to predict the point that they would land on on the floor. People were not used to the very idea that the world was predictable in this way. Obviusly the artillery officers of the day were impressed by this and made use of it. The guys doing the stage shows soon found that they made a lot more money advising on other stuff and the consultant engineer was born.


Exactly! It is that ability of Newton's theory to withstand such empirical tests showing the physical results always match with his theoretical predictions that sets it apart as a strong theory.

Unfortunately, theory of evolution has no such empirical evidence. Don't you ever think why you have to always take the help of Newton's theory to explain what a good theory is like? Why not try explaining with TE?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Quranexplorer Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 October 2015 at 5:07am
Originally posted by Tim the plumber Tim the plumber wrote:



[COLOR="#000099"]DNA does prove evolution. By understanding the way DNA transmitts information to the next generation you can understand the ancestry of the person/animal/plant/fungus whatever. That you cannot say precisley which particular individuals were an ancester at 100 generations back does not change the fact that you can be certain that it was him or somebody closely related to him. Thus King Richard of York's body was identified with a very high level of certainty, not quite 100% but very close. The destinctive hunch back, huge frame, battle damage and location providing the rest of the evidence.


DNA does not prove evolution. Let me explain you:

There are 2 aspects here: 1) The accuracy of DNA predictions and 2) Testing of DNA based evolution predictions.

1) The accuracy of DNA predictions: What you do in a DNA analysis is you make a prediction on one's ancestry by matching the genetic components and you see that the prediction matches almost 100% with the fact if you are testing two individuals in a first level connection in the chain. But the accuracy comes down with each level upwards and at some point you see that you end up with more ancestors than you have sections of the DNA which means the only way you can make a prediction is by way of a guesstimate.

Originally posted by Tim the plumber Tim the plumber wrote:



For species where the difference you are looking for is greater it is much easier to do this. Thus it is understood how many (ish) generations there have been between dolphins and killer whales being one interbreeding population. The reson this proves evolution, and here I use prove in the sense that it proves well beyond the level of proof of a legal case but less than a maths proof, is that evolution was written before the mechanism was know. Evolutionary theory predicted that there would be a mechanism and that it would work in a way that resulted in results that evolutionary theory predicted. It does.


2) Testing of DNA based evolution predictions: You have already seen that DNA analysis itself is a guesstimate beyond the first level. Now what you do in a DNA based evolution prediction is you form a theoretical model based on ET adding more guesstimated variables including the mutation rate and then come to a super guesstimated figure which you call the TMRCA.

So ultimately what you have in a DNA based evolution prediction is all guesstimates upon guesstimates with absolutely no empirical evidence.

Now how can one with some minimum level of understanding even think in his wildest dreams that DNA proves evolution?

I am getting more and more convinced that it is really a matter of choice what people like to believe. Otherwise how can someone who relies on his reason as the only way to find truth come up with such made-up stories of �DNA Analysis Proves Evolution� when the facts and normal human reason clearly proves �DNA Analysis Does Not Prove Evolution"?


Edited by Quranexplorer - 03 October 2015 at 11:47am
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airmano View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote airmano Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 October 2015 at 9:07am
Quote QE
"So do you have some empirical evidence to suggest it is anything more than a theoretical model?"

On Airmano's Question:
What makes you say that the tree of life I linked above is a "theoretical" model ?


Obviously you try to avoid answering my question with the rhetorical trick of asking a counter-question. That much for the argument...
To answer it nevertheless: The model is based exactly on the empirical evidence you claim to be non-existent.

Did you actually have a look at it ?

-----------------------------------------------------

Sorry QE, once more: your claim "there is no evidence (for ET)" is getting kind of tiring.

Just type "empirical evidence Evolution theory" in Google (do you know how to do this ?) and you find on the first page:
Evidence and even a Wiki entry on this subject.
I'm sure that you're only looking for info comforting your point of view and all the rest is blinded out.


Not good: Airmano

Edited by airmano - 03 October 2015 at 9:21am
The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses (Albert Einstein 1954, in his "Gods Letter")
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Tim the plumber Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04 October 2015 at 12:03pm
Originally posted by Quranexplorer Quranexplorer wrote:

Originally posted by Tim the plumber Tim the plumber wrote:



[COLOR="#000099"]DNA does prove evolution. By understanding the way DNA transmitts information to the next generation you can understand the ancestry of the person/animal/plant/fungus whatever. That you cannot say precisley which particular individuals were an ancester at 100 generations back does not change the fact that you can be certain that it was him or somebody closely related to him. Thus King Richard of York's body was identified with a very high level of certainty, not quite 100% but very close. The destinctive hunch back, huge frame, battle damage and location providing the rest of the evidence.


DNA does not prove evolution. Let me explain you:

There are 2 aspects here: 1) The accuracy of DNA predictions and 2) Testing of DNA based evolution predictions.

1) The accuracy of DNA predictions: What you do in a DNA analysis is you make a prediction on one's ancestry by matching the genetic components and you see that the prediction matches almost 100% with the fact if you are testing two individuals in a first level connection in the chain. But the accuracy comes down with each level upwards and at some point you see that you end up with more ancestors than you have sections of the DNA which means the only way you can make a prediction is by way of a guesstimate.

Originally posted by Tim the plumber Tim the plumber wrote:



For species where the difference you are looking for is greater it is much easier to do this. Thus it is understood how many (ish) generations there have been between dolphins and killer whales being one interbreeding population. The reson this proves evolution, and here I use prove in the sense that it proves well beyond the level of proof of a legal case but less than a maths proof, is that evolution was written before the mechanism was know. Evolutionary theory predicted that there would be a mechanism and that it would work in a way that resulted in results that evolutionary theory predicted. It does.


2) Testing of DNA based evolution predictions: You have already seen that DNA analysis itself is a guesstimate beyond the first level. Now what you do in a DNA based evolution prediction is you form a theoretical model based on ET adding more guesstimated variables including the mutation rate and then come to a super guesstimated figure which you call the TMRCA.

So ultimately what you have in a DNA based evolution prediction is all guesstimates upon guesstimates with absolutely no empirical evidence.

Now how can one with some minimum level of understanding even think in his wildest dreams that DNA proves evolution?

I am getting more and more convinced that it is really a matter of choice what people like to believe. Otherwise how can someone who relies on his reason as the only way to find truth come up with such made-up stories of �DNA Analysis Proves Evolution� when the facts and normal human reason clearly proves �DNA Analysis Does Not Prove Evolution"?


No you are misunderstanding the way in which DNA shows which species have common ancestors.

In a protein the big molecule has a small active bit which does the work and a load of scaffolding which supports the working bit. This scaffoulding is arranged by the cell using the DNA to tell it how to do it just as is the active bit of the protein.

The active bit of the molecule is forced, generally, to not change because any mutation in it will cause it to not work. The rest, the "junk DNA", can have mutations and this will not, generally, effect the functioning of the cell and thus the survival of the creature.

If the way the DNA for an enzine which is in an oak tree is the same in it's active bit as in an apple tree but the scaffolding is slightly altered it is reasonable to see that they have a common ancestor. This one piece of evidence is not at all strong. It takes a few hundred before absolute certainty is reached. The DNA of these trees has millions of such similarities which are the result of them evolving from the same species of tree.

Why are you so hung up on evolution? It is surely geology and geography which show the age of the world. Astronomy shows the age of the universe. These are the sceinces which show that the Bible is wrong in it's story of creation. I take it the Koran is similar?

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Ron Webb Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04 October 2015 at 4:37pm
Originally posted by Quranexplorer (Sept. 11) Quranexplorer (Sept. 11) wrote:

Let me try to pick this from where it was left:

Yeah, I'd forgotten all about this discussion.

Quote It should not be rocket science that with your ancestors growing in a geometric progression, the accuracy of establishing a precise genetic match at an individual level comes down as there are more contributors who could have passed a specific genetic material to you. And the hilarious part is that within a few thousand years you end up with more ancestors than you have sections of the DNA, meaning you have ancestors who have passed you some genetic material and who have not.

You're absolutely right -- when we go back millions of years, the accuracy at an individual level comes down.  But we're not trying to match individuals back that far.  We're matching species.

It's rather like arguing that radar is fine for measuring the distance of individual geese at close range, but it can't distinguish individuals in a flock of geese at great distance.  So what?  It can still measure the distance to the flock.

Quote If that doesn�t help, here is the scientific sense from experts in the field of genetics itself why Genetic Ancestry Testing is nothing more than Genetic Astrology

You need to read those specific cases in detail, the genetic evidence here is nothing but based on a probabilistic and statistical genetic testing model based on the hypothesis that all the circumstantial evidences presented are correct and the individuals tested are genetically related. So the genetic testing does not have any meaning as independent evidence as clearly stated in the link above.

No, the genetic information is independent of any circumstantial evidence.  As for the link, it talks exclusively about individual genetic testing, not species comparisons.  Good grief, several of the experts quoted in your source are specialists in evolutionary genetics!  Surely you don't think they meant to imply that the whole basis of their field of study is flawed?

Quote TMRCA is not a law of science.

Whether you call it a law or not is a matter of semantics, but it is an empirical method (several of them actually) which links two different DNAs with an estimate of their evolutionary distance.  That's what you asked for.

Quote There are no experimental observations for TMRCA, but only a theory.

Of course there are experimental observations.  How do you think they calibrated the models?  "Estimates of TMRCA are thus based on the observed number of mutations by which the two Y chromosomes differ."  http://nitro.biosci.arizona.edu/ftdna/quick.html

Quote "Scientific evidence is evidence which serves to either support or counter a scientific theory or hypothesis. Such evidence is expected to be empirical evidence and interpretation in accordance with scientific method." (Just google for this definition)

(Why didn't you just say Wikipedia?)

Quote Now to make it more clear here is the meaning for �empirical�: ... based on, concerned with, or verifiable by observation or experience rather than theory or pure logic.

Now please present some evidence that meets the above criteria.

As you admit, there is clearly no observational or experimental evidence for TE. Moreover, the fossil evidence is clearly not there and as I mentioned above the DNA analysis cannot provide accurate information even about an individual�s ancestry beyond the first level.

So what is the evidence that you are talking about?

I said there is no direct observational evidence.  Nobody has directly observed the evolution of a new species, simply because the process takes millions of years.  However, there is plenty of indirect observational empirical evidence, i.e. DNA evidence.

By the way, I find it very odd that the people who demand direct observational evidence of evolution never think to apply the same standard to creationism. Tongue
Addeenul �Aql � Religion is intellect.
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