We are animals, plain and simple. We just have larger brains. If we hadnt evolved to have such big brains, we would be food for everyone. We cant outrun predators, we cant figh them off, we dont have any fancy defences. Our evolving brain got humans working together in tribes that stuck together, like native americans. Then we created proper weapons out of bronze, iron etc, and by then we had decided it was much more fun to chop each other into small pieces, instead of animals that threatened us. We are the dummest buggers on this planet, coz we kill each other for greed, fun and other stupid reasons. Animals kill other animals for food. The do not kill out of pleasure. Humans are sadistic, cruel and cause large amounts of pain to everyone and everything we touch.
And everything is still evolving. Some animals get random mutations when they are born, and the mutation creates a new trait. Whether this is bigger claws, teeth, better poison, longer neck, whatever, if the trait is beneficial, the animal passes it on. After a few thousand years, all the animals in the species have that trait. Those that dont ahve the better trait do not survive. Animals do not get to a certain point and then stop evolving.
Even sharks, remaining almost the same in the past 350 million years, still evolve. Whether that involves bigger teeth, sharper senses, whatever. They just evolve slower cause they are already damn near perfect predators.
I think it's important to note that there is no such thing as a de-facto "beneficial" trait, that an advantage in one environment is necessarily a hindrance in another--which is to say, no matter how helpful a trait is in one or many circumstances, there is always a circumstance where it is harmful. Darwin himself said "It is not the fittest of species that survive, but those most responsive to change." One species might be perfectly adapted to grassland, but then something happens to causes grasses to go extinct within that animal's range. It may or may not survive, as life is incredibly resilient, but clearly it would be very difficult. It might be a question of one single individual having a particular mutation, but if there is no such variation, then that species is probably doomed.
Does anyone in this thread have even the slightest belief in God!?
I believe in a symphony of vibrating superstrings, that all that there is is part of a great cosmic music. That might be more mystical than deist or theist, but it is not inconceivable to me that someone is playing those instruments.
