"Random mutations" seems too....random.

Started by baddogma, March 05, 2013, 11:32:59 AM

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baddogma

"The only way you can be certain that there are good people in the world is to BE one".
-My mother

Morality is doing what is right, no matter what you are told.
Religion is doing what you are told, no matter what is right.

BarkAtTheMoon

"When you landed on the moon, that was the point when God should have come up and said hello. Because if you invent some creatures and you put them on the blue one and they make it to the grey one, then you fucking turn up and say, 'Well done.' It's just a polite thing to do." - Eddie Izzard

moog

Quote from: "baddogma"http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/epigenetics/nutrition/

This article says nothing about mutation... random or otherwise.

Thumpalumpacus

So, what's going on in this thread?
<insert witty aphorism here>

baddogma

It just shows diet can influence genes, along with other factors. I think we would see a lot more freaks being selected from if mutations were just "random". This almost seems intelligent.....without the consciousness if you follow.
"The only way you can be certain that there are good people in the world is to BE one".
-My mother

Morality is doing what is right, no matter what you are told.
Religion is doing what you are told, no matter what is right.

PopeyesPappy

Lot's of things going on in evolution beyond random mutations that we are just beginning to learn about. (viral insertions)
Save a life. Adopt a Greyhound.

GurrenLagann

Some of the mutations that are random are exactly what makes you not identical to your siblings, so there is definitely randomness in there.
Which means that to me the offer of certainty, the offer of complete security, the offer of an impermeable faith that can\'t give way, is the offer of something not worth having.
[...]
Take the risk of thinking for yourself. Much more happiness, truth, beauty & wisdom, will come to you that way.
-Christopher Hitchens

Davka

This confusion is the result of bad science fiction, in which "mutation" is synonymous with "physical change." The vast majority of genetic mutations have no effect whatsoever on the phenotype.

bennyboy

I don't think "random" is really a good word.  They aren't necessarily random.  They are just unpredictable.
Insanity is the only sensible response to the universe.  The sane are just making stuff up.

Colanth

Many mutations, being caused by things like cosmic ray hits, are as random as anything can be.  But mutation is just a small part of evolution.
Afflicting the comfortable for 70 years.
Science builds skyscrapers, faith flies planes into them.