Week 4

1. Why is the theory of evolution so important in understanding how human beings behave?
Evolution is important in understanding how human beings behave because it reflects the development and composition of consciousness. In The DNA of Consciousness, Andrea Diem- Lane explains that consciousness developed as a means to test the effectiveness of trying “to secure its Four F’s,” allowing humans to practice various scenarios, within the safety of their own mind, before subjecting them to the real world (page 27). Behavior then becomes the expression of these scenarios with varying odds of success depending on how adeptly it “matches up with and predicts the incoming stimuli” (page 22). Diem makes apt comparisons to the power of having such a tool for survival imbedded in Homo sapiens competing for survival. She explains that one would, without objection, chose to have an individual who has undergone hours of simulated flight training fly them on an aircraft as opposed to someone who never had any; similarly the evolution of consciousness reflects the opportunity for organisms to simulate various behaviors before putting them to action in the real world.

2. Which questions do you think evolutionary theory cannot answer?
This question is harder than it seems. After watching the plethora of videos on evolution and reading The Consciousness of DNA, one doesn’t think that evolution could poses any form of incompleteness when considering the aver of its presentation. But to really stretch my consciousness, I can only take aim the bits of creationist refutations that I have heard prior to this course. Concerning the giraffe, it has been argued to me that it had to be de fact designed because its physiological composition could not be supported with evolution. When the giraffe bends down to drink water, the pressure from the blood rushing to its head combined with the force of gravity would rupture the vessels or the retina without the designed values to slow it down. Similarly, concerning the bombardier beetle, creationists have contended that the explosive discharge it produces would have blown its tiny body to bits if it was not precisely designed. Ultimately, the latter anecdotes raise the question how could evolution support such an organism to begin with since they should have been thwarted by natural selection in each instance: the giraffe’s blood vessels should have burst when it first attempted to bend over and the beetle should have exploded in the very initial discharge.