The theory of evolution: how do you explain dog breeds?

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kgmlg said:
I do not agree.

Evolution is when one day, a child is born without the characteristics of its parents. Example, an elefant born without tusks, when both its parents are “normal”.

Or if one fish is born able to breathe on land, when its parents couldn’t.

Selective breading is getting what is considered the best genes from your parents. This is not evolution, its just promulgation of the species.

(According to me anyway……)
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The difference between what you are describing and what I am describing is only in degree. You are describing very large changes. I am describing relatively simple changes. The varieties of dogs have developed over a relatively short period of time. To accomplish the changes like you describe just takes orders of magnitude longer.

But when you say taking the “best” genes from the parents, remember that “best” for us is not necessarily “best” for the dog. Take for example the modern English Bulldog. It is a travesty of skeletal structure. All such dogs are much more prone to health problems and have a short life. It certainly is not “survival of the fittest.” I think it is a crime to develop such creatures who must suffer their entire lives because of the defects we have selected for them. But we did select those features for them because we liked the appearance of such a dog. (The older English Bulldog was a healthy and functional dog that made sense.)

So when selection is made based on a twisted valuation, evolution will produce a twisted being.
 
I don’t think the Catholic Church has any problem with genes and genetics and traits being passed down through the generations. Mendel was a monk, you know.

Its a bit different, breeding new dog breeds or horse breeds or tomatoes, as opposed to saying the monkeys evolved into men.
 
kgmlg said:
I do not agree.

Evolution is when one day, a child is born without the characteristics of its parents. Example, an elefant born without tusks, when both its parents are “normal”.

Or if one fish is born able to breathe on land, when its parents couldn’t.

Selective breading is getting what is considered the best genes from your parents. This is not evolution, its just promulgation of the species.

(According to me anyway……)
Click to expand...
A change that significant from parent to child? We’re talking many, many generations here where the child won’t look different from its parents, but might look and behave differently than it’s million-times-great grandparent, as selection pressures pushed its ancestors into different and more extreme niches.
 
As for dogs and wolves, modern wolves and modern dogs share a common canine ancestor. If we looked at that ancestor we’d probably still call it a wolf, but we wouldn’t call it a modern gray wolf.
 
Augustinian said:
Its a bit different, breeding new dog breeds or horse breeds or tomatoes, as opposed to saying the monkeys evolved into men.
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I think that we need a version of Godwins Law for evolution. As soon as someone says that monkeys evolved into men then we can call the thread doomed to ignorance from that point. How about Caesars Law? (as in Planet of The Apes).
 
I have two dog breeds, one breed has been proven to have about 5% dingo, a wild dog, in its DNA. Now google dingo and you are going to come up with all sorts of wrong information about it’s development.
But this makes my dogs top workers and very independent thinkers. They are breed for working traits, not for physical beauty or colour.
The other dog breed, developed in the 19th century and used in ww2 was virtually wiped out as a direct result of its work in the war. It is now quite rare, is virtually untouched by the breeding confronternity. It remains almost the same physically as it did from very early photos. It’s preservation from breed ‘improvement’ lies in its being a bit too much dog for the pet industry.

Then there is a small breed of horse, thought extinct, that was around in BCE times. It was rediscoverd in the 1960s. About one third of these horses DNA tested have a different chromosome count to modern horses and as a result, this breed is thought to be a result of a now extinct equine and the world’s only wild horse left, the Mongolian wild horse.

DNA can tell us so much.
 
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I dunno, little kids act a lot like monkeys.

Reverse evolution?
 
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