# Human Evolution: Directed?

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> Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Fariborz Alan Davoodi, Human Evolution: Directed?, bahai-library.com.
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> 
> Human Evolution: Directed?
> 
> Fariborz Alan Davoodi
> 
> 2001-11
> 
> TABLE OF CONTENTS
> 
> Section 1: Introduction 3
> Section 2: Evolution according to Darwin 6
> Section 3: Great Evolution Mystery by Gordon Taylor 11
> Section 4: The Form and Embryology 25
> Section 5: Evolution of an Individual: The Question of Aging 28
> Section 6: The Origin of Human Beings 35
> Section 7: Evolution of Time 42
> Section 8: A New Perspective 44
> 
> Bibliography 49
> Glossary 50
> 
> Appendices
> 1. Summary of chapter on Photosynthesis
> 2. Summary of chapter on Glycolysis—Production of Energy
> 3. Summary of chapter on Citric Acid—Conversion of fuel into Energy
> 4. Geologic time scale
> 
> 1. Introduction
> 
> The task that I am about to undertake is one that has posed a great challenge
> to me. I grew up in Abadan, Iran on the banks of the Persian Gulf. I was almost
> 16 when I immigrated to the United States. Following in the path of older
> sibling, I first entered UT Arlington with plans to get a degree in Electrical
> Engineering. Somewhere along the way, I began to explore Biomedical
> Engineering, which required an MD/ Ph.D. degree program and I was steered
> towards Medical School and Life Sciences. I eventually graduated with BSEE and
> went on to Southwestern Medical School where I graduated in 1986 with an MD
> degree, not having pursued the Biomed route. Instead, I am having a most
> satisfying career in Family Medicine.
> 
> One of the courses in Biology that I took was Comparative Anatomy. It turned
> out to be one of the toughest courses ever, but one that I would always recall
> fondly. I had not heard any total rejections of the theory that explained human
> origin first promoted by Charles Darwin. One afternoon as we were walking to
> the class, a well-dressed gentleman greeted each of us at the door and handed
> us a pamphlet. Most of my classmates giggled about it and threw it away. The
> pamphlet had to do with Evolution. It was produces by a Christian group that
> insisted that Darwin's theory is nothing but a theory whereas the proof of
> Creation was obviously from the Bible. From his perspective, science had
> abandoned God, and in order to remain obedient to God, he had to abandon
> science. This brought to my attention some of the problems related to the
> conflict between Science and Religion. I wondered how it was that a great
> Religion of God was unable to accommodate advances in science. Were we expected
> to ignore what we learned in class, or we to suppress the new information and
> continue to hang onto others based on faith? This honest question allowed me to
> think outside the box of Academia and to try to keep an open mind while
> exploring each theory.
> 
> The intent of this writing is to shed light on this subject. I hope that this
> will allow all readers the opportunity to independently investigate the truth
> about where we came from. I further hope that the reader will get a sense of
> where we are going. In order to study the Evolution of Mankind, one needs to
> look back in History. The older Eastern thought and Philosophy is full of
> references to the life on this Earth in different contexts. Sometimes, it is
> considered a life that is totally meaningless, not different than that of the
> Animal. The great Persian poet Omar Khayyam said that before us there has
> been life, and after us there will be life. We were not asked whether we wanted
> to be here; what is the purpose of our presence? On the other hand, the
> belief in Afterlife which has been present for at least 3 millennia, either
> through religion or through mythology attempted to make sense of the reason for
> our presence; We are here before we can reach another Realm that is beyond
> comprehension. If one believes in Spirituality, one will follow the Guidance of
> the Divine Messengers as to the way that one's life should be led.
> 
> The Scriptures of all Religions tell us that an Omnipotent God created us. If
> we were to interpret that literally, we came into existence from nothing, we
> were created de novo. If we do in fact believe in the Great powers of
> the Almighty, it would not necessarily be beyond comprehension that such an
> event indeed took place. However, evidence of History of the Universe suggests
> that at some moment in History, the entirety of the universe began in a
> frightfully pregnant moment of the Big Bang. The world of existence then was
> present for billions of years before it was suitable for the earliest forms of
> life to develop upon it. The Qur'an tells us that the One and Only God created
> the World above and the World below and all betwixt. The concept of the Creator
> and the world of Creation need not rest upon whether the Human Beings (or other
> Life forms) were created de novo. Even if you believe the Big Bang
> Theory, one still wonders about what there was before that fruitful
> moment.
> 
> We will examine Mr. Darwin's theory about the Origin of Species and the
> Descent of Man. I would rather call it the Ascent of Man, as the biological
> record will indicate that Man acquired many new features along the way and
> became much more complex. I will accept the term of Descent only in terms of
> historical timeline. I have chosen to use Mr. Darwin's own words from the
> chapter summaries that he has provided. I shall also list some of his own
> critique of his work. We will then move to another book that critically
> examines Darwin's theory, called the Great Evolution Mystery, in which Mr.
> Gordon Taylor explains his views of Darwin's shortcomings and how in fact he
> failed at describing the origin of species, even though that was the title of
> his work.
> 
> Human origin through the biological record is itself very fascinating and an
> area of ongoing research. We will explore some of the data and try to get a
> sense of the timeline. We will explore Modern man versus older ancestors.
> Exactly where the line is drawn is an important area that provokes great deal
> of thinking. We will rely on earlier concepts of speciation to help us with
> that. We will look at the evidence of earliest humans.
> 
> In the last section, I will explore a new perspective. This perspective will
> allow the scientist to have his cake and eat it too. It is based on the idea
> that while we will spend a great deal of time on this perspective of Human
> Evolution, I will also explore other aspects of Evolution. Beyond the initial
> biology of Man, the evolution of our social structure, Economics, and Spirit is
> worth further examination. We will also visit briefly the evolution of the
> Universe. This will hopefully allow for a perspective of the Universal timeline
> as compared to Biological timeline and the Human timeline.
> 
> I would be most appreciative of receiving feedback and questions from readers.
> This will allow me to clarify any areas that may be necessary. I can be reached
> via e-mail at fariborzd@Home.com.
> 
> 2. EVOLUTION according to DARWIN
> 
> I. Charles Darwin was born in 1809. He was not interested in a career
> in Medicine, despite his father's desire who was a physician. Instead, he
> became an entomologist. Through personal connections, he was given an
> opportunity to travel for science. He voyaged with the Beagle in
> southern waters between 1831 and 1836. He was only 22 years of age at the time
> of the trip. He made extensive observations of coral reefs and living animals
> and fossils. His record keeping was quite detailed and included even minute
> details. While reading Malthus on Population, he realized that in the struggle
> for survival, the favorable variations would be propagated. He then published,
> along with A.R. Wallace, On the Tendency of Species to form varieties.
> On Nov 24, 1859, the Origin of Species was published. In 1871, the
> Descent of Man was published. He died in 1882 and was buried in Westminster
> Abbey, beside Sir Isaac Newton.
> 
> II. The Origin of Species is written in 15 chapters. The first
> chapter deals with variations under domestication where he attempts at
> differentiating varieties and species. By this time in biological sciences a
> lot of preliminary work has already been done in Taxonomy and attempts to
> distinguish different species. In the chapter summary he states: "the amount of
> difference considered necessary to any two forms the rank of species can not be
> defined." He then goes on to say that the most flourishing species yield the
> greatest number of varieties. In the next chapter, the variation under
> nature is discussed. In chapter three, the basic tenets of the theory
> are laid out in Struggle for Existence. The fourth chapter follows this on
> Natural Selection. It is here that "the Survival of the Fittest" is coined. "If
> under changing conditions of life organic beings present individual differences
> in almost every part of their structure, and this can not be disputed. If there
> be, owing to this geometric rate of increase, a severe struggle for life at
> some age, season, or year, and this can certainly not be disputed; ... But if
> variations useful to any organic being ever do occur, assuredly individuals
> thus characterized will have the best chance of being preserved in the struggle
> for life. This principle of preservation, or the survival of the fittest, I
> have called Natural Selection."
> 
> In chapter 7, the topic of discussion is hybridism. The first crosses between
> forms/species are usually sterile. "The sterility of first crosses and their
> hybrid progeny has not been acquired through natural selection." After further
> discussion of this problem, he says: " But why, in the case of distinct
> species, the sexual elements should so generally become modified, leading to
> their mutual infertility, we do not know." In chapter 8, the discussion is
> about instinct and how thru inheritance, the birds using mud for their nest
> exhibit the same behavior, whether in South Africa or the British Isles. "
> Finally, it may not be a logical deduction, but to my imagination it is far
> more satisfactory to look as such instincts ... as small consequences of one
> general law leading to the advancement of all organic beings, namely, multiply,
> vary, let the strongest live and the weakest die."
> 
> In the summaries for chapters 10 and 11, on page 179, an examination is made
> of the geological record. Darwin claims that there are transitional stages
> between species, but that these records are obscured due to their relative
> short span compared to the stable form. "The extinction of old forms is the
> almost inevitable consequence of the production of new forms." In chapter 14, a
> new classification scheme is suggested which he calls the " Natural System: it
> is genealogical in its attempted arrangement, with the grades of acquired
> difference marked by terms, varieties, species, genera, families, orders, and
> classes".
> 
> In chapter 15, Darwin recapitulates some of the points. "Nothing at first can
> appear more difficult to believe than that the more complex organs and
> instincts have been perfected, not by means superior to, though analogous with,
> human reason, but by the accumulation of innumerable slight variation,
> each good for the individual possessor." On the aspects of the geological
> record and the connecting links, he writes: " On this doctrine of the
> extermination of an infinitude of connecting links, between the living and
> extinct forms... I can only answer these questions on the supposition that the
> geological record is far more imperfect than most geologists believe." On
> discussing habit and instinct, he states: "Habit no doubt often comes into play
> in modifying instinct; but is certainly not indispensable, as we can see in the
> case of neuter insects which leave no progeny to inherit the effects of
> long-continued habits."
> 
> "The similar framework of bones in the hands of a man, wing of a bat, fin of
> the porpoise, and leg of the horse... explain themselves on the theory of
> descent with slow and slight successive modifications. We clearly see why the
> embryos of mammals, birds, reptiles, and fishes should be so closely similar,
> and so unlike the adult forms. We may cease marveling at the embryo of an air
> breathing mammal or bird having branchial slits and arteries running in loops,
> like those of the fish which has to breathe the air dissolved in water by the
> aid of well developed branchiae." He then goes on to repeat: "I am convinced
> that natural selection has been the main but not the exclusive means of
> modification"
> 
> "I see no good reason why the views given in this volume should shock the
> religious feelings of any one. A celebrated author and divine has written
> to me that 'he has gradually learnt to see that it is just as noble a
> conception of the Deity to believe that He created a few original forms capable
> of self development into other and needful forms, as to believe that He
> required a fresh act of creation to supply the voids caused by the actions of
> His laws.'" "Analogy would lead me one step farther, namely, to the belief that
> all animals and plants are descended from some one prototype. But analogy may
> be a deceitful guide."
> 
> "These laws taken in the largest sense, being Growth with Reproduction;
> Inheritance; Variability; Struggle for life, and as a consequence to Natural
> Selection, entailing Divergence of Character and the Extinction of
> less-improved forms. Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the
> most exalted object, which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production
> of higher animals directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life,
> with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into
> few forms or one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to
> the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most
> beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved."
> 
> III. The Descent of Man is divided such that each segment deals
> with a different aspect of the human species. In the introduction, he writes:
> "The sole object of this work is to consider, firstly, whether man, like other
> species, is from some pre-existing form; secondly, the manner of his
> development; thirdly, the value of the differences between the so-called races
> of man." "This work contains hardly any original facts in regards to man."
> 
> The initial chapter discusses the variability seen in the human species. The
> social animal—man who lives in communities—falls under different pressures
> for survival compared to the individual member of the species. "It has been
> objected to such views as the foregoing, that man is one of the most helpless
> and defenceless creatures in the world." As further measures to show that the
> human has not descended toward a stronger, more fit animal, they point to the
> absence of great teeth or claws, small strength and speed, lack of great sense
> of smell, and inability to climb quickly. Darwin argues that this is offset by
> man's intellectual powers and social qualities. The next chapter deals with
> mental faculties. The discussion tries to explain the presence of imagination,
> wonder, curiosity, imitation, and excitement. In regards to belief in God and
> Religion he writes: "There is no evidence that man was aboriginally endowed
> with the ennobling belief in the existence of an Omnipotent God." However, if
> one refers to spiritual agencies under this general category, this is found "to
> be universal with the less civilised races".
> 
> "The same high mental faculties which first led man to believe in unseen
> spiritual agencies, then in fetishism, polytheism, and ultimately in
> monotheism, would infallibly lead him, as long as his reasoning power remained
> poorly developed, to various strange superstitions and customs." He then states
> in the summary of the chapter that the difference between the mental powers of
> man and ape, even though tremendous, is of degree not of kind. He then brings
> up a question that we will explore later on in greater detail. "At what age
> does the newborn infant possess the power of abstraction, or become
> self-conscious, or reflect on its own existence? We cannot answer; nor can we
> answer in regard to the ascending organic scale." In the next chapter he
> states: "In the great kingdom of the Vertebrata has culminated in man."
> 
> In the next chapter the different races are discussed. He says: " We have thus
> far been baffled in all our attempts to account for the differences between the
> races of man." In the next chapter, secondary sexual characteristics are
> discussed: "We may conclude that the greater size, strength, courage,
> pugnacity, and energy of man, in comparison to woman, were acquired during
> primeval times and have subsequently been augmented, chiefly through the
> contests of rival males for the possession of the females.
> 
> In the General Summary and Conclusions, he states: "By considering the
> embryological structure of man... We thus learn that man is descended from a
> hairy, tailed quadruped, probably arboreal ... the Old and New World
> monkeys." He then once again reviews the significant evolutionary
> advantage of the intellectual powers, of language, and of reason. "The
> development of the moral qualities is a more interesting problem. The
> foundation lies in the social instincts, including under this term family ties.
> A moral being is one that can reflect on his past actions and their motives."
> 
> "He who believes in the advancement of man from some low organized form, will
> naturally ask how does this bear on the belief in the immortality of the soul.
> Few people feel any anxiety from the impossibility of determining at what
> precise period in the development of the individual man becomes an immortal
> being; there is no greater anxiety because the period cannot possibly be
> determined in the gradually ascending organic scale. I am aware that the
> conclusions arrived at in this work will be denounced by some as highly
> irreligious"
> 
> He then concludes thus: "Man may be excused for feeling some pride at having
> risen, though not through his own exertions, to the very summit of the organic
> scale; and the fact having thus risen, instead of having been aboriginally
> placed there, may give him hope for a still higher destiny in the distant
> future. But we are not here concerned with hopes or fears, only with the truth
> as far as our reason permits us to discover it, and I have given the evidence
> to the best of my ability. We must, however, acknowledge, as it seems to me,
> that man with all his noble qualities, with sympathy which feels for the most
> debased, with benevolence which extends not only to other men but to the
> humblest living creature, with his god like intellect which has penetrated into
> the movements and constitution of the solar system—with all these exalted
> powers—Man still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly
> origin."
> 
> 3. Evolution Theory problems according to G.
> Taylor
> 
> Gordon R. Taylor has written many books on different scientific subjects. His
> work as Chief Science Advisor of BBC Television gave him broad exposure to
> scientific endeavors. The answer emerging from this book is that "Darwinism is
> not so much a theory as a subsection of some theory as yet unformulated". The
> last book written by Gordon R Taylor is The Great Evolution Mystery. The
> book is a review of Darwin's theory and lists in great detail where the
> problems with the theory are, and some possible avenues of future exploration;
> I had looked forward to these explanations as I explored the book, alas, none
> was forthcoming. It is a way of proposing a bigger question. He died in Dec
> 1981.
> 
> In the introduction Mr. Taylor states: "The fact that an evolutionary process
> occurred is not in doubt. It is only the mechanism that brought it about which
> is being questioned." While it is not difficult to see that small variations
> can occur and were probably acted upon by natural selection, it is much more
> difficult to grasp these same events describing something complex like the eye.
> As to the question regards Religious objection, Mr. Taylor ignores this whole
> aspect and says: "it is the objection of scientists which will here concern
> us". He reports accounts of a scientific forum in 1967 called The Mathematical
> Challenges to the Neo-Darwinian theory of Evolution. MIT Professor, Murray
> Eden, showed at that conference that if it required a mere six mutations to
> bring about adaptive change, this would occur once in a billion years, and for
> two dozen genes, it would take 10 billion years. "Since evolution has occurred,
> something more than chance mutation must be involved... I shall seek to show
> that a degree of directiveness is compatible with the body of scientific
> theory, as it exists. After all, we know of one excellent example already. The
> fertilised egg is clearly programmed to produce an adult organism. The
> coordination of parts in a living creature is not achieved by chance but by
> precisely controlled development. We should not, a priori, exclude the
> possibility that there are programmes in evolutionary development, too.
> 
> When in the 1920's the mathematics of the population-based evolution was
> worked out this became neo-Darwinism and accepted as fact. However, there are
> puzzling aspects in this tidy theory. One is the fact that some organisms do
> not evolve. If it was a great advance for fish to develop jaws, why is it that
> some jawless creatures such as Lampreys are doing well today? The bacteria
> dating back to 3.5 billion years ago are virtually unchanged! Then one has to
> discuss the competition that Darwin said provided for the survival of the
> fittest. One has to make a distinction between interspecies and intraspecies
> competition. None of this is fully explained by Darwin, nor are there ever
> documented cases of new species, only variations thereof. Conclusion to chapter
> one states: "Darwinism was not a bad first approximation but, just as Newton's
> law had to be subsumed in Einstein's far more intricate theory, Darwinism is
> giving way to a far more sophisticated picture of how evolution occurs."
> 
> Chapter three is quite interesting as it shows the problem with the fossil
> record. Darwin had referred to this problem previously and left it at the
> doorstep of inadequate data. Mr. Taylor points out "there is almost complete
> absence of fossils capable of supporting the claim that the new forms arose by
> the gradual accumulation of minute changes. Eggs are first found fully
> developed; so are feathers. Placental mammals appear simultaneously in 12
> groups." The next chapter deals with something rather bizarre, if you consider
> the Evolution and gradual changes to be an ongoing process. He actually
> suggests that there are many Biologists that believe that Evolution has come
> to a stop. "It looks as if evolution developed in two phases, an opening
> one in which certain major patterns were established and a second phase in
> which speciation worked within narrower and narrower set limits."
> 
> In the fifth section of this chapter titled "Unnatural Selection," he
> discusses the difficulties with the theory of natural selection. "If the
> mammals acquired their new features because these had superior survival value
> to the reptilian features, why did the mammals keep a low profile for 150
> million years before beginning to supplant the reptiles? Why, in the
> Cretaceous, did the mammals suddenly become dominant?.... There can be little
> doubt, it seems to me, as we look back over the evidence, that the major
> evolutionary changes as well as the strange changes of pace in evolution, while
> not fatal to Natural Selection, necessitate postulating mechanisms that lie far
> outside the limits of natural selection, however valid it may be in narrower
> contexts."
> 
> In chapter 5, several different anomalies of the theory are discussed as
> concerned the perfections of biological entities. The most fascinating one of
> these is the eye, and I will spend a great deal of time covering this; I
> believe you will find this absolutely unbelievable when he puts the facts
> before you. "Eyes have, as a matter of fact, evolved on at least a dozen
> different occasions, though each time on a somewhat different plan. Many small
> sea-creatures have an `eye spot' - a light sensitive group of cells. But these
> are not eyes; they give no image of the surrounding world. For that you need a
> lens system and a large number of receptors, with a nerve network to analyse
> the impulses from them."
> 
> He starts out with the sophisticated eye of the shrimp that came into
> existence some 500 million years ago. "It was the first use of optics in
> combination with sensory perception in nature and, for my money, the most
> incredible event in the history of evolution." These eyes are made up of
> columns that have a lens at one end and a photoreceptor at the other, with
> sometimes hundreds of these columns being present in one eye. As the columns
> point in different directions and each produce their own image, these eyes do
> not give a good `image' but are very efficient at detecting movement at a
> considerable distance and its direction. "The marvel of the trilobite eye
> became apparent only in 1973, when Kenneth Tower of the Smithsonian institute
> reported that the lenses in the eye of fossil trilobites consisted of precisely
> aligned crystals of calcite. Mounting carefully prepared fossil eyes on the
> microscope he found that they produced a sharp image at distances ranging from
> a few millimeters to infinity, without further focusing. Up to this time
> paleontologists had always assumed that the calcite crystals were a relic of
> the mineralisation process, which had preserved the whole carcass - but in that
> case the arrangement would have been random. Now, calcite crystals transmit
> light with the transparency of glass only if they are exactly aligned with the
> beam of light entering them. By what mechanism did these `primitive' creatures
> discover how to incorporate calcite crystals, align them precisely, and protect
> them with a cornea?"
> 
> "But that is only half the story.... In 1968 Dr Clarkson began to investigate
> this structure with techniques, such as the scanning electron microscope, which
> had not hitherto been available to zoologists." Dr Riccardo Levi-Setti worked
> out the findings via reference to optics first shown by Descartes in 1637. Thus
> the trilobites evolved a lens shaped to correct for optical aberrations
> identical to that proposed by Descartes and Hughyens half a billion years
> later. "Why was such perfection needed? But to make the matter more puzzling
> still there is the fact that some trilobites were blind. How did the earliest
> trilobites collect together the intricate genetic information needed to
> construct this semi-miraculous structure? And how strange that all that
> know-how should have been lost again when the phacoid line of trilobites became
> extinct at the end of the Devonian. Its collection argues for the existence of
> some directive force, but its abandonment argues against the existence
> of a coherent plan."
> 
> "The essential features of the vertebrate eye appeared quite suddenly... while
> we can find precursors for the photosensory cells in the `eye-spot' there are
> no precursors for the lens. In the course of evolution various refinements were
> added, notably the ability to distinguish color. Other striking examples of
> adaptation are the devices, which help nocturnal animals to see in the dark,
> and those, which protect tropical, diurnal animals from too-bright light.
> Raptorial birds like the falcon and eagle, as you will know, have acute
> vision—as much as eight times the resolving power of human vision. As far as I
> know, no one has estimated the number of mutations, which would be necessary to
> bring about all these changes, and not only changes but also the creation of
> new structures (such as the iris) for which there was no precedent. Yet the
> essential features of the eye appeared quite abruptly in evolutionary
> terms. Evolutionists believe that they can account for the formation of the
> eye, nevertheless. They can assemble eyes from living creatures of ascending
> order of complexity and believe that these indicate what may have happened...
> The weakest feature of this hypothesis—and it is only a hypothesis—is that it
> demands a long time for the eye to become reasonably efficient."
> 
> He then gives a list that summarizes the discussion so far. "In the preceding
> chapters we have seen at least a dozen areas where the theory of evolution by
> natural selection seems either inadequate, implausible, or definitely wrong.
> Let me briefly summarise them.
> 
> The suddenness with which major changes in pattern occurred and the
> virtual absence of any fossil remains from the period in which they were
> alleged to be evolving.
> 
> The suddenness with which new forms `radiated' into numerous
> variants.
> 
> The suddenness of many extinctions and the lack of obvious reasons
> for such extinction.
> 
> The repeated occurrence of changes calling for numerous coordinated
> innovations, both at the level of organs and of complete organisms.
> 
> The variations in the speed at which evolution occurred.
> 
> The fact that subsequently no new Phyla have appeared, and no new
> classes and orders. This fact, which has been much ignored, is perhaps the most
> powerful of all arguments against Darwin's generalisation.
> 
> The occurrence of parallel and convergent evolution, in which
> similar structures evolve in quite different circumstances.
> 
> The existence of long-term trends (orthogenesis)
> 
> The appearance of organs before they are needed (Pre-adaptation)
> 
> The occurrence of `overshoot' or evolutionary `momentum'.
> 
> The puzzle of how organs, once evolved, come to be lost
> (degeneration).
> 
> The failure of some organisms to evolve at all.
> 
> ... The failure of various conceivable patterns to emerge, despite
> the overwhelming tendency to diversify. (The curious absence of six-legged
> tigers)..."
> 
> The next chapter deals with something that I had previously brought up,
> namely, that The Origin of Species book really does not explain the
> origin of the species. Mr. Taylor points out: "First, if a line of organisms
> can steadily modify its structure in various directions, why are there any
> lines stable enough and distinct enough to be called species. The second
> problem is this... the evolution of a new species can occur comparatively
> rapidly... Despite this, many species and even whole families remain
> inexplicably constant." Then he explains the problem with the `niche', which
> the traditional opinion holds that species adapt to a niche. Why then would a
> species that has adapted to a niche move to a different niche? A niche is a
> place that a species has occupied and until this occupation occurs, we don't
> know exactly what constitutes a `niche'. "Adaptation, in short, is distinct
> from speciation."
> 
> The difficulty with Taxonomy is that organisms of identical genetic material
> may appear differently; conversely, organisms of different genetic material may
> appear identical. This is a question about form, which is the outward
> manifestation of the internal genetic makeup. In order to organize the species
> then, in Biology, a species is a group of creatures that can
> inter-breed. "Evolutionists seem agreed that speciation occurs before
> adaptation. Thanks to some genetic shake-up, organisms evolve a new structure,
> which then enables them to occupy a new niche or function more effectively in
> their existing niche. They then may adapt to the new situation. `Speciation is
> not a route to improved adaptation' concludes Douglas Futuyama. `The time
> honored diagrams of evolutionary change are probably wrong.' "Perhaps the most
> pregnant of the questions associated with speciation is whether it truly
> accounts for the major divisions into Phyla which have remained stable for so
> long... I think rather that the answer is to be found in Genetics. Within
> these limits there would be further decision points, and so on...The most
> prominent thing about evolution is that it is going somewhere. Organisms are
> becoming more complicated; their capacities are becoming more sophisticated.
> Species formation absolutely fails to explain why this should be. Behavior too
> becomes more sophisticated. Why should it be?" It is not just the Phyla, but
> also the kingdoms are not changing. The broad categories are rather fixed but
> variation is seen in the lesser categories.
> 
> The next chapter deals with Genetics. As it is commonly known, the nucleus of
> a cell contains DNA material. Most of the DNA is generally inactive except at
> the time that the cell divides. The active part of the DNA transmits the
> information within it via messenger RNA to the cytoplasm where the encoded
> information produces proteins. Proteins are made up of 20 plus amino acids,
> which can be linked together according to the genetic code. The reason proteins
> are important is related to the speed of chemical reactions. Most chemical
> reactions occur at a very slow rate if each two molecules had to directly
> interact. Biological cells have solved this problem by using enzymes. The
> enzyme is made up of different segments, and the alignment of the amino acids
> in the protein gives it a unique three-dimensional state. Enzymes speed up the
> biochemical reactions by more rapidly bringing the two chemicals together. This
> becomes an important step in biological processes. The surface of the cell is
> also quite fascinating in that many lipid, proteins and other structures form a
> complicated flowing interconnected layer that communicates information from the
> cells to the outside and vice versa. I should also mention that the basic
> building blocks of the genetic information consist quite elegantly of 4 units
> called nucleotides. The biochemistry of how the pairing work and how this
> simple set produces the amino acids earned Watson and Crick Nobel prizes.
> 
> How then the information within the Gene is controlled and how much of the
> information is released and under what circumstances is being studied in
> greater and greater detail by modern geneticists. Much about this process is
> known, and much is yet to be worked out. "It might reasonably be thought that
> the amount of DNA in the Genome would increase pretty steadily as we advance up
> the evolutionary scale... While the mammalian cell seems to have about 800
> times the DNA of a bacterium... the organism with the most DNA is the lily,
> which can have from 10,000 to 100,000 times as much DNA as a bacterium." This
> is a most interesting point. The level of perfection and complication of the
> structures does not directly correlate with the Genome size! "It may be that it
> is not genes (that is, strings of nucleotides) which determine structure so
> much as the relationship between such entities."
> 
> In chapter 9, the regulation and control of the gene is further described. A
> great deal of work is being done in this area including the recent completion
> of the human genome project. The control mechanisms of the Gene may exert their
> control by direct control of a chemical reaction, by occasional control of
> expression of certain annual genes, or by long-term controls. This part is
> quite relevant to organ development of biological entities. A mutation may
> cause no consequential damage, if it causes changes during non-expression time
> of a gene; Conversely, a mutation of a major Gene may cause total absence or
> failure of an organ. It gets even more exciting. "There is a special case of
> whole blocks of genes being switched on and off... namely metamorphosis—the
> transformation of tadpole to frog, of chrysalis to butterfly, of Larva to
> jellyfish." "Apart from the many difficulties in understanding how such a
> radical change comes about, there is the larger question of why it
> should happen? Can there really be an evolutionary advantage in constructing
> one sort of organism and then throwing it away and starting again?"
> 
> "The tadpole is essentially a fish," says Earl Frieden of Florida State
> University. Maybe the tadpole/fish carries all the genetic information needed
> for an amphibian. These can all then be activated at once to produce a frog in
> the case of Tadpole or produce Amphibians from certain groups of fish. "It
> becomes easy to understand why twelve mammalian lines began to exhibit similar
> characteristics." One can presume that similar factors, environmental or
> otherwise, stimulated the same gene activation process. So long as the same
> factor produces the same result, separate lines can develop in geographically
> distinct areas in nearly identical ways. "That these sequences of coordinated
> reactions ... should all have arisen by chance mutation of single genes is in
> the highest degree unlikely."
> 
> In chapter 10, the Evolution's biggest step is discussed. By this I am
> referring to multicellular organism formation, about 870 million years ago.
> Until this point what we have is the `primordial soup' as referred to by other
> authors. At this time some early cell colonies are formed. "They did not
> assemble simply in clotted masses or chains, but formed neat and purposeful
> patterns". Any time you have more than one cell, more than one organ, or more
> than one person, communication becomes of paramount importance. Much is yet to
> be worked out by biochemists as to the exact nature of these processes. It is
> evident that group formation required a way of communication between
> unicellular organisms, and this either developed or was latent in the genome
> and became activated. Eventually Protochordates developed and there from
> eventually Man, presumably. As soon as the organisms become multicellular,
> sexual reproduction becomes a possibility. "Since an organism reproducing
> sexually loses half its genes it suffers a 50 percent disadvantage. On the
> other hand, it gains in flexibility. Asexual reproduction is efficient in the
> short run, sexual reproduction in the long run. This brings us to a real
> brain-busting problem: how can selection favor a mechanism which will only show
> benefits in the future, if at all?"
> 
> The origin of life is discussed next. This chapter reminded me of a book I
> read years ago written by Nobel laureate Francis Crick called Life
> Itself. In that book he hypothesized that the basic beginning of life was
> transported here onto earth millions of years ago in the form of bacteria.
> Presumably, some intelligent outer space entity selected Earth as a good
> fertile ground for a grand experiment. This is really interesting whatever way
> you look at it, science or fiction. I want you to keep in mind how the act of
> Evolution from this point forward is presumed by many to be a random occurrence
> but the germinating seed is in fact planted by an intelligent choice.
> 
> If life arose spontaneously, then it could have done so more than once.
> However, the fact that the genetic code between all phyla is nearly identical,
> argues in favor of single event, or else the restrictions in initiation of life
> are such that at multiple times the same pathway was chosen. The time for this
> can be approximated to about a billion years after the Earth was formed, some
> 3.5 billion years ago. In 1954, an experiment at Berkeley showed that
> combination of the initial elements of Earth's atmosphere and electrical
> discharges could produce amino acids. As we have seen previously, the alignment
> of different amino acids produces proteins. You need DNA to produce the
> sequence needed for proteins, but you need Enzymes (proteins) to make DNA. This
> is another example of the old Chicken and Egg question. The degree of
> complexity of biochemical processes is such that randomly selected events are
> highly unlikely to be able to produce it. "The late H. Quastler, a prominent
> biochemist, calculated the odds against it at 10301 to 1, that is,
> ten followed by 301 zeros to one, i.e., virtually impossible."
> 
> What is meant by Life, anyway? I previously attempted a
> simple answer to species definition based on biology. You can define life as
> something that is animate. You can define it as something that reproduces. You
> can define it something that moves. As we have learned more and more about the
> atom and how active it is, even in inanimate objects, this question is harder
> and harder to answer. "... Perhaps the best criterion of life is its capacity
> for self-repair". I personally prefer the distinction based on production of
> energy, a biochemical process but this definition encompasses both
> perspectives. "It was not enough for chance to bring about the formation of
> replicating molecules. Right from the start, there must have been an energy
> source."
> 
> The Sun provides the energy to us all on the Earth. The primitive cells had to
> devise a way of taking advantage of this energy source. The initial atmosphere
> as well as the water above these primitive cells filtered out much of the
> radiation from the sun. In fact the high-energy waves, if not filtered, can
> irreparably damage the DNA. So the initial DNA can only survive where there
> exists such an atmospheric filter. The energy, of course, is trapped through
> photosynthesis by plants and this energy source is then recycled as you go up
> the food chain. Photosynthesis utilizes Chlorophyll.
> 
> Until chemical processes have produced this molecule, one could not begin this
> whole cascade. "It turns out that there are two distinct chemical systems at
> work, each with its own enzyme." Recall the discussion about the enzyme and the
> DNA in this primordial soup. "One builds the components, the other forms them
> into a ring. So here again we have an improbable coincidence. The formation by
> chance of one enzyme without the other would have been useless. "...It is hard
> to swallow the idea that chance... built up such an extremely elaborate
> mechanism as photosynthesis." The alternative theory that life originated in
> space does not avoid these difficulties.
> 
> About a billion years ago, another major step took place. The small
> bacteria-like cells that do not have a nucleus, developed one. This new cell is
> called the Eukaryote. This is a larger cell whose genetic material within the
> nucleus is divided into chromosomes. When these cells divide, the splitting of
> the DNA and making a carbon copy of the original DNA form the daughter cells.
> Sexual reproduction becomes possible at this point, when the half-cell joins a
> different half-cell. The entire process of natural selection depends on this
> variability that is now produced. "It took three billion years to get from
> prokaryote to eukaryote, as against less than half a billion to form life
> itself. That doesn't seem to make sense. If photosynthesis is such a great
> advance, why did many anaerobic forms persist so long?" This points to
> something that we discussed before. Recall please how natural selection always
> supposedly seeks the fittest, yet some species have not changed much for
> millions of years. "Why did diversification occur so late—after 85% of earth's
> history?" I will discuss the Aging process in some detail later on.
> 
> Before we go on the next chapter, I want to explain the concept that Energy
> transformation is synonymous with Life. For this I went back to dreadful days
> of Biochemistry in Medical School using L. Stryer's textbook. This was my first
> rather overwhelming exposure to biochemistry. I had already suffered through
> two courses in Organic Chemistry in undergraduate school. Those were really
> mind-boggling topics trying to make sense of molecular structures in three
> dimensions. Then by studying biochemistry, I began to develop a sense of awe
> for the various detailed pathways that are hard at work inside every cell. I
> have added some pages from this book to make my point about energy. One
> describes the process of photosynthesis, one the process of Glycolysis, and the
> last one the citric acid cycle. The processes were discovered in the last 50
> years or so. They are quite complex, and understanding them gives greater
> credence to the improbably high number that H. Quastler had calculated.
> 
> Chapter 12 discusses the effects of behavior once again. As we have previously
> pointed out, an animal's behavior sometimes precedes the gene or the need for a
> gene that produces the structural changes demanded by the environment. He ends
> the chapter with a quote from Professor James S. Coleman of Johns Hopkins
> University. "Once I was sitting on the edge of a cliff, a bundle of gnats
> hovered in front of me, and offered a strange sight. Each gnat was flying at
> high speed yet the bundle was motionless. Each gnat sped in an ellipse,
> spanning the diameter of the bundle, and by his frenetic flight maintaining the
> bundle motionless. Suddenly, the bundle itself darted—and then hovered again.
> It expanded and its boundaries became diffuse; then it contracted into a hard
> tight knot and darted again—all the while composed of nothing other than gnats
> flying their endless ellipses. It finally moved off and disappeared... Such a
> phenomenon offers enormous intellectual problems: how is each gnat's flight
> guided, when its direction bears almost no relation to the direction of the
> bundle? How does he maintain the path of his endless ellipse? And how does he
> come to change it when the bundle moves? What is the structure and what are the
> signals by which the control is transmitted?"
> 
> The last chapter is intriguingly titled "Chance or Purpose". After some
> rediscussion of some of the problems and examples with Darwinian theory of
> evolution, we get to the crux of the matter of this project. Mr. Taylor states:
> "A problem of a more philosophical nature is presented by the continual
> increase in complexity as we ascend the evolutionary scale.... If mere
> survival is the criterion for success, what was wrong with the rabbit, as
> Professor von Bertalanffy, of the State University of New York, asks. Or, for
> that matter with Bacteria... Some much more general theory seems to be
> required if a comprehensive account of evolution is to be written, involving
> principles of organisation which transcend those of Genetic control... That
> Darwin's ideas need setting in a larger framework no more detracts from his
> greatness than Einstein's theory did from Newton's."
> 
> Not to insult anyone's intelligence and for sake of clarity, Einstein's theory
> of relativity expanded the Newtonian theory of Mechanics. It gave an
> explanation where the original Newtonian Mechanics did not explain experimental
> data, namely at atomic level and/or at high rates of speed, i.e., close to that
> of Light waves.
> 
> In the next section of the book, an analogy is used which I believe to be
> quite good in helping one gain a perspective on this whole issue of evolution.
> "The metaphor is that of rising tide flooding into a broad river estuary. As it
> fills up the channels and available depressions, the sea extends its coverage
> but this produces no definable pattern. The height of the tide is correlated
> with the area finally covered but the pattern remains entirely on the lie of
> the land. To predict it we don't need further information from the water, we
> just need a good orographical map. In the same way, it is the environment which
> sets constraints to the pattern of evolution... As Mathematicians would say, it
> may be vectored—vector being a term indicating direction without any hint of
> what is moving, or how smoothly or how fast." Orography is study of or
> information gained from topography, and mapping of mountains.
> 
> Traditional philosophy and religion has, of course, placed man at the summit
> of the evolutionary ladder. In many of the discussions about science and
> religion, the changes in attitude over the last two centuries are evident. Man
> no longer is the epitome of the world, nestled in a world created for him,
> living on an Earth that is the center of the universe. "The mistake here, and
> it is often made, is to assume that adaptedness is the same as evolvedness.
> Flexibility, not adaptedness, is the name of the game in evolution."
> What it does seem to have been ... is evolution in complexity. But is growth
> in complexity the object of the operation or simply an inescapable side effect?
> ... Darwin put ability to survive as the prime criterion of evolutionary
> success. But something more than survival seems to be at work."
> 
> To shed light on this topic, he then discussed self-assembly. Simply put, at
> all different levels, one sees examples of assembly. Subatomic particles
> assemble in certain order. Atoms arrange themselves in certain orders to make
> molecules. Molecules of Amino acids arrange themselves into certain patterns,
> much like the DNA molecules do. Collections of cells become organs, and
> collections of organs become animals. Bacteria grow in colonies; Geese gather
> in flocks, and people live in societies. Planets orbit around stars, which in
> turn are part of a galaxy. The galaxies, in turn, form certain families and
> orders. This repeating pattern being present at every level of existence.
> 
> A theory proposed as a way to explain this, is Non-Equilibrium Thermodynamics.
> "The theory states that a steady throughput and a steady selection of more
> stable conditions necessarily causes a steady increase in order. The result is
> a self-ordering of living systems, amounting to self-design". This has been
> shown in computer simulations. "A gene system with 10,000 genes could produce
> 10 to 3,000 possible combinations... There are powerful deep underlying
> constraints that do not need natural selection." When a computer simulation of
> the speciation process randomly assigned one of three options to each species,
> the result very much matched the current evolutionary data. The three choices
> were to persist, branch, or become extinct. This is quite interesting. However,
> you should keep in mind that the simulation is just that, there is no
> experimental proof yet. This brings to my mind some thoughts related to the
> topic of randomness. For example, the machines at casinos are supposedly
> randomly programmed. The fact that you can design randomness through a computer
> program is itself an interesting topic, which we'll not delve into.
> 
> The last topic discussed in this book is the `Form'. " Too many biologists
> assume that, somehow, the genetic material prescribes the form of the organism
> as well as specifying the raw materials. This cannot be entirely true... form
> is certainly dependent on external factors, at least in some cases... Since
> change of form is the core of evolutionary studies... We cannot say that
> evolution has been `explained' until we know more about the factors which
> determine form... " I'll come back to this later.
> 
> "Progress has been prevented by the rigid dogmatism of the Neo-Darwinians...
> Now, however, the attempt to present Darwinism as established dogma, immune
> from criticism, is disintegrating... It is unfortunate that the Creationists
> are exploiting this new atmosphere by pressing their position... In the world
> as a whole, there is a growing recognition that life is more complex, even more
> mysterious, than we supposed... The probability that there are forces at
> work in the universe of which we have as yet scarcely an inkling is not too
> bizarre to entertain." We have much to learn and much to explore. He has a
> great point about the Darwin's theory being dogmatically accepted. It should be
> like any other theory. It should be examined objectively. However, whenever
> science is mixed with either religion or politics, it is possible that
> objectivity may be lost.
> 
> 4. The Form and Embryology
> 
> We have reasonably established a pattern of evolution and looked at the
> biological data that gives us an understanding of the genetic information that
> we possess and that we pass on. We have looked at the limited ability of this
> to generate life; but rather, this variability may explain some aspects
> of differentiation and speciation. We have noted that the Genome probably has
> stored within it many different options which become manifest under the proper
> environmental stimuli. The genetic information, as we know it today, does not
> clearly explain how the final form is developed. I am going to spend some time
> on this topic.
> 
> The science of Embryology is quite complex and singularly fascinating. We all
> know the sperm and egg story where two half-cells develop into an individual.
> The new area of fetal research is based upon the ability of that initial cell
> to transform into any type of cell or organ. All we have to do is to figure out
> the biochemical switch that makes that decision for the cell, and we have
> eliminated a lot of human misery. These cells will then be used to repair or
> replace defective parts or organs and to cure many degenerative diseases.
> 
> The initial cell that is produced from the union of the egg and sperm, barring
> any abnormal genetic transfer, has 46 chromosomes, including XX or XY
> combination. This cell is nearly 50% from a `foreign' source. Ordinarily, when
> a foreign body enters the body, the Immune system will attack it and try to get
> rid of it. This function, of course, provides the mechanism by which most germs
> are eradicated. However, intriguingly, the partially foreign cell is allowed to
> increase in size initially for a few days within the female organs and after
> attachment to the uterus, for 9 months, partially barricaded within multiple
> layers. This is an unsolved mystery.
> 
> The fertilized egg divides into two presumably identical cells. If a break
> occurs at this division, each of these cells will produce a complete
> fetus. The next division produces 4 cells, and so on. By day 4, the cells
> have organized themselves into a cell mass at the edge of a large globe formed
> by a thin layer of cells. Implantation will be in the next 2 days. At this
> time, a significant act of differentiation has occurred. Some of these cells
> are destined to become the protective layer; other cells will become the
> Embryo. Through unknown mechanisms, each of these groups of cells then
> organizes further. The cells that will produce the embryo will slowly develop
> segmentation and cavitation and from that early germinal body parts appear. I
> have alluded to the tail and the gills of this embryo previously. These are
> resorbed as the embryo develops. I have seen newborn infants delivered with `a
> tail', which is a horrifying experience for the parents but is easily amenable
> to surgical correction. Somehow, these cells find their way to the right
> places, and eventually form a fetus that grows to several pounds at the time of
> delivery.
> 
> Another fascinating concept associated with growth and development concerns
> the issue of symmetry. Some of the first multicellular organisms were radially
> symmetrical; That is to say, round. Most, however, are longitudinally
> symmetrical, much like us. That is to say, one side is mirror image of the
> other. The two sides are so close to each other that this issue is easily
> ignored. I recall vividly a patient with `Hemi-Hypertrophy' that I cared for
> years ago.
> 
> One side of his body was of average size; the other half was about 10% larger.
> As you can guess, he appeared quite unusual when undressed, as his clothing
> covered the difference between his arms and legs. The half-faces each were
> normal from a side view, and only unusual from frontal view. This phenomenon is
> easily noticed in daily life. Consider how you view yourself in the mirror
> daily. The person you see in the mirror stands opposite the way a person in
> front of you would. When you lift your right hand to shave in the morning, your
> mirror image uses its left hand. (Incidentally, a common surgical mistake is to
> remove the wrong-sided part.) When you see yourself in a home video, the person
> of yourself in front of you is different than your mirror image.
> Sometimes this change is minuscule, and other times more noticeable. Some
> Plastic Surgery colleagues utilize a software-imaging program that takes
> advantage of this information. The computer reproduces the exact image of each
> side of the person's face and produces two different faces. The patient then
> chooses their preferred image prior to the surgeon reshaping any parts, e.g.,
> the nose.
> 
> Going back to the question of the Form. Once the separate organs have
> developed, the cells can regenerate the organ, but, quite often, are no longer
> able to regenerate the organism. If a cell that is destines to become a hand,
> is removed and placed in a different area, amongst a new group of cells,
> sometimes the cell will transform and become one of the new groups. This shows
> that the ability to transform is not completely lost and given the proper
> environmental stimuli the genetic information stored within the cell can be
> re-triggered. How the final form comes to be is still a mystery.
> 
> We can safely say that different species and animals have come from some
> animals or plants before them. This process is probably not a random process as
> we have seen. It most likely is a Vector, a directed process. Most biologists
> have taken this to reflect their Materialist ideology and to conclude that this
> process does not require divine intervention and therefore, as Nietzsche said
> nearly 100 years ago, that God is dead. I hope that you read on and arrive at
> your own conclusions.
> 
> 5. Evolution of the Individual, and the question
> of Aging
> 
> This segment will explore the individual's growth and in one sense,
> evolution, throughout his life. Every person reading this book should feel a
> great sense of joy from being the winner of a great biological lottery. In this
> lottery, upwards of 100 million sperm are swimming as fast as they can to reach
> their destination, the egg. As soon as you beat every other sperm and entered
> the egg, there were changes produced within the egg that prevented any other
> intruder. That is how we all began, in a fantastic tumultuous race. From that
> point, each cell grew into an embryo and eventually a fetus. The fetus is
> protected from the assault of the mother's immune system throughout the
> pregnancy. The fetus, obviously, has shared genetic information from both
> parents, in nearly equal amounts.
> 
> The perception level of the fetus is very limited, even though there is
> evidence that later on in fetal life, there is perception of sounds (especially
> of mother's voice) and some perception of light and also pain. Then the fetal
> life comes to a traumatic end, and we are born into a cold cruel world with
> limited capability to care for ourselves. At that point some perception is
> present, but the faculties of a newborn are most concerned with nutrition and
> growth. An interesting side point is that without a loving environment some may
> fail to thrive and grow.
> 
> The newborn's ability to understand events around it is limited. Its ability
> to move about is rather limited. However, as time goes, the infant develops
> increasing understanding of the world and begins to feed itself and learn to
> walk about unassisted. There are some innate fears such as fear of separation
> that infant is born with and has to overcome. Increasingly, the infant becomes
> aware of its `self' and begins to explore the surroundings. Initially, the
> infant/child can only think in concrete terms and over time, the abstract
> thinking occurs. Generally speaking by the middle of the third grade, the child
> can have some abstract thought process. By this I mean, that the child can
> allow for variations from his/her expectations without having a sense of loss.
> That means the child can now perform some rudimentary deductive reasoning. By
> this time, the child is reasonably capable of taking care of him/herself.
> She/he also becomes curious about the world her/him and begins to ask questions
> such as `Where did I come from?' and `How did the mountains and oceans appear?'
> By this age, one can expect the child to be able to take on some degree of
> responsibility for her/his actions.
> 
> By the time of early adolescence, about 13 (younger for girls), the physical
> maturity is at a prepubertal/pubertal level. If necessary, the adolescent can
> reasonably take care of herself/himself. A significant amount of logical
> deduction and reasoning and power of extrapolation has appeared. An early
> hormonal change is having an effect on the thinking and the concept of boy vs.
> girl has developed in a meaningful way. These powers are augmented during
> puberty. At this time, as sexual maturation occurs, the concept of one's own
> sexuality becomes important. Dr Freud, and others since, have written volumes
> about the internal working of the ego, etc. which we will not delve into.
> Suffice it to say that one's sexual identity of one's self plays an important
> role in the person's outlook on themselves and the outside world. This is the
> time when everyone feels that they can change the world if they so desire.
> After this time, there is gradual escalation of the powers of reasoning and
> understanding, if properly developed. The physical body continues to mature,
> especially if trained, and within the next few years reaches its peak and
> thereafter we see a slow gradual decline in function, that is significantly
> controlled by one's own behavior.
> 
> The college years are probably the most important in the continuous
> intellectual progression of the person. We are quite lucky in the USA that most
> high school students can go on to collegiate training if they so desire. When I
> graduated from high school in Iran and took the National College Entrance Exam,
> I was one of 300,000 applicants vying for 12,000 slots. The higher education
> system in America is a great asset that is sometimes overlooked. During these
> collegiate years a lot of great thinking takes place. This is the first time
> that one begins to think long term. What course of study should one undertake?
> What sort of life style should one endeavor to achieve? What about the right
> time to start a family? I assume that an occasional thought of retirement may
> be entertained, as well.
> 
> We have then arrived at the economically most productive phase of each
> person's life. Somewhere around forty, if not before, the questions about
> Faith, God, and the End become much more important. All the time that she/he
> has spent to prepare one's self for the society, to begin a family, to acquire
> education, is now placed in perspective. `Whence did I originate and why?'
> Becomes a soul-searching mission. `Where do we go from here?' is then the
> follow-up question to be answered by each person. Let me discuss a few thoughts
> about this before going on to the question of aging.
> 
> Each person, in due time, will decide on their life's philosophy and approach.
> Depending on the path chosen, one's actions and plans will be affected. I will
> share with you some thoughts from the Scriptures of the Bahá'í Faith that may
> shed some light on this topic. "The fruits of the tree of man have ever been
> and are goodly deeds and a praiseworthy character." (Bahá'u'lláh:
> Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, page 26). Bahá'u'lláh says that the
> purpose of life is good deeds presumably emanating from the person with
> good character. "Know ye that the world and its vanities and its
> embellishments shall pass away. Nothing will endure except God's Kingdom which
> pertaineth to none but Him, the Sovereign Lord of all, the Help in Peril, the
> All-Glorious, the Almighty. The days of your life shall roll away, and all the
> things with which ye are occupied and of which ye boast yourselves shall
> perish (Bahá'u'lláh: Gleanings, page 125). Regardless of one's
> belief in afterlife, clearly at this stage in one's life, one begins to worry
> about the time of the end of one's life.
> 
> "These few brief days shall pass away, this present life shall vanish from
> our sight; the roses of this world shall be fresh and fair no more, the garden
> of this earth's triumphs and delights shall droop and fade. The spring season
> of life shall turn into the autumn of death, the bright joy of palace halls
> give way to moonless dark within the tomb. And therefore is none of this worth
> loving at all, and to this the wise will not anchor his heart."
> ('Abdu'l-Bahá: Selections from the Writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, pages
> 220-221) Once again the theme of lack of permanence of the physical world is
> highlighted, this time by Abdul-Baha.
> 
> So now we come to the question of aging. We have seen so far that the life of
> the embryo was pre-programmed to pass through different stages to produce the
> human infant. We have now seen that the life of the person has been
> pre-programmed to find a definite path of maturity onto an advanced age. You
> probably have heard about the recent biochemical discovery of the enzyme,
> Telomerase, which may regulate the growth of the human cell and may play an
> important role in aging. You may also be familiar with an abnormal aging
> pattern that is seen in the people afflicted with Progeria, in which case the
> entire process of aging is accelerated such that a seven year old may have an
> aged body of a 60 year old. These things point to some things about Aging that
> I have found fascinating. When I first studied the aging process, I was quite
> intrigued by the idea of a maximum life span. Regardless of how the human
> individual takes care of herself/himself, there is a pre-programmed biological
> death time at 115-125 years of age. I was so shocked to learn that we were
> indeed programmed for destruction. This pattern is also seen in any other
> biological entity, from trees and plants to bacteria and bees. There are
> certain patterns that one can find, depending on the content of the genome.
> 
> There are many factors that contribute to aging. We have talked about genetic
> control of cells, but it also is important to keep in mind other genetic
> factors inherited from both parents. DNA is damaged at different rates in
> different organisms. Dogs lose genetic material seven times faster than humans
> and, interestingly, this corresponds to the ratio of life span between dog and
> human. The environment definitely affects the aging process. The temperature
> and metabolic rate also affect the organism's age. Larger animals with slower
> metabolism tend to have a longer life span than smaller animals with a more
> rapid metabolism. Free radicals cause injuries to the cell and scavengers of
> free radicals, Antioxidants, help control and/or repair this process. Ionizing
> radiation is associated with cell injury; however, a small dose of radiation
> administered to mice and insects actually increases their life span.
> 
> Let's study the process of Death and Aging in greater detail. Every
> cell is programmed for a certain number of reproductions beyond which it either
> dies or becomes stagnant without further reproduction. Cell death occurs either
> by Necrosis or Apoptosis. (Geriatrics, 3rd Ed., page 10) Necrosis occurs
> as a result of intracellular release of enzymes and of massive release of
> electrolytes and calcium that destroy the cell in a rather dramatic fashion.
> Apoptosis is probably organized under genetic control and is `a gradual and
> orderly form of cell death that occurs in the absence of overwhelming external
> injury'. Why would there be a gene for programmed cell death? The loss of the
> control on cellular growth produces a tumor or cancer, which is disastrous for
> the organism in many cases.
> 
> There are two types of cells. One type is the type of cell, like the
> Myocardial cells of the heart, and nerve cells (Neurons) that last throughout
> the person's life and does not replicate. The other cells are proliferative,
> and this includes fibroblasts (these multiply to produce the scar that closes
> wounds), Gastrointestinal mucosal lining that are shed in the process of
> digestion, and all of the different blood cells. There is a genetic clock
> within the nucleus of the cells that sets the number that they may
> reproduce/replicate. Red blood cells do not have nuclei, and their age limit is
> about 120 days. The red cell becomes stiff due to loss or distortion of
> proteins within the cell and gets `stuck' within the ReticuloEndolethial system
> and becomes cleared. It is unclear what effect these cellular processes have on
> the age of the organism.
> 
> Another theory of aging involves a Neuroendocrine pacemaker. Production of
> several different hormones is under the control of the HPA axis
> (Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenal). This system is also involved in the process
> of Diurnal variation. This process adjusts the body's internal clock such that
> our internal workings follow the normal day/night variation. The grand final
> theory on aging, yet to be devised, will probably need to take into account the
> Genetic aspect, the Environmental factor, the Hormonal influence, the Free
> radical damage, the Radiation exposure, and the Metabolic rate. But most
> important of all, there is a programmed death of the organism, probably
> transmitted via DNA that sets a limit on our stay here on Earth, regardless of
> the other influences. We have much to learn about this process, but as became
> clear during our study of the Evolution of Species, there is an underlying
> control and program.
> 
> Let us accept then that there is an underlying program in the growth,
> development, and evolution of the individual. We cannot be certain as to the
> degree of rigidity of this program at this time. Where does free will come in?
> How much is programmed? How much do we choose? There is no doubt that each of
> us, being endowed with different DNA content, are different to some degree, yet
> there is a general concordance in the way each of us grows through life and
> passes each stage. Even when we make a decision, one can argue that the process
> leading to that decision was part of one's underlying psyche and therefore not
> completely a free choice. It makes me think of the free will during
> presidential elections. We certainly get to choose one out of two maybe three
> candidates in November, but before the final vote, the field is significantly
> narrowed and our choices reduced.
> 
> Ever since the recent cloning of sheep and discussions about cloning of humans
> this matter can be seen under a new light. If I was cloned, would my clone wish
> to spend time away from his family and work on this manuscript or would he
> instead prefer to watch College Basketball? That would be interesting to
> answer. Never the less, I think one can say that given our genetic make up and
> the influence of the environment, we do have some will of ourselves.
> 
> Consider this: "Some things are subject to the free will of man, such as
> justice, equity, tyranny and injustice, in other words, good and evil actions;
> it is evident and clear that these actions are, for the most part, left to the
> will of man. But there are certain things to which man is forced and compelled,
> such as sleep, death, sickness, decline of power, injuries and misfortunes; but
> in the choice of good and bad actions he is free, and he commits them according
> to his own will. ('Abdu'l-Bahá: Some Answered Questions, page
> 248)"
> 
> We cannot control that underlying program for the evolution of our
> individual life, but we can control our actions within certain parameters. What
> if we do make all the `right' choices? Then we have truly prepared ourselves.
> "Man's physical existence on this earth is a period during which the moral
> exercise of his free will is tried and tested in order to prepare his soul for
> the other worlds of God, and we must welcome affliction and tribulations as
> opportunities for improvement in our eternal selves. (UHJ, Lights of Guidance,
> Page: 368). There are many different ways of defining the purpose of
> existence. In this particular statement, the physical body is a vehicle of the
> soul. The afflictions mentioned may be of the kind that tests one's devotion to
> God, and these allow for the better preparation of the soul that successfully
> has handled its tests and tribulations.
> 
> The closing message on this topic is the fact that we see a lot of
> programming at different levels of life. In a sense, that is what I hope you
> got out of it. There were other points made about aging, afterlife, purpose of
> life, but we are not trying to answer all those issues here. Rather, those are
> to pique your interest and hopefully some soul searching of your own to find
> your comfort zone with these ideas. This theme of has recurred in every topic:
> Directedness.
> 
> 6. The Origin of Human beings
> 
> A Review of African Exodus
> 
> In this segment, we'll explore a deeper examination of human evolution.
> We have discussed previously Darwin's two works along with a review of the
> problems stemming from those explanations. We shall turn our attention, now, to
> the origins of the Human beings, Homo sapiens, the wise man. To
> delineate this fascinating topic in detail, I will review the book African
> Exodus, written by a Paleoanthropologist, Christopher Stringer, and a
> journalist, Robin McKie. The book is written in 9 chapters and several
> wonderful illustrations. The book is historical as relates to the experience of
> Mr. Stringer through his graduate training and also historical as to the state
> of common knowledge and scientific dogma. As we work through, please pay
> attention to different definitions of Human beings, from a biological and a
> philosophical standpoint that will be introduced. The time frames will dovetail
> very nicely into some of the other contents of this book. The first portion of
> the book explores the Anatomical data. The second segment will delve into the
> more modern Genetic data. Lastly, this is an area of ongoing research and we'll
> undoubtedly witness many interesting discoveries in the years ahead.
> 
> In the first chapter, the Kibish enigma, the author explores a partial human
> skull discovery from around the River Kibish, Ethiopia. The unusual feature of
> this skull is that it looks very much like that of Homo sapiens but the dating
> did not match the current theory in 1970's. At that time, it was believed that
> man had descended from the Neanderthal about 60,000 years ago. This enigmatic
> skull was dated at 100 to 130 thousand years ago! As it is customary, several
> different scientific teams and many different museums study most of these
> significant remains. So the data and recordings are fairly scientific and less
> error-prone than some of the finds that we'll discuss in the future where
> single studies are made. This inadequacy of the theory to explain the findings
> of the Kibish skull became the basis of Mr. Stringer's out of Africa theory
> that took many other years and much more detail to finalize.
> 
> The next chapter is `East Side Story'. This is the story of the first "upright
> monkey" that began the evolutionary line that led to humans. Pay close
> attention to this division caused by Geological changes. The human species
> belongs to the order of primates, a group of animals that are tree loving and
> dexterous. This group had thrived for many millions of years from 25 million to
> 10 million years ago. About that time the monkeys began to take over the
> forests, presumably due to their smaller size. The apes became isolated in the
> jungles of Africa and SE Asia. The numbers of the Apes has been on a decline
> since then. The four major species extant today are the gorilla, the orangutan,
> the common chimpanzee, and the pygmy chimpanzee. The only exception to this
> rule of continuous decline is the hominids.
> 
> Presumably in the struggle for survival under more restricted food supply,
> some Apes began to adapt to the life on the ground and began to give up their
> tree life. There is evidence that about 4.5 million years ago in Africa, there
> lived Ardipithecus ramidus (ground ape, root). This is the earliest
> remains of an upright Ape. It had a small brain and ape-like teeth. This is
> also a time that geological record indicates that there was a great rift in
> Africa. The movement of tectonic plates produced a more arid East side of the
> African continent. Geological barriers then physically divided the population
> of this common ancestor of humans and apes. The western population developed in
> the more arboreal jungles of West Africa. The Eastern population developed in
> the arid dry lands of then East Africa.
> 
> Around this time, a new species is found in Africa, Australopithecus
> afarensis (Southern Ape, Afar=Ethiopia) has very clear features of
> bipedalism, more so than the ramidus that we met earlier. The upright stance is
> a most significant evolutionary step. It allowed the upright animal farther
> visual field and freed the hands for manipulation of tools and the environment.
> The hot climate may have made upright stance more energy efficient. There is
> scientific evidence that the upright animal receives 60% less heat compared to
> four-legged companion. The area that is exposed to the rays of the Sun is much
> smaller with bipedalism. The afarensis is quite Ape-like except for bipedal
> motion. There is a great disparity between the size of the male and the female
> of the species and there is little or no evidence of tool making ability. The
> brain size is still about 400cc volume, a paltry volume compared to modern
> man's 1400cc brain. This species faded from the fossil record about three
> million years ago.
> 
> A new species was discovered near Taung in South Africa and named
> Australopithecus africanus (Southern Ape-Africa). The descriptions
> developed from these finds formed the basis of parts of the movie 2001: A
> Space Odyssey. This species is very similar to the afarensis. The
> one significant exception is that the female and the male are much closer in
> size. This species disappears from the fossil record about 2 million years
> ago.
> 
> From the africanus lineage, there arise two separate lines of hominid
> development. Three species developed of the `robust' lineage, since they
> possessed thick jaws and big back teeth. The other species took the flexible
> approach to dietary intake and is therefore classified as `gracile' meaning
> lightly-built. This is biologically the first real human. The species is called
> Homo habilis (man-handy). This may actually be subdivided further into
> large habilis and small habilis. This first member of the Genus
> Homo appeared about 2.3 million years ago. This species like the others we have
> looked at was bipedal. The brain size was about 750cc volume, a significant
> jump. This group was involved in tool making on a regular basis. Coexistent
> with these is another species that survived much longer and may have been
> around as late as 100,000 years ago in certain parts of Asia. This was the
> Homo erectus. The erectus people were sophisticated toolmakers, well
> beyond use of tools. This use of tools allowed for a new source of food:
> meat.
> 
> The erectus has a small gut and somewhat larger brain. Stay tuned, as
> more modern species/subspecies of the Genus Homo will be discussed.
> 
> There has been much confusion about the origin of human beings in the last 1.5
> million years. Some people suggest that all hominids since the erectus
> are parts of the same species. However, there are enough anatomical differences
> to be able to list them as separate species. We dealt with this question
> previously. What is it that exactly defines a species? Is it their anatomy? Is
> it their behavior? Is it their ability to interbreed? This last idea is the
> most enduring way to separate different species. However, the bone and skeleton
> do not provide us with this most important piece of evidence!
> 
> The next chapter on The Grisly Folk discusses the issues mentioned above. This
> chapter also provides the basic outline of the human lineage. About 400,000
> years ago a new species has evolved from the erectus, Homo
> heidelbergensis (man—Heidelberg, Germany). This species has a thick,
> chinless lower jaw. These people were bipedal and had a fairly large brain
> size. The significance of the chin will be dealt with later on. The species
> then further differentiated. The population North of Sahara became the
> Neanderthal, Homo neanderthalis (Man—Neander, near Dusseldorf,
> Germany). The population South of the Sahara became the first modern humans.
> 
> The next chapter's title is "Time and Chance." It gives detailed description
> of the archaeological dig of the burial site of a Neanderthal infant. Let's
> spend time going over some of the Neanderthal features. This will be very
> interesting. The brain size of the Neanderthal is 1200-1750 cc. As you recall,
> on average this is bigger than Homo sapiens. However, the thinking part
> of the brain, the frontal lobes, is more developed in the Homo sapiens. Then
> the glowering twin-arched brow ridge is a major distinction since the brow
> ridge in Homo sapiens is non-existent. There is a nice discussion about speech,
> the evolution of the Larynx, voice box. The continual lowering of the Larynx
> allowed for a larger column of air being used for speech, and the larger the
> column, the wider the range of speech. The first anatomical evolutionary
> changes of speech are seen in the Homo erectus. The Neanderthal was very
> similar to us. They had an upright stance, their anatomy was very similar; they
> had reasonable power of speech, ability to make use of fire, utilized shelter,
> and constructed tools.
> 
> The Neanderthal lived from 200,000 to 30,000 years ago. They have been found
> in Europe, and eastward to Moscow. The Middle East was probably at the far
> reaches of the Neanderthal. Modern humans probably coexisted with the
> Neanderthal for many years in such areas. Since we have described them as
> separate species, and separate species do not mate, it is safe to say that
> their coexistence was not one of intermingling. So, what happened to these
> relatives to modern man? Why did we survive and they didn't? There is a
> significant amount of debate on this issue. There are a lot of different ideas.
> One idea that seems to make sense and matches the archeological findings is
> that Neanderthal stayed in the same shelter. By contrast, modern man was always
> mobile, similar to modern hunter-gatherers. The organizational efficiency of
> modern man probably eventually won out over a somewhat more physically superior
> species. Nevertheless, modern man had concurred most of the globe for a long
> time before it took over the Neanderthal some 30,000 years ago in Western
> Europe.
> 
> The next chapter discusses `the Mother of all Humans', also referred to as the
> African Eve. Most of this is based upon genetic theory. The genes as we
> discussed in the first portion of this book, are responsible for the
> information that is transmitted in each cell. These genes from the nucleus
> divide in half and combine with another half to make a new cell. However,
> something very interesting happens in Primates. Since the tiny sperm only has
> energy cells, mitochondria, in its tail and the tail is lost at the moment of
> conception, the new cell from this union always carries the mother's
> mitochondria that are present in the egg. One can look at the variations within
> the genes from the mitochondria, and from the nucleus and then have a
> scientific estimate of their separation time in history. According to these
> calculations the common ancestor to all humans, the African Eve, must have
> lived some 200,000 years ago.
> 
> There is another interesting genetic piece located on chromosome 12. The
> people in sub-Saharan Africa show total variability in this segment, consistent
> with variable population. However, the genetic variability does NOT
> exist in the rest of the world. This means that a small band of these Africans
> migrated out to conquer the rest of the world and that only one wave was
> successful. This migration occurred between 100,000 and 90,000 years ago. The
> African Eve, which was probably indeed a village of African women, was probably
> the first humans. The group that spun off about 100,000 years ago to spread to
> the rest of the world is the modern Homo sapiens, basically us 10,000
> generations removed.
> 
> There are two separate discussions in the next chapter called "the Footprints
> on the Sands of Time". First is the timetable for the migration of the original
> human settlers out of Africa. The spread throughout Africa occurred about
> 100,000 years ago, as well as spread to Asia. By 60,000 years ago, the Eastern
> Asia was conquered and about 35,000 years ago this group progressed onto Alaska
> and spread southward thereon to occupy the continent. Some 40,000 years ago,
> Europe was finally conquered as we previously discussed with the history of the
> Neanderthals. Some 50,000 years ago, a group of Asians migrated across to form
> the Australian Aborigines. The actual picture probably is not quite as neat and
> clean but this is rather brief representation.
> 
> Second, there is a discussion about radiocarbon dating, which is our best
> method for dating fossils less than 30,000 years old. Let's go back in time to
> 1912. At Piltdown near Sussex a skull had been found in a gravel pit that had a
> modern braincase and orangutan jaw. This was immediately dubbed the missing
> link. That is the link missing in the Darwin's biological tree of evolution
> that shows humans evolved from modern Apes (Darwin actually said old world
> monkeys). Around the same time, on Oct 10, 1912, there was a speech given at
> Stanford University on this topic. The speaker was not a scientist. The speaker
> was Abbas Effendi, commonly known as Abdul-Baha, the son of Bahá'u'lláh, the
> founder of the Bahá'í Faith. We discussed some of His thoughts on evolution
> previously. In discussing anatomical evolution He says: "They find that his
> anatomy has undergone successive changes, finally assuming human form, and that
> these intermediate forms or changes are like links connected. Between man and
> the ape, however, there is one link missing, and to the present time scientists
> have not been able to discover it. The lost link of Darwinian theory... will
> never be found." ('Abdu'l-Bahá: Promulgation of Universal Peace, pages
> 358-9)
> 
> What a contrast of opinion between scientific community and Religious
> community! We talked about tests before. This is an example of those tests of
> faith that the people at that time had to endure. Luckily, in the Bahá'í Faith
> Religion and Science are compatible. On this particular issue, it didn't seem
> to be so until 1953 when scientists using radiocarbon dating proved that the
> Piltdown skull was a fake. I hope that the rest of this writing has proven His
> word that between modern man and Ape there will not be a missing
> link.
> 
> The next chapter, the Sorcerer, has a marvelous discussion of the language.
> With the act of speaking about 100 different muscles (diaphragm, tongue, mouth,
> back of throat-oropharynx, etc.) have to be coordinated through our nervous
> system to phonate-produce speech. Jane Goodall (of the Gorilla study fame) is
> quoted as saying that spoken language is the most important character that
> differentiates us from lower animals. This is probably the final change that
> made us human. We went from walking on fours to walking upright. We abandoned
> the tree life. We developed larger brains. Now we acquired language. The use of
> language probably produced the social cohesiveness we needed to survive better
> than other hominids.
> 
> The final chapter, "Prometheus Unbound," discussed some general trends in
> human evolution. An interesting finding is that our body and brain sizes have
> shrunk about 10% all over the globe over the last 10,000 years. This may
> correspond to development of farming which began about 10,000 years ago,
> followed by pottery about 7000 years ago. Agriculture and pottery probably
> changed the diet of humans such that we relied more on carbohydrates than fat
> and meat. The typical hunter-gatherer society has a higher percentage of fat in
> their diet. This change probably brought about the first true cohesion of human
> society that had cooperation from all members and division of labor. The author
> then gives a nice humanistic editorial about the problems facing mankind. The
> problems with racial differences and technology especially deadly ones such as
> nuclear arms are discussed. Our species has been too successful for its own
> good. We have gone from 10,000 members about 100,000 years ago to
> 10,000,000,000 members today. This great Mother Earth can't necessarily keep up
> with the 3500 calorie per day consumption of all these people forever.
> 
> Section 7: Time
> 
> It's now time to discuss time. Each biological entity has a
> general sense of the passage of time. Looking at humans, we have our daily
> schedules of modern time. We have a broader sense of time in terms of seasons
> that change each year. We also have a sense of years by seeing the aging
> process in our cohorts and ourselves. Even though we have a good idea of what
> time is, there is much to be explored about it. We also share with many
> animals, diurnal variations of hormones that produce our sleep-wake cycle. The
> female of many species undergoes seasonal changes in preparation for their
> reproductive cycle. As one goes further away from the Equator towards either
> pole, the length of Day changes with significant subsequent changes on the
> individual's functioning. Our normal daily activities are under a biological
> clock in the central nervous system that controls our biorhythms.
> 
> The basic building blocks of the world are atoms that bind together in
> molecules. Each atom has a certain set of particles of electrons, neutrons, and
> also subatomic particles. The field of particle physics is still in its infancy
> and probably will provide us with many great discoveries in this century.
> Suffice it to say, that for the most part, atoms live forever. If an atom is
> part of the food consumed by an animal and becomes a segment of the animal, it
> still persists, as an atom even after the animal is no longer alive! In other
> words, time has no consequence for the atom. Atoms change with time and given
> enough energy can become heavier. This is how scientists have placed a time of
> 15-20 billion years for the age of our universe.
> 
> Before Albert Einstein, time was considered a constant, never changing factor.
> We live in a space-time domain. Time is unidirectional; it always moves
> forward, seemingly outside our control. For objects that move slowly relative
> to the speed of light (186,000 miles per second; a photon of light will travel
> around the Earth nearly 8 times in one second) it does in fact seem that time
> is constant. If you look at objects that are at or near the speed of light, the
> story takes a strange turn. Time in fact slows down at higher speeds. At the
> speed of light, time stands still. The photon of light lives
> forever, since it travels at the speed of light.
> 
> When we think of an event, we think of a location and a time. Any event on the
> surface of the Sun takes 8 minutes to reach us on Earth. In other words, we are
> totally oblivious to that event for 8 minutes. You may also say that event has
> not occurred for people on Earth until they can note the event. You may be
> familiar with the concept of light-year. This is a measure of distance not
> time. This is the distance that light travels in one year. This is equal to
> 66,000 times the distance between the Sun and mother Earth. If you can somehow
> get a mental picture of a light-year, imagine now that many distant stars are
> several million light-years away! Many astronomers believe that the universe is
> expanding. Since we are imagining things, let's do one more thing together.
> Imagine yourself at the edge of the expanding universe. Normally, the empty
> spaces in between stars and planets are confined by other celestial structures.
> At the edge of the universe, what are you expanding into?
> 
> When it comes to gravity and the theory of relativity, there is nothing more
> unusual than the black hole. This is an area with gravity so strong that light
> does not leave it. If light cannot leave it, then no information can be
> received from within it. We can only tell that a black hole exists because of
> the rotation of masses of gas and matter into the gravitational field. If you
> survive your travel through the black hole, you may end up in a different
> universe with a different space-time existence!
> 
> Let's travel back now to the big bang. It seems that a great creation of mass
> took place about 20 billion years ago. The concept of life and death of stars
> has been studied for millennia. These studies have given us information about
> what occurred after the big bang and the development of stars and planets. But
> what was there before the big bang? Everything we know or feel intuitively
> about our world comes from our understanding of space-time of our existence.
> Think outside the box for a moment. Was there mass before the fateful moment of
> the Big Bang?
> 
> It seems unlikely. Was there time before the creation of our world? It
> seems unlikely, since time is a creation of the universe of space-time. It was
> a world of no mass and no time. It is impossible for us to imagine something
> like that in a clear palpable way. Time is no longer what our ancestors
> believed it to be.
> 
> 8. A New Perspective
> 
> We have dealt mainly with the facts of the scientific theory so far. We
> concerned ourselves with whether the theory of evolution in fact fits the
> scientific data. We looked at the myriad of the problems that are not explained
> by the theory as commonly understood. In order to gain a new insight into this
> topic, I will now switch gears and ask you to join me on a journey of a new
> sort. The traditional religious view of creation has its own group of
> adherents. In fact, anyone questioning some of these scientific thoughts that
> have been presented so far, whether based on religious or philosophical
> viewpoints, will be branded automatically as a creationist. However, there is a
> new breath of freshness to religious thought since Bahá'u'lláh, founder of
> Bahá'í Faith, emerged in Persia in mid nineteenth century. He professed that
> science and Religion are the two wings upon which humanity can soar to new
> heights. So, even though this short chapter is about a religious figure, I beg
> your indulgence and hope that you'll stay for the remainder of the ride.
> 
> We visited Abdul-Baha briefly previously when we discussed His speech about
> the missing link. Abdul-Baha, eldest son of Bahá'u'lláh, was asked about the
> state of the Human Beings and many other topics dealing with interpretation of
> verses from previous Holy Scriptures. These conversations are recorded by Laura
> Clifford Barney in the book Some Answered Questions. He deals
> extensively with issues of spirituality, the element that separates us from
> animals. I should mention that Abdul-Baha is also referred to as the Center of
> the Covenant, and was appointed the sole interpreter of His Father's
> (Bahá'u'lláh's) teachings. He was imprisoned as a youth and did not gain his
> freedom until the age of 64.
> 
> On the issue of evolution and descent of man from animal He said: "all
> these endless beings which inhabit the world, whether man, animal, vegetable,
> mineral—whatever they may be—are surely, each one of them, composed of
> elements... It is confirmed through evidences and proofs that every being
> universally acts upon other beings, either absolutely or through association.
> Finally, the perfection of each individual being—that is to say, the
> perfection which you now see in man or apart from him, with regard to their
> atoms, members or powers—is due to the composition of the elements, to their
> measure, to their balance, to the mode of their combination, and to mutual
> influence. When all these are gathered together, then man exists." He is
> actually drawing an even more direct connection between man and the
> environment. He is going to the basic elemental/atomic level to connect us to
> the universe. An interesting side note is that He never had the opportunity for
> higher education and His is an innate knowledge of the world.
> 
> He then magnifies his point. "As the perfection of man is entirely
> due to the composition of the atoms of the elements, to their measure, to the
> method of their combination, and to the mutual influence and action of the
> different beings - then, since man was produced ten or a hundred thousand years
> ago from these earthly elements with the same measure and balance, the same
> method of combination and mingling, and the same influence of the other beings,
> exactly the same man existed then as now. This is evident and not worth
> debating... " ('Abdu'l-Bahá: Some Answered Questions, pages 178-179)
> Notice how he places the time of existence of man in the 10,000 to 100,000 year
> time frame. He may have simply said these numbers quite randomly as we all may
> on occasion. However, I want you to keep these dates in the back of your mind!!
> Another interesting point is the influence of other beings. We have seen
> repeatedly how the environment has a profound influence on the organism, or
> even the cells within the organs of each cell. I suppose one might interpret
> Him as saying that the proper environment and the proper balance of elements
> has led to the existence of Man.
> 
> "Thus it is evident and confirmed that the development and growth of man on
> this earth, until he reached his present perfection, resembled the growth and
> development of the embryo in the womb of the mother: by degrees it passed from
> condition to condition, from form to form, from one shape to another, for this
> is according to the requirement of the universal system and Divine Law... And
> in the same way, man's existence on this earth, from the beginning until it
> reaches this state, form and condition, necessarily lasts a long time, and goes
> through many degrees until it reaches this condition." Here He compares the
> growth and development of the Human Race with same Ontogeny that we alluded to
> previously. It was not that long ago that the scientists, looking under their
> newly invented microscope, claimed that they could see a microscopic person
> within the head of the sperm. It was presumed then that the body was whole and
> only grew in size in utero. I use this as an example of how far our knowledge
> has progressed in the last two centuries. Divine Law and Universal system sound
> pretty synonymous.
> 
> The Master, as He was respectfully and affectionately called, goes on to make
> the most important statement. This is the Crux of the whole issue. This is the
> answer to the $64,000 question posed some time ago: "But from the
> beginning of man's existence he is a distinct species. In the same way, the
> embryo of man in the womb of the mother was at first in a strange form; then
> this body passes from shape to shape, from state to state, from form to form,
> until it appears in utmost beauty and perfection. But even when in the womb of
> the mother and in this strange form, entirely different from his present form
> and figure, he is the embryo of the superior species, and not of the animal;
> his species and essence undergo no change." What exactly is He
> telling us? Is this just a matter of word play? This is a most interesting
> comparison that He has chosen to use. Interestingly, both Embryology and
> Evolutionary science are still incompletely understood, even today. Abdul-Baha
> does have a terrifically uncanny way with analogies and metaphors. The 6-week
> embryo that has gills is pregnant with the potential to become human, even
> though this is not readily apparent if you examine such a specimen. The very
> basic molecules that went on to produce `life' were pregnant with the potential
> to produce the Human species. We got an idea of this while working our way
> through the genetic changes and control mechanisms and how the genetic
> information lies hid until the proper environmental context/stimuli is
> present.
> 
> Recall that Charles Darwin never told us the origin of the species. We
> discussed the biological way of separating the species based upon reproductive
> receptivity. There are a lot of pieces missing from that puzzle. Let's go back
> to our great source: "let us suppose that there was a time when some
> animals, or even man, possessed some members which have now disappeared; this
> is not a sufficient proof of the change and evolution of the species. For man,
> from the beginning of the embryonic period till he reaches the degree of
> maturity, goes through different forms and appearances. His aspect, his form,
> his appearance and color change; he passes from one form to another, and from
> one appearance to another. Nevertheless, from the beginning of the embryonic
> period he is of the species of man - that is to say, an embryo of a man and not
> of an animal; but this is not at first apparent, but later it becomes visible
> and evident. For example, let us suppose that man once resembled the animal,
> and that now he has progressed and changed. Supposing this to be true, it is
> still not a proof of the change of species."
> 
> " We will state it more clearly. Let us suppose that there was a time when
> man walked on his hands and feet, or had a tail; this change and alteration is
> like that of the fetus in the womb of the mother. Although it changes in all
> ways, and grows and develops until it reaches the perfect form, from the
> beginning it is a special species.... To recapitulate: as man in the womb
> of the mother passes from form to form, from shape to shape, changes and
> develops, and is still the human species from the beginning of the embryonic
> period - in the same way man, from the beginning of his existence in the
> matrix of the world, is also a distinct species - that is, man -
> and has gradually evolved from one form to another. Therefore, this
> change of appearance, this evolution of members, this development and growth,
> even though we admit the reality of growth and progress, (if we admit that had
> formerly been a quadruped) does not prevent the species from being original.
> Man from the beginning was in this perfect form and composition, and possessed
> capacity and aptitude for acquiring material and spiritual perfections... "
> ('Abdu'l-Bahá: Some Answered Questions, pages 191-194) This is a grand
> statement made a long time ago, long before knowledge of genetics had
> progressed this far. What is being proposed is that anatomical changes at the
> level of form, which is visible, does not provide any proof. Abdul-Baha is
> saying that the Darwinian theory is incomplete. Quite an amazing fellow, this
> Abdul-Baha.
> 
> The human species is original. All other species are as well.
> The blue print of future humans has been present for billions of years within
> the matrix of the biological genome. When the necessary and appropriate
> environmental stimuli have transpired and the biochemical constraints have been
> satisfied, the species becomes evident. The genetic programming is what allows
> this terrific transformation to take place. This programming is directed
> like a vector.
> 
> Bibliography:
> 
> 1. Darwin, Charles. (1859) The Origin of Species
> 
> 2. Darwin, Charles. (1871) The Descent of Man
> 
> 3. Taylor, Gordon. (1983) The Great Evolution Mystery. New York: Harper
> & Row
> 
> 4. Stringer, Christopher and McKie, Robin. (1998) African Exodus. New
> York: Henry Holt and Company
> 
> 5. Wake, Marvalee. (1979) Hyman's Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy.
> Chicago: The University of Chicago Press
> 
> 6. Loehle, Craig. (1994) On the Shoulders of Giants. Oxford: George
> Ronald Publishing
> 
> 7. Abdul-Baha. (1981) Some Answered Questions. Wilmette, Illinois:
> Bahá'í Publishing Trust
> 
> 8. Langman, M.D., Ph.D., Jan. (1980) Medical Embryology. Baltimore:
> Williams and Wilkins publishing
> 
> 9. Stryer, Lubert. (1981) Biochemistry. San Francisco: W.H. Freeman and
> co.
> 
> 10. Abdul-Baha. (1982) The Promulgation Of Universal Peace. Wilmette,
> IL: Bahá'í Publishing Trust
> 
> 11. Hornby, Helen Bassett. (1994) Lights of Guidance. New Delhi, India:
> Bahá'í Publishing Trust
> 
> 12. Bahá'u'lláh. Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh.
> 
> 13. Abdul-Baha. Selections from the writing of Abdul-Baha.
> 
> 14. Reuben, M.D., David B.; Yoshikawa, M.D., Thomas T.; Besdine, M.D., Richard
> W. (1996) Geriatrics. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Co.
> 
> GLOSSARY:
> 
> AdaptationAbility to survive in a new
> setting.
> 
> Amino AcidBuilding blocks of
> Proteins.
> 
> ArdipithecusGround
> Ape.
> 
> ArthropodThe Phylum that includes
> insects and Arachnids (Spiders).
> 
> AustralopithecusSouthern
> Ape.
> 
> Bipedalismability to walk on two
> limbs.
> 
> CalciteThe crystal form of Calcium
> Carbonate, the constituent of Marble.
> 
> CambrianA Geological epoch from 600 to
> 500 million years ago.
> 
> CellThe building blocks of an Organ.
> 
> CenozoicMore modern Geological time
> from 63 million years ago till now.
> 
> ChromosomeA segment of nucleus that
> contains certain genes. We have 46 chromosomes.
> 
> CovenantA
> contract.
> 
> CretaceousA Geological epoch from 130
> to 65 million years ago.
> 
> DevonianA Geological epoch from 400 to
> 350 million years ago.
> 
> DexterousAble to use
> hands
> 
> DiurnalThe usual biological variation
> within a 24-hour day.
> 
> DNADeoxyribo Nucleic Acid, genetic
> vocabulary.
> 
> DogmaA scientific truth believed by a
> presumed majority
> 
> DomesticationThe process by which
> plants or animals are taken out of their own `wild' environment and raised in
> man-made environment.
> 
> EnzymeA protein that increases the
> rate of a biochemical reaction.
> 
> EukaryoteA cell containing a
> nucleus.
> 
> FamiliesA group in the classification
> system that contains many Genera.
> 
> FertilizationThe process by which the
> female egg accepts a sperm and therefore acquires a full set of genes. The
> first step in production of pregnancy.
> 
> FetishismThe belief in magical powers
> of certain objects by primitive cultures.
> 
> FossilThe remains of animals that are
> preserved by Geological processes.
> 
> GeneThe information within each cell
> that has the programming for function.
> 
> GeneraPlural of
> Genus.
> 
> GenomeThe total collection of the
> genes in a living organism.
> 
> GenusA group in the classification
> system that includes many similar Species.
> 
> GeologyThe study of different layers
> of the Earth.
> 
> Geometric rateA rate that is not
> linear and keeps accelerating; Over time the difference between these two types
> of growth can be very high.
> 
> Glacial Agesee
> Pleistocene
> 
> GracileLightly
> built
> 
> HomoHuman like animal.
> 
> HybridismThe production of `Hybrid"
> plants by attaching different plants, such that the new plants have
> characteristics of both plants.
> 
> HypothesisA theory or statement put
> forth to explain a finding.
> 
> Hypertrophygrowth.
> 
> InstinctBehavior that is performed,
> presumptively, without conscious forethought.
> 
> IrisThe structure in the eye that
> changes its size to adjust the amount
> 
> JurassicA Geological epoch from 180 to
> 135 million years ago.
> 
> KingdomThe largest classification
> category that includes many Phyla.
> 
> LarynxOrgan of speech; Adam's
> apple.
> 
> MammalsThe classification group of
> Animals that are vertebrate, and warm-blooded. The females generally have milk
> glands (Breasts) referred to as Mammae
> 
> MesozoicA Geological epoch from 230 to
> 65 million years ago
> 
> MitochondriaA small organelle within
> each cell that is the energy center.
> 
> Newton's LawsThese laws described and
> explained force, motion and Gravity. They explained very well the celestial
> movements but were later made more complete by Einstein's laws.
> 
> NucleusThe central core of each cell
> that contains most of the genes.
> 
> OrderA group in the classification
> scheme that contains many families.
> 
> OrographyStudy of topography; Study of
> elevations of the land.
> 
> Photo-Light.
> 
> Photo-receptorAnything that receives
> light.
> 
> PhylaPlural of
> Phylum
> 
> PhylumA group in the classification
> system that includes many classes.
> 
> PlacentaThe organ that allows
> communication of blood from mother to fetus in the uterus; also, referred to as
> Afterbirth.
> 
> PleistoceneGeological epoch 2 million
> years ago till about 11000 years ago.
> 
> PolytheismThe belief in multiple
> Gods.
> 
> Pre-CambrianA geological epoch more
> than 600 million years ago.
> 
> Primatebiological order that includes
> Monkeys, Ape, and man.
> 
> PrometheusA Titan who gave man `Fire'
> according to Greek mythology.
> 
> ReptileA group of cold-blooded Animals
> including the Snakes.
> 
> Reptilianof or related to the
> Reptile.
> 
> RobustHeavily
> built.
> 
> SpeciesA group of organisms that are
> similar and can interbreed.
> 
> SterilityInability to further
> reproduce or have offspring.
> 
> SuperClassA group not large enough to
> be a Phylum but too large to be a class.
> 
> TadpoleThe first stage in development
> of the frog that occurs underwater.
> 
> TaxonomyA system of classification for
> living organisms.
> 
> TrilobiteA member of now extinct
> marine arthropod.
> 
> VarietiesDifferent forms within a
> Species that are quite different, yet fall under the same general category as
> species.
> 
> VectorA Mathematical entity symbolized
> by an arrow, representing direction of a force.
> 
> Appendices
> 
> 1. Summary of chapter on
> Photosynthesis
> 
> 2. Summary of chapter on Glycolysis—Production
> of Energy
> 
> 3. Summary of chapter on Citric Acid
> cycle—Conversion of fuel into Energy
> 
> 4. Geologic time
> scale
> 
> METADATA
> 
> Views26615 views since posted 2001-11; last edit 2012;
> 
> previous at archive.org.../davoodi_human_evolution_directed;
> URLs changed in 2010, see archive.org.../bahai-library.org
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> Shortlink: bahai-library.com/1425
> Citation: ris/1425
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> — *Human Evolution: Directed? (Used by permission of the curator)*