Talk:Almost Like a Whale
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I agree, save the language
editAnd the change of name from Darwin's Ghost is yet another failed marketing attempt, which latches on the entire scientific community makng fun of Charles Darwin for the past 150 years and counting, for their lack of understanding of his Genious, and Evoluion Theory as a whole.
Yeah, Lets make fun of Darwin. Cool. We are probably smarter then him
because we don't undestand a word he said, and he made
The Bear Comment
editDarwin was reported an observation of a bear that travelled hundreds of miles swimming through the ocean, collecting flies to eat.
It happens to be similar to the way whales collect food, and the Hollywood-like anti-evolutionist of the time, meaning most of the rest of the planet, raised some smiles. Especially since this comment seems to raise eyebrows in the small scietific community with respect to Darwin's theories, whereas the rest of the world will support any attack on Darwin whatsoever.
From Evolution theory it probably seemed obvious to its discoverer that such a statement does not require much explaining.
I will try, some few years later to deffend this claim:
The original claim is not that the Bear could evolve to a Whale, but rather that the whale could have evolved from a creature much like that bear, initially obtaining food on land, later to come back to the waters due to a change in food supplies, and over long periods of perishing bears, for lack of their abiltity to compete succesfully with their fellow bears, develop a superb swimming abilty and a fly catching apparatus of some sort. Not in so many words as quoted, but this notion is spread all over THe Origin of Species, and by the time I hit the bear comment, understanding just to a degree thus far, I so no reason to think this statement is at all or out of line, despite my knowldge about the origins of bears and whales, long researched seprately for my love of Nature.
Indeed if that were the case, and the whale were to evolve and come back to the sea for the purpose of eating insects, then the whales of today would be feeding on insects.
In the course of the past 150 years of whale research we have yet to find a better explanation of why mamals returned to the oceans. It is superb in its simplicity, and does not contradict any of the many facts that we know today about origins of the whales and their closest extant relatives.
As for the Bear himself,
Darwin says it did evolve to become one as well,
and cites a long story of the effect
of living persons on the spreading
of honey clover around the villages of England,
just to explain why we will never be able
to predict the future,
except that in all likelihood
but never in certainty,
the bear too will become extinct some time in the future.
Let us remind ourselves in biblical humblness we will never be able to tell most of the future, yet I can promise with near certainty the sun will rise tomorrow. This distinction is key to understanding why a bear can theoritically become a whale, but never will, with this very same theoretical tool.