ok IF arms are more useful than wings then why don't we have arms that can reach well into the tree tops like giraffes necks can with our "Evolved" arms "UNAIDED" we can ONLY reach to the bottom of trees there is vast amount of fruits higher up that we are missing.. climbing the tree takes up a lot of energy that would need replaced by eating additional food which would be a counter to utilizing our environment to the greatest benefit to us using extra resources seems counter to the Evolution argument. Climbing the trees also can lead to increased chances of physical damage to self i.e. broken bones etc.. Why are more animals not like the Giraffe.
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Eh, not that fundie- neither God nor religion is mentioned directly, though the forum it's in suggests that's on his mind.
The guy just missed that it would be pretty awkward if you had huge arms that still didn't quite reach the tree branches. Why would there be a selection pressure for something that's useless for several generations?
Giraffes could actually reach the leaves to start off with.
Not that fundie, eh? I guess no fundie is fundie enough for you, Bored One-time Poster. I'm noticing that no matter how fundamentalist someone is, there's always someone here who claims that the fundie is not fundie. I've seen plenty of DC's posts on the MySpace Religion Forum and he's definitely a fundie. If not a fundie then a very dedicated poe.
Except that climbing the tree gives access to a LOT more food. Yes the extra energy would need to be replaced, but it would be worth it. Plus, there are other sources for food...like root vegetables, which our dexterous fingers are good at getting. And meats, too. Let's not even get into the brain capacity for using tools, either.
Did you ever see Inspector Gadget?
DC, you are really really stupid. Our arms evolved to compliment our brains, douchebag.
It's useless to argue why we don't have [insert trait].
Evolution isn't a sentient being deciding what is useful or not. The fact that we are not extinct, and are in fact thriving, means we are quite well adapted to our environment, so no real pressure is there to evolve things like super long arms.
Because evolution is not about being useful, its about fitting niches. Early humans learned to walk upright and over long distances, exponentially expanding their foraging, scavenging and hunting ranges...
Also...
Where are the gold fish? Are they over heeeeeere? Or are they over Theeeeeeere?
Sanity:
It is not lack of understanding evolution that makes one a fundie. It is the total inability to ever understand evolution because science is like sand in the gears of a fundie brain.
Several of the sarcastic insulting comments show that the commenters have enought common sense to know why we didn't evolve 20 foot long fruit picking arms. DC lacks that common sense. He is unable to understand anything the commenters are saying and will continue to ask the same and similar questions like why can't we run 500 mph to escape lions, (it won't occur to him that lions would evolve the ability to run 501 mph) or evolve telescopic vision so we don't need to have a Hubble telescope.
DC is Fundie? Check!
This is a Darned thing? Check!
Remember, this is "Fundies say the Darndest Things," not "Fundies say the Fundiest Things." It doesn't have to mention God or Religion. It just has to come from a fundie. Besides, this site also takes non-religious fundies, where no mention of God or Religion is a given.
Why are more animals not like the Giraffe.
What about Plastic Man?
Seriously, you can't disprove evolution by claiming we could have been designed better. If anything, that's an argument for evolution, because if longer arms were really better, then why didn't God give them to us?
Because those arms would break a lot, and require a much stronger heart to keep blood flowing. It would be nearly impossible to climb with them, and the mechanical advantage of the forearm would be even lower, so it would be impossible to lift anything.
In short, for the same reason you don't own a hummer limousine and drive it cross-country every weekend. Because it would be expensive as fuck.
This is a typical fundy pile of rubbish, indicating a complete lack of understanding of the world about him, by DC. It's the type of remark we've come to expect from these idiots and is well worth a five. The point is that DC and other fundies are motivated to write any old desperate amount of blathering rubbish to justify their stupidity and their blind beliefs. That's fine if they want to do that, but they can hardly be surprised when people see them for what they are and that they are then soundly mocked. Much to the delight of all the rest of us, I might add. DC displays all the hallmarks of a complete dunderhead through his asinine comments. DC is a fundy twit.
I'm reminded of the story about a man extolling to a friend the accomplishments of modern medicine. He cited the case of a teenage girl who was over six feet tall and extremely self-conscious about her height. Surgeons cut six inches of bone out of each leg and rejoined the remaining calf and thigh bones. The procedure was so successful that within weeks the girl was able to walk on her now shorter legs.
"The only problem is," the man continued, "the doctors overlooked one thing." "What's that?" "Well, now when she walks her knuckles drag on the floor."
Because evolution is NOT like somebody spending points on units in Warhammer 40k!
"Hm, do I want improved night-vision or aprehensile tail for 5 points, or I could drop the bipedal feat altogether and get a heavy bolter... Screw it, I'm buying a land raider."
To be honest they are fair albeit poorly worded questions. Questions to which perfectly good answers exist. But they are good questions nonetheless - assuming they are asked by a person genuinely trying to understand evolution.
I mean askin'g questions like 'why didn't we evolve even bigger brains' or why don't cheetah's evolve to run even faster?' are good questions - you can find them in the Selfish Gene (or one of those other books by RD).
This person probably is a dishonest shit-for-brain fundie, but the quote isn't a very good example of his fundiness imho.
You would need a hell of a lot more wool to knit a sweater if you had arms that long. And if someone asked you the time, by the time you had reeled your arm in to look at the watch on your wrist a few minutes would have pasted possibly making someone late for an important appointment.
Seems to me if he is saying evolution got it wrong, and he does not believe in evolution, that he must mean God got it wrong too....
@ftm_corey: With the number of fundies in existence, is it really necessary to rate them all a 5? I mean, 1 being labelled "meh" doesn't exactly place it as "totally non-fundie." It would be nice to see the 5s reserved for people like that guy who wanted to see the "massive source of energy outside the Earth" required for evolution to occur. It probably won't happen, though- they're all so fundie.
@843873: Point taken- particularly about the God/religion thing. This certainly deserves to be here, but it's still not as fundie as most things on this site, or even (allegedly) most things that DC says.
then why don't we have arms that can reach well into the tree tops like giraffes necks can
Because, you imbecile, we don't eat from acacia trees.
For the billionth time...
Because you don't evolve something unless it threatens the population NOT to have it.
We get along with our arm size, as the idiot pointed out, we can climb trees. Evolution doesn't exist to save energy, it exists to SURVIVE.
Fundie needn't be religious. Anyone can be a fundie as long as they have a very rigid world view that doesn't allow any other thought and refuse and suppress any other idea.
Technically people who are well ground in reality are fundies, only they have reality to back them up.
because other animals, like people, wolves, or lions, have the capacity to KILL giraffes or sheep and eat THEM in lieu of the aforementioned fruit
@Bored One-time Poster: So then just rate it lower. There's a reason we have a scale. No, it's not the most darned thing, but we don't have to be complaining about that in the comments. The fact that we have the 5-point rating scale is a tacet admission that there are plenty of quotes that are darned, but not necessarily the darndest.
(#844526)
"This is your last warning!"
Ummm, how can it be our last warning when you've cut and pasted the same crap several times to various threads on page one alone?
Do us all a favor, and fuck off.
Kent Hovind
Garvan Ellison
Fred
DC
Another tithead to add to the pseudo-science Hall of Infamy.
If you ever needed proof of Evolution DC, look at fossils of the Archaeopteryx - the link between reptiles & birds.
And the link between Chimpanzees (Pan Troglodytes) and Humans (Homo Sapiens) is GENETIC: we share at least 98% of our DNA with them. And Chimpanzees are descended from the more primitive monkeys, most of whom are arboreal species (as mentioned earlier by toothache).
well, the thing here is, if we had those arms, we would need bigger bodies to accomidate that mass, and we would need more food. Also we would be slower and it would be harder to make and use tools. We would be run down by predators.
uuummmmm....maybe because those same 20ft arms that enable you to pick fruit off the top of the tree would not allow you to BE ABLE TO PUT THAT SAME FRUIT IN YOUR FVKING MOUTH!!!
HOLY SHIT!!! ARE THESE SOME STUPID PEOPLE OR WHAT!!!
Because the guy born with really long arms couldn't climb the tree to get away from the lion and was eaten before he could breed to pass on his super long arms.
THAT'S HOW EVOLUTION WORKS!
Is this really so hard to understand?
Oh, and as far as this being fundie, I use the following scale
1 - What the hell is this doing here?
2 - Okay they're a fundie, but this is pretty rational
3 - Typical fundie parroting
4 - Now that's fundie!
5 - This makes me want to bar myself in my house and protect myself from these idiots. Also includes any fundie that caused harm to another human being.
It's my rating system, take it or leave it as you will.
"Why are more animals not like the Giraffe"
Because they haven't got the problem-solving skills - nor the manipulation abilities - to build ladders .
...and that's why cranes, cherry-pickers, and helicopters exist.
NEXT!
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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