My dad has an officially tested IQ of 146 and believes evolution is a lie. Being smart often doesn't make you right, it mostly makes you more effective at believing what you believe.
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I wonder what he thinks when he sees breeds of dogs that are so different from one another. The dog breeders made them like that using artificial selection. Doesn't he think the selection process happens naturally driven by the environment instead of breeder?
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I forget his exact position, but the common position I heard growing up (that likely is similar to his) is that dog breeding is only losing information, not gaining; you shouldn't be able to breed a wolf out of a poodle.
The reasoning is that it's the same "kind." There can be differences within a "kind" of animal, but two animals of the same kind could never breed and evolve a new species.
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Breeding is artificial, it’s not out of the necessity of pure survival in the wild. Evolution happened over millions of years, dog breeding much much less. Breeding is ‘losing’ information indeed. Evolution is learning different information.
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A lot of dog breeding is isolating recessive traits sure, but also much of it (and most of evolution) is mutation, which is NEW traits
Breeding studies give the startling result (lots done here at Edinburgh) that you can select, doubling or halving a trait, then reverse selection and (((for quant traits studied) go back to the original!! (PS: You should find out your dads precise position).
Fun fact, these two chickens are the same age to the day, from the same stock, reared in the same environment: Just selected for growth for ~ 50 years
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