“The best road maps to human bodies lie in the bodies of other animals,” Neil Shubin writes in his new book. “The reason is that the bodies of these creatures are often simpler versions of ours.”
In Your Inner Fish, Shubin…uses new fossil finds, genetic discoveries and animal anatomy to trace the origins of humans and the evolution of different body parts, such as limbs, teeth, head, ears and eyes. He explains how everything that is apparently unique about humans is built from parts that are shared with other creatures.
“I was hooked from the first chapter,” writes paleoanthropologist Don Johanson, co-discoverer of Lucy. “Creationists will want this book banned because it presents irrefutable evidence for a transitional creature that set the stage for the journey from sea to land. This engaging book combines the excitement of discovery with the rigors of great scholarship to provide a convincing case of evolution from fish to man…”
Shubin tells this story not only to the scientist, but also to the lay reader. His message is the same: “I can imagine few things more beautiful or intellectually profound than finding the basis for our humanity,” he writes, “and remedies for many of the ills we suffer, nestled inside some of the most humble creatures that have ever lived on our planet.”
Shubin’s writing delightfully and accurately talks to the whole range of potential readers.
I wish this had been available for Giftmas. Publication is next week, 15th January.
Hmm, no wonder I keep having these cravings for worms.
Don
Are people really stupid enough to believe this, FISH.
#2 – of course. Especially those with a brain above that of a bird.
Who is so stupid that in the face of such evidence, would still believe in creationism?
Should we believe educated, peer reviewed scientists or men who wondered the desert 1500 years ago?
#3 wow, you must be a religious nut!! It takes a tremendous amout of faith to believe in something that isn’t supported by any kind of science.
Hey, something smells fishy about this….oh, wait,…that’s me. 🙂 Sorry.
#3 wow, you must be a religious nut!! It takes a tremendous amout of faith to believe in something that isn’t supported by any kind of science.
Doesn’t it make you feel stupid when you not only disagree with another point of view, you don’t even understand what that point of view IS?
Poor Drew. This stuff flies right over your head. Out of curiosity Drew, what’s the highest educational level of science (of any kind) that you’ve completed? 6th grade Earth Science? It just got too complicated after that, huh?
First of all, let me say HOT DAMN im getting this book.
Secondly, creationists and other religious nutjobs need to pull their collective heads out of their asses & face up to the cold hard truth:
– Religion is fake.
– The crap that pastor has been feeding you since your early life is also fake.
– The Church is wrong, has been wrong about other things in the past, and will continue to be dead wrong in the future.
Evolution is real. Real world example: Wait until you get sick. Goto the doctor, get drugs, get better. get sick again.
ok – now what just happened? Two things – the bacteria/virus EVOLVED (becasue if it hadnt, you wouldnt be sick fucktard) and Science gave you a means to get well.
Lets try something here.
Next time you religious nutjobs get really badly sick, like the kind of shit that makes non-morons goto the doctor for drugs – the next time you get sick, I want you to “Pray it better” – and then since prayer is fucking worthless, and religio is a LIE you will die, and your defective genes will disapear from the collective gene-pool.
Thank you. This diatribe was brought to you by the letters Q & R and by the number 7.
The claim that human and fish embryos are similar isn’t new, Ernst Haeckel falsified drawings in 1868 and later admitted to it. See link
http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/974/
And claims that this article makes have been debunked also. See link
http://tinyurl.com/3Xgm9h
#7 I do understand what the author of this book is trying to promote (did you read the article). These claims are not new and even evolutionary paleontologists don’t agree with findings like these. All the fossil record proves is that plants and animals lived thousands of years ago and have been preserved, and yes some are extinct.
Why do you find it necessary to attack me, or is it because you are incapable of discussing this topic rationally and objectively. The level of education you or I have on any topic doesn’t matter, it is the understanding and contunued research and analysis which is important.
Why do you find it necessary to attack me, or is it because you are incapable of discussing this topic rationally and objectively.
Because some people find stupidity and willful ignorance offensive.
The level of education you or I have on any topic doesn’t matter
That’s pretty much what I thought. You didn’t even have 6th grade Earth Science.
Why do you find it necessary to attack me, or is it because you are incapable of discussing this topic rationally and objectively
I apologize. I don’t mean to be an ass when I’m replying, but due to some defect in my personality, it often comes out that way.
However, I DO get very frustrated when trying to “rationally” discuss this subject… much as you would become frustrated when trying to explain basic math to a 9 year-old who INSISTS that 2+2=5, because his teacher said so. When all of this creationism vs. science was purely a personal matter, it didn’t really matter that much to me. However, when it becomes a subject of public policy, it matters very much. Our educational system is in enough trouble without the luddites trying to drag us back to the 16th Century.
Two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, one mouth…
One common heart and muscle structure. That for a thinking person should be adequate proof. Check it out next time your in the fish market. Doesn’t take a Darwin, just a bit common sense. But some folks have a desire to be led around by adhering to old time scare everyone around the campfire fantasies. Of course those who have developed a well paying, but little work job out of Sundays might not want you to think about it.
“The level of education you or I have on any topic doesn’t matter…”
You couldn’t be more wrong. Much scientific knowledge is beyond the ability of the average citizen, even educated ones, to grasp. Much is even beyond the understanding of scientists who work in different areas of science.
Much of the problem that you and your ilk present to the cause of science and progress is that your ego does not permit you to accept that the people who research these matters know far, FAR more about it than you ever will. You are not qualified to second-guess. Your inability to understand how fish evolved into land animals does not mean that it didn’t happen or that since you don’t see how it could happen, those who know far more than you must be wrong, and you must be right. It doesn’t work that way. You and your kind can’t understand how it could’ve happened because of the limitations of your knowledge and ability to reason, NOT because of any limitation you egotistically imagine in the knowledge of those far more informed than you or the reasoning of those far more logical than you.
“…it is the understanding and contunued research and analysis which is important…”
It most certainly is. And if you and your arrogantly ignorant brethren would actually learn how science is conducted – and then actually look at the research – your faces would turn very, very red and you would suddenly find yourselves with not much to say.
Enjoy reading some actual science on this very matter, for a change from telling each other how much smarter you are than the experts.
Start with a wonderful publication which corrects most of the common misperceptions that antievolutionists suffer from. Every antievolutionist WHO IS HONEST must read The National Academy of Sciences’ Science, Evolution, and Creationism.
If you are not brainwashed and are actually seeking the truth, once you have read it (free, online), you will abandon the irrational nonsense you’ve been fed.
And for those who get all their (mis)information from the foolish and/or dishonest likes of the Discovery Institute, here’s a little something they would rather you remain ignorant of: the fish-with-legs that destroys so many of their deceptions, Tiktaalik.
Read those two items, if you’re brave enough… 🙂
I completely believe in evolution. However, nobody has been able to determine how life 1st got started. Here on earth or some micro organism from space and if the latter, how did THAT life start? Even Einstein and Newton believed in a Supreme Being controlling the universal chaos. I truly believe that God works thru evolution. so if the argument that Creationist have is to have God involved in our creation well then, there you have. God did create us but not in one instant and certainly not the world in 7 days. Maybe it was 7 of his ‘days’ which each day can last a billion years to us? Ah, i’m talking non-sense. Sorry.
#9 – Thank you. This diatribe was brought to you by the letters Q & R
That’s just great. Now the whackjobs will boycott Q and R…
Well, given their hate and intolerance for the gay community, I suppose they have always boycotted Q and R…
(((For the slow… Q and R are letters in the word Queer)))
(((For the really slow… Queer is associated with homosexual)))
(((For the really really unbelievably slow… there’s creationism)))
#15 – We’ll have none of that rational speak around here. Now sit down and keep those logical thoughts to yourself.
That reminds me. If he rested in the 7 seventh day and we follow his example, then we should rest for one of His ‘days’ as well. That means i should’ve been resting since I was born.
I fail to see how a book about guesses as to what happened millions of years ago to long extinct animals is being touted as absolute proof. There is no such thing. Scientists can make an educated guess but they can never have proof that you are the offspring of a retarded fish having butt sex with monkey.
I don’t doubt evolution, of any and all animals over the millenia, but the wonder of the original design is hard to argue with. Think about it without your prejudice against religion for just one second. The science zealots will argue that everything “just happened” by accident, the right chemicals and elements in the right temperature just started life on the planet as simple one-cell organisms that grew to be the incredibly complex machines that the human body is (not to mention just the brain alone). How is that any more believable than a higher power started life here with a specific evolutionary plan? Alien or God?
If life can be created by putting those elements together, why can’t we do it in a lab and start our own life? Think for awhile about the complex systems in your body that work together in perfect harmony with very few problems relatively, considering the amount of people on the planet. Think about all the things that have to happen for you to inhale oxygen and move it to the blood and to the individual cells, etc. and tell me you believe it all happened by accident. If you can, you’re just as crazy as the “religious nuts” you make fun of. Why? because you have to take your version on faith as well.
If it will all happen by accident then one could argue that you could take all the individual parts of your car, that make it work, all the wires, all the metal bits etc, break them down to their smallest denominator, computers and chips that run the car, etc. Put all those individual parts in a giant box lets say, shake it up for millions of years and eventually all the parts will end up where they’re supposed to be, nuts on screws, wires to lights, upholstery and glue on frames, sand into glass, and you’ll eventually have a completely working vehicle that you can start and drive away and that will function relatively well for 70 yrs or so like a human body. A car is considerably primitive vs the machine that is humanity, but what you’re saying is that it can happen? who’s the crazy one again?
From this IRC Article:
One should note that the bones in Tiktaalik’s (the fish in question) fins have no axial skeleton connections. This is significant because without this direct connection, no true walking could be done by Tiktaalik. Furthermore, the fins of this creature enclose rays, not digits such as toes or fingers.
And,
The scientific jury is still out. As yet, many zoologists —creationists and evolutionists— have been unable to examine the fossils or their cast impressions first-hand. Stories that shout “one of the greatest transformations in the history of animals” have traditionally been a flash in the evolutionary pan.
Every form of refuge has its price.
#17 – #15 – We’ll have none of that rational speak around here. Now sit down and keep those logical thoughts to yourself.
What rational speak? He’s still invoking a god.
The religionists arrogance is utterly stunning. If science does not yet understand, it must be god? Your “god of the gaps” is getting smaller and smaller everyday.
Science builds on evidence and verifiable claims. What religion does that.
Also, Einstein did NOT believe in god. Why do morons keep saying stupid shit like that.
“I cannot conceive of a God who rewards and punishes his creatures, or has a will of the kind that we experience in ourselves. Neither can I nor would I want to conceive of an individual that survives his physical death; let feeble souls, from fear or absurd egoism, cherish such thoughts. I am satisfied with the mystery of the eternity of life and with the awareness and a glimpse of the marvelous structure of the existing world, together with the devoted striving to comprehend a portion, be it ever so tiny, of the Reason that manifests itself in nature.” [Albert Einstein, The World as I See It]
We see death every day, and usually it is painful (o death, where is thy sting?). because we are intelligent, we cannot conceive that when we die, that is it. so we create an afterworld because we are scared to admit we are merely organic matter after all. otherwise, the adherents of intelligent design should ask – why would anyone go to the extreme of creating man whose end is to exhaust the resources of earth to the point where his/her population will be sustained only where it is possible? it is not good enough to say we don’t know. we will never know many things, but it is certain we will exhaust or transmute all earth’s resources before 1,000 years at the most. we are victims of our intelligence.
You’re all OBVIOUSLY mistaken and sadly brain washed or just don’t understand the topic. EVERYONE knows the Flying Spaghetti Monster (praise his noodley appendage) created us out of the Prime Noodle 7,231.31 years ago. DUH!!!!!
LOL
It’s funny yes, but SUPER SCARY that in the 21st century will still have people sure that a magic invisible sky being made us and ANY science that refutes that is wrong. At the same time these people will USE the same science (genetics, biology, chemistry, physics) if it helps them in medical care, jobs, lifestyle. These people are JOKES…nothing more. FSM RULES!
#23 julieb,
Thanks for setting that record straight. ‘Bout time.
As for trying to convert creationists, always remember: You can lead a horse to water…
@23 – The God of the gaps is not required; contrary to what you might believe, the Judeo/Christian viewpoint is not one of ignorance, but of searching out knowledge as an end to itself.
“It is the glory of God to keep a thing secret: but the glory of kings is to have it searched out.”
– Proverbs 25:2
And since you seem to be an Einstein fan, here’s a quote from atheism.about.com:
“I believe in Spinoza’s God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with the fates and actions of human beings.”
– Albert Einstein, responding to Rabbi Herbert Goldstein’s question “Do you believe in God?” quoted in: Has Science Found God?, by Victor J Stenger
So it would appear that he believed in a God; just not the personal garden-variety sort.
Hey Stiffler, you should read up on Spinoza.
It’s funny that now religionists would claim Spinoza as their own. His life was punctuated by his fleeing from crazy creationists would would have him burned at the stake.
Spinoza was a pantheist. Read up on it and stop trying to rewrite history.
It’s certain that neither was a xtian. Do you really want to claim them now. Does it even advance your argument by making your claim? No.
There is no god. Get some dignity and educate yourself.
Also, the last thing xtianity can claim is a search for knowledge. Xtians held back human progress for hundreds of years and persecuted anyone who would dare seek knowledge from anywhere other than that old shitty book you claim as devine. If the bible is so great why does it not contain any knowledge beyond what old desert people knew 1500 years ago?
If you really want to seek knowledge, free your mind from ancient dogmas and read a book about Spinoza. Hey try reading “The System of Nature” by Baron D’Holbach. It was written in 1770 and contains more insight in the first chapter than the entire bible.
julieb – I know it’s nitpicking, but still, let’s get it right…
It’s not ‘xtian’ or ‘xtianity’, it’s ‘xian’ and ‘xianity.’
Simple word algebra:
Xmas = Christmas
drop the ‘mas’ from both sides…
.: ‘X’ = ‘Christ’
.: Xtian = Christtian, and
Xtianity = Christtianity, neither of which, of course, is correct.
.: No ‘t’ follows the X. QED
#16 lol – actually I was parodying sessame street