"the chase" Reprucussions

[Timo]

The implication seems pretty obvious to me: according to the episode, as well as mainstream creationism, the human species is a desired end product of a project. This is the exact opposite of a natural process of evolution, where the human species is neither an end product nor a desired goal, but merely something that happens to meet the requirements of the day and survive until better things come along.

And "better" may well mean rats or mollusks or bacteria or other innovative solutions, whereas in the creationist or "The Chase" context a very narrow set of parameters is paramount and Man is superior to everything else.

In the episode, creationism triumphs over evolution - a perfectly plausible situation in a universe where humanoid intellect precedes us, as its desire to perpetuate itself is something we very well understand. IMHO, it's a gentle message: "Yes, that thing there is possible, too. In the special circumstances of fiction. And perhaps life is indeed fiction, rather than the more interesting thing we currently mistake it for?"

Timo Saloniemi

 

[yousirname]

The implication seems pretty obvious to me: according to the episode, as well as mainstream creationism, the human species is a desired end product of a project. This is the exact opposite of a natural process of evolution, where the human species is neither an end product nor a desired goal, but merely something that happens to meet the requirements of the day and survive until better things come along.

Yeah, I get that, but what I'm saying is, where did the Precursor chaps come from? We can't really posit an infinite regress of founding races. So presumably the Precursors were the products of evolution. That artificial cell created by Craig Venter isn't the product of evolution, but its existence doesn't conflict with evolution. So in this case, 'Venter' = the Precursors and 'Humans, etc' = the artificial cell.

 

[Pavonis]

Never liked this episode. Seems to undermine the idea of 'truly' alien species coming to understanding. Once their ultimate roots are identical, so what?

Doesn't have any particular implications for evolution, though, not sure why people are saying that.

Well, there are still many "truly alien" species out there, since only the humanoid form was the result of the seeding program, not intelligence in general. And it's possible, even likely, that some humanoid aliens in Trek are the result of convergent evolution rather than the seeding program.

In the end, it's just Trek's attempt to hand wave all the human rubber-forehead aliens, nothing more.

 

[RAMA]

There are still enough solar systems, enough aliens for lots of diversity out there, it tdoesn't take away from that in Star Trek's universe.

As for not seeing anything new or different in the episdoe in terms of implications, that's just silly, for most races on Earth, origins are pretty important. Sharing something means more to us that not, that may be unfortunate but the end result is it changes our POV.

In terms of evolution, once the DNA seeding is set into motion, the natural evolution, also mutation, etc takes place, resulting in some differences, plus exposure to environment also changed cultures.

RAMA

 

[Mojochi]

Problem with that is, while "school" is mandatory, "Sunday school" isn't. Not all children in our society attend Sunday school. For them to receive information on both evolution and creationism, in order that later they would be able to make their own informed choices and decisions, both would have to be taught to them in the only instructional environment where attendance is mandatory.

Creationism is not based in scientific practice. In fact, it contradicts several other sciences, geology & astrophysics among them. It's not for public institutions to limit science curricula teaching, in order to include what is essentially belief based concepts, solely because some people don't like what actual scientific practice has deduced, across several completely different scientific branches, not just evolution

 

[RAMA]

Problem with that is, while "school" is mandatory, "Sunday school" isn't. Not all children in our society attend Sunday school. For them to receive information on both evolution and creationism, in order that later they would be able to make their own informed choices and decisions, both would have to be taught to them in the only instructional environment where attendance is mandatory.

Creationism is not based in scientific practice. In fact, it contradicts several other sciences, geology & astrophysics among them. It's not for public institutions to limit science curricula teaching, in order to include what is essentially belief based concepts, solely because some people don't like what actual scientific practice has deduced, across several completely different scientific branches, not just evolution

You can never treat Creationism and Evolution as choices with similar validity in an academic institution because one is faith based, one is fact based.

RAMA