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Originally Posted by coldcreation
Take a scrawny wimp, for example, who's had enough of the bully kicking sand in his face at the beach (yeah the old cliché). What does he do? For the next couple of years he pumps iron three times a week (upper and lower body). Next time he goes to the beach the tides have turned. OK. So far so good.
The questions one could ask are: How then is the DNA modified?
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The mainstream Biological answer is, I think, that DNA is not modified by behavior. No amount of exercise will alter the scrawny wimp’s DNA.
There’s fairly compelling theoretical and observed evidence that one’s genome – the massive (for a single molecule) DNA molecule replicated in nearly every cell of our bodies - doesn’t change during our gestations or lifetimes in a way that causes genes to change or new genes be created significantly. Each chromosome shortens with age, but only in a zone at each end that appears to exist for this purpose – the telomere. Genes are continuously “switched” on and off – caused to start or stop creating (expressing) proteins - in a complicated way. An uncounted number of retroviruses insert themselves into our genome, not many, but some, it’s believed, so successfully that our children inherit these additions. However, I’m aware of no evidence that acquired traits, such as knowledge acquired through study or good physical condition acquired through exercise, are ever coded into our DNA. Thus, a very educated person’s offspring will not be born very educated, nor will an athlete’s become an athlete unless they exercise, just as in Boerseun’s example, cropped-tail dogs don’t have tailless puppies.
Random mutations – changes in the genome due to damage from external energy or matter, or failures of the cell’s genetic “machinery” – appear to occur, but only rarely result in the creation of beneficial genes. There appears to be no behavior that a human can engage in – exercise, medical treatment or mental discipline – to encourage beneficial random mutations. Rather, the best one can do is practice behaviors that minimize the chance of harmful mutations – protect oneself from excessive sunlight, avoid ingesting carcinogens and teratogens, etc.
There are certainly genes that code for size, maximum attainable physical strength, stamina, and coordination – the various traits needed to become a top-class athlete in many sports. More controversially, it’s not unreasonable to conclude that the potential for great creative or analytic intelligence is also coded for by genes. However it appears that, if an individual lacks these genes, and wishes to acquire them for their offspring, the only path currently available to find them from a reproductive partner, and hope that they dominate in some of their offspring.
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I believe that will power plays a fundamental role in evolution.
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I agree.
Willpower – the personality trait of strong determination and discipline – can certainly play a major role in success in the path I describe above. Attracting a mate who is a world-class athlete, intellectual genius, movie star, etc., typically requires that one have desirable acquired traits – good physical condition, education, as well as non-physical traits such as intellectual and/or financial success. With a few exceptions, such as inherited financial wealth and/or celebrity status, and luck, having these traits requires unusual willpower.
Progress in Molecular Biology offer a new possibility for acquiring desired genes. It may be possible in the near future to artificially alter embryonic, or eventually even adult (somatic) DNA to have these genes, even in such a way that the genes are inherited without artificial invention (become part of ones germ DNA). “Will power” in this sense is a more complicated thing than the ordinary sense of the phrase – here, it means sufficient scientific study to develop such techniques, and the social skill to make them acceptable to society and its governments. Strong scientific arguments can be made both for and against “designer genes”
In conclusion, I agree that willpower – and many additional personality traits – play an important role in evolution, particularly that of humans and other primates, but in a less direct way than coldcreation suggests.
