AWBS

I'm not sure what is funny about pointing out how much of your post was completely unrelated to caterpillars, but whatever. If you are wondering how the Egyptians built the pyramids, here are a few links: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080328104302.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_pyramid_construction_techniques#Different_kinds_of_ramps Since I'm guessing your question centers on how the heavy blocks were moved, the simple answer is mechanical advantage -- levers, ramps, and pulleys, pretty basic stuff. Even though human intelligence may have declined slightly after the Industrial Revolution due to reduced natural selection, the gains of education, nutrition, and specialization have more than made up for said losses. http://www.apa.org/monitor/2013/03/smarter.aspx Though the fossil record is, in fact, the weakest link of evidence for human evolution, its proof is still pretty apparent. (Even in Wikipedia) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_evolution#Evidence_from_the_fossil_record Genetic similarities and embryonic development are far stronger supports for common descent, and I advise you to research them. I have no idea what you mean by this statement. Are you referring to Leonardo da Vinci? And we are indeed building on the backs of our ancestors, and we get smarter and better at building continually. However, NONE of this is topical to the evolution of caterpillars. Mathmatically it is more efficient than complete randomness and less efficient than intelligent design. This is because natural selection selects for effective traits and against noneffective ones, rather than pure luck. What you need to understand to make sense of this conversation is that metamorphosis is NOT evolution. Evolution is a multigenerational process where DNA of offspring is changed by natural selection. Metamorphosis is a monogenerational process where one creature goes through a cycle of life without changing any DNA or producing offspring whatsoever. The two are completely different processes and cannot be confused. The reason metamophosis evolved is because creatures with a variation in their life cycle that made them more likely to reproduce survived better, not because metamorphosis is some kind of Insta-Evolution. The reason humans and insects have different life cycles is because different life cycles are preferable for different creatures and environments. You question whether caterpillar DNA could have arisen from primordial Earth whatsoever, which is abiogenesis (and thus not directly evolution). However, it still merits response. Caterpillar DNA did not DIRECTLY arise from the primordial soup. Instead, over billions of years, proto-cell DNA did, and it evolved into more complex organisms, which eventually moved onto land and became insects, one of which became the caterpillar. You say that "the ape folk seem to have lucked out [in contrast to caterpillars]" although "apparently they all originated from a common spot." You assume that humans are inherently better than caterpillars. While we are more complex, we are not inherently better. We are simply suited for a different biome and life than they are, and so have different DNA and developments. This isn't some kind of race to become civilization-level creatures; it is natural selection for those organisms which can survive best in their current conditions.

@HisG: Your point about the skulls is both nontopical and false. Ancient human skulls are irrelevant to either the metamorphosis or evolution of caterpillars, and are distinctly different from chimpanzees (n.b.: not apes) in their shift away from jaw power and towards brain size. While the collection of ancient human skulls we posess are (and always will be) incomplete, we posess enough to make many judgements on human evolution. Your point about your atheist father and love of obsenature and foreigners (?) is also nontopical, and its lack of impacts warrants no response. Your point about humans growing dumber through time is also nontopical but worthy of a response. What evidence in the world is there that humans are dumber today than in the past? If anything, leaps in education, nutrition, and upbringing have led to increases of intelligence. Additionally, there was really no first "man" as you speak of, but instead a gradual shift from quadripedal, lower-brainpower chimps to bipedal, greater-brainpower primates that we now call humans. Your question about the evolution of caterpillar DNA is, finally, topical. While I do not pretend to be an expert on caterpillar (and butterfly, too, of course) evolution, the DNA is likely an extreme mutation of an insect with a life cycle. It evolved because insects with a more productive second part of their life cycle were better able to survive and reproduce, and so their mutated genes spread. Perhaps mutants were able to process the sugary part of a flower, or gained movement-enhancing small wings. Whatever way it occured, this trait was useful and became more expressed, leading to the caterpillar today.

If by a "fairy tale" you mean something without logical basis, then faith would seem to be the fairy tale here. As Tim Minchin states, Science attempts to reflect reality as best as possible, while faith does not necessarily do so.

It seems like the administration was worried about security issues, not about bringing down the reign of the Anti-Christ... I mean, the embassy is still open, it's just a part of the larger Italian Embassy. The British have done the same thing, and nobody is in much uproar... The post seems more like an ad hominem attack on Obama rather than on his policies...

The caterpillar-butterfly transformation is metamorphosis, not evolution. Comparing metamorphosis (or the change of an individual insect or amphibian from one form their physical development to the next during a few months) to evolution (or the change of an entire species's genotype and phenotype over millenia) is pointless. Thus, the "butterfly" argument holds no ground.