MovieChat Forums > La marche de l'empereur (2005) Discussion > It wasn't a miracle...

It wasn't a miracle...

posted 15 years ago by jt2354
9 replies | jump to latest

All the small specialist adaptations that allow emperors to survive where no other warm-blooded mammal could survive without artificial assistance are amazing.

But they are not miracles.

Emperors are birds. Flightless birds. With beaks, and other bird-like features. There are a number of species of penguins, but only one that we know of that can survive an Antartic winter. There probably were many other variants that came close to emperor's capability. There must have been some, because if the emperors did not have ancestors, they would not exist today.

Birds, and therefore penguins, descended from something that was a dinosaur with feathers 65 million years ago. These adaptations happen over timescales we cannot readily understand. But scientists have discovered countless examples of such adaptations in the fossil record and more recently in living organisms over timescales close to a human life-span.

So emperors are not a miracle, they are an example of the amazing power of natural selection to provide organisms with features that can fill any niche however small, however hostile to the adaptations of most higher species.

[–] NN-dimethyltryptamine 15 years ago

miracle: any amazing or wonderful occurrence

Evolution seems pretty amazing and/or wonderful to me. So I'd say they are a pretty miraculous species, as is all life.

[–] jt2354 15 years ago

I agree with the theme of your comment. Unfortunately many viewers, in particular a large proportion of US citizens, will draw other inferences from the word miracle. That is a pity, as I agree all life, and particularly a species able to survive in conditions that would kill their cousins, and kill us even quicker.

In my opinion most people would assume the first definition:

miracle
• noun 1 an extraordinary and welcome event attributed to a divine agency. 2 a remarkable and very welcome occurrence. 3 an outstanding example, specimen, or achievement.

http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/miracle?view=uk

Darwin demonstrated 150 years ago that the "divine agency" was not necessary to the existence of the penguin, or any other species. Your mileage may differ, but that to me is far more amazing and wonderful than the idea that some guy with a grey beard designed the penguin and all other current species in six days!

[–] p3t3-1 15 years ago

who said it was a miracle in the first place?

It's a fantastic film - stop nitpicking

[–] Fred_Paris 15 years ago

Nowadays, the term miracle is "loaded" thanks to the vocal extremist religious minority.

They're louder because they know their numbers are dwindling though, so it's all good.

I'd still avoid "miracle" and use "wonderful" or whatever instead.

[–] siphoning 15 years ago

The word "miracle" has several definitions, but I think here it implies "wonderful" - which means something different to everyone. Life and evolution can be miracles. Anything that happens be a miracle if you consider every process involved in that action (down to the atomic level) amazing.

[–] RichN36 15 years ago

Well I consider evolution a Miracle. The Penguins will Evolve over time just like Man will to "Global Warming".

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A: It varies from person to person.
"Futurama"

[–] MetFanMac 15 years ago

Does the phrase "miracle of nature" mean anything to you?

Supermodels...spoiled stupid little stick figures mit poofy lips who sink only about zemselves.

[–] RightSmarts1 13 years ago

Natural selection may be able to explain the survival of the fittest, but it doesn't explain the arrival of the fittest. It's a culling force, not a creative force. The question is, what is the creative force behind all of the amazing designs found in nature? The answer most often given since Darwin published On the Origin of Species in 1859 -- random mutations altering DNA sequences to code for new traits -- is one of the biggest failures in the history of science. It's as stupid as believing the sun revolves around the flat Earth.

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[–] 13 years ago

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