Just to add a little "fuel to the fire": if you separate a Robin's egg from its nest, hatch it in an incubater and never allow it to experience growing up in a Robin's nest of its very own, when that grown bird is released into the wild it will build a Robin's nest. So it is obvious that the kinds of nests birds build have nothing to do with having "seen them" as they hatched from their eggs and grew. You could raise a Robin in a Blue Jay's nest and that Robin will go and build a Robin's nest when it is nesting time. This is instinct and instinct had to have come from somewhere. Since some here are stating that evolution is the means by which we now have such a variety of species and since many of these species have instincts (i.e. non-learned behavior) then these instincts must also come about by evolutionary means. The question, as asked previously, is by which evolutionary means could this information have come about originally?
As has been pointed out, mutations (harmful or beneficial) do not add new information to the any creature. They only lose information. Therefore how did the Robin gain this information to build only the Robin's nest? If we all (meaning: man, birds, lizards, fish, etc) started in the same slime pool (or deep ocean floor near a vent or "name your origin theory and place here") from the same spontaneously formed proteins then it seems obvious that these proteins did not come into existance with the instinct or ability to build any kind of nest, let alone any of the specific bird nests that exist today. The instinctual ability to build a specific bird's nest would then be ADDITIONAL informaion that the original protein(s) did not have. This additional information had to come from somewhere. Since neither harmful nor beneficial mutations add information then where did the information come from?
While some here may argue that instinct is not in the realm of evolution I would obviously disagree. As stated from the beginning, evolution must account for more then the various species that inhabit planet Earth (i.e. the physical form of the creature). It must also explain the evolution of instinct (unlearned behavior) and even the ability to learn (since this is, in itself, additional information that the original protein would not have had). This leads us even to the evolution of conscienceness (sp? ... sorry ... I am tired
). The original protein could not have had human thinking. Therefore, according to evolutionary thinking, this too had to have come about by evolutionary processess. What processes in evolution could create human reasoning or even emotions?
As usual, I am not proving or disproving anything. Please note my utter lack of personal attacks on anyone or the lack of "lol". I am simply looking for a decent evolutionary explaination for things of this nature.
By the way, the birds placing nuts where wheels would drive is interesting, but it does not provide an answer to the question. It shows the birds have a form of intelligence and that they can learn, but we all knew that. What we then have to ask is where did these birds get the ability to reason out the puzzle of placing the nut where the wheel would roll? And, as we can see, we are back to my original question instead of at an answer.
As a side note, while in Israel we had these medium sized green parrots that lived in the north. They would take nuts from off the trees near our home and crack them with rocks. They would pick up a rock in their mouths and smash at the nut until it cracked open and then they would eat. It was a lot of fun to watch.
