Question About the Evolution of the Sexes

[michelle]

Since I've been reading through the Old Testament, I've been trying to put aside my femenist tendancies so that I won't get upset about how women are typically referred to either in relation to their father or their spouse and so I can get into the history aspect of it. But I can't put it aside entirely and I started thinking about why it is that women were "less important" (and when I say this I don't mean that I think God thinks of them as being less important, just that culturally, men were the dominant sex). Somehow thinking about that started to make me wonder how evolution explains how the 2 different sexes were derived. There are species of plants and organisms that are asexual and can reproduce on their own. So if this reproduction can happen asexually, why would there need to be an evolutionary/biological need for sexual reproduction?

This question is coupled with my [very limited] understanding of part of the evolutionary theory that adaptations occur one step at a time and only if a step is helpful for a species. For example, a human being isn't going to just grow a tail for no reason. It would only grow one if it would be necessary for a human. Also, the human wouldn't grow a tail and wings at the same time. One could happen and then the other would happen.

I'm not sure if this question is coming out clearly, so if it's not I can try to clarify later.

[Josh]

Sorry it took so long to reply.

From the limited research I have conducted, the origin of sex is quite a puzzle to a strictly naturalistic evolutionary model.

It appears from what I've gathered that scientists have no testable theories (and few promising theories of any sort- though it's easy to see why given we're talking about a very distant past) about the origin of the sexes at this point, but have focused much more on trying to establish how sexual reproduction might be more advantagous than asexual reproduction. The thought behind this is that if that can be shown in at least some instances that sexual reproduction is more advantageous, then at least a reason [thought not a mechanism] for the evoutionary development of sex (and the sexes) might be suggested. However, I read some articles which challenged some of these theories on how sexual reproduction might be superior to asexual.

Here's the wikipedia article on this topic:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_of_sex