I was interested to note the theme of the program around the tree of life.
I think someone like Attenborough (sp?) will well know that this is a hotly contested analogy to evolution and for most purposes is an incredibly inaccurate one.
The tree of life is perhaps better described as a web of life - the main argument aside from our wrongheaded egocentric notions of our place at the top of the tree is the difference between vertical or horizontal transfer of genes.
The tree of life supports vertical, but the facts are much more likely that there is a lot of horizontal gene transfer. I.e. tonnes of random species from across the 'tree of life' which are not easily connected have the exact same sections of DNA, and they have inherited this DNA from a common ancestor as it were. Most likely, a form of retrovirus was responsible for the gene transfer, and not inheritance.
But yes, I completely agree, whatever mechanism it arose by, evolution is true and complete; that includes the evolution of the eye.
The point I was actually going to make but got distracted at was:
It is interesting how they don't include anything about that in the program and essentially teach a falsehood.
However, I certainly think it is for the greater good and that it still brings people closer to the truth - I think that is what they are getting at. There is no need to introduce the hundreds of arguments within evolutionary theory and put off 'non-believers', at least not until they have accepted the initial premises of the theory.
In reality there are not two sides to the fence. The creationist arguement is dead and Darwins "theory" continues to work and all recent discoveries in relation to the genome etc add yet more proof to it's correctness. The more interesting discussions now centre around the themes picked up by James. I am very interested in the ways in which a Darwinian approach to medicine may help mankind improve it's understanding of the way the body works or is programmed to work or fail. See some of the interesting discussions on Richard Dawkins site. Creationists blind themselves to the truth, perhaps because the eye isn't perfect.
3 comments:
I was interested to note the theme of the program around the tree of life.
I think someone like Attenborough (sp?) will well know that this is a hotly contested analogy to evolution and for most purposes is an incredibly inaccurate one.
The tree of life is perhaps better described as a web of life - the main argument aside from our wrongheaded egocentric notions of our place at the top of the tree is the difference between vertical or horizontal transfer of genes.
The tree of life supports vertical, but the facts are much more likely that there is a lot of horizontal gene transfer. I.e. tonnes of random species from across the 'tree of life' which are not easily connected have the exact same sections of DNA, and they have inherited this DNA from a common ancestor as it were. Most likely, a form of retrovirus was responsible for the gene transfer, and not inheritance.
But yes, I completely agree, whatever mechanism it arose by, evolution is true and complete; that includes the evolution of the eye.
The point I was actually going to make but got distracted at was:
It is interesting how they don't include anything about that in the program and essentially teach a falsehood.
However, I certainly think it is for the greater good and that it still brings people closer to the truth - I think that is what they are getting at. There is no need to introduce the hundreds of arguments within evolutionary theory and put off 'non-believers', at least not until they have accepted the initial premises of the theory.
In reality there are not two sides to the fence. The creationist arguement is dead and Darwins "theory" continues to work and all recent discoveries in relation to the genome etc add yet more proof to it's correctness. The more interesting discussions now centre around the themes picked up by James. I am very interested in the ways in which a Darwinian approach to medicine may help mankind improve it's understanding of the way the body works or is programmed to work or fail. See some of the interesting discussions on Richard Dawkins site.
Creationists blind themselves to the truth, perhaps because the eye isn't perfect.
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