From: Steve Petermann (steve@spetermann.org)
Date: Thu Sep 25 2003 - 13:20:46 EDT
Sarah wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Yet "the flagella" is supposed to be some kind of deathly
problem for "darwinian evolution" whatever that is supposed
to be, and the existence of "outboard motors" on some (one?)
bacteria proves it. What I would like to know is, what are
these folks who are researching flagella and secretory systems
in bacteria supposed to DO about IC? Ooops. This is IC.
Waste of time, let's quit trying to figure out how this
works & how this evolved?
And how is that a challenge to evolutionary biology?
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
You probably know this but I'll give my take on the issue. Irreducible
complexity says that if you take out one piece of a functional apparatus, it
doesn't work at all. If it doesn't work at all then it provides no
advantage to the organism and is possibly even detriment(extra baggage,
reduced efficiency, etc.) So if it is to evolve into something that *is*
functional it has to hang around long enough for some other changes to
occur. The bacterial flagella has been proposed as an example of this.
Blood clotting as well. The question really is one of probability. If the
apparatus is not functional without some parts, how probable is it that
multiple changed can occur within the period it can hang around to create
the final apparatus.
Now genetics can describe several plausible mechanisms for this to happen:
gene duplication, co-opting, and others. I'm not a biologist so I won't
attempt detail on this. Any good genetics book would do this.
However, the question is not even really one of mechanism, because it could
even be stipulated that these "natural" genetic process could be guided
somehow. The real question is one of probability and information theory.
Do non-telic forces have enough informational power to create the complexity
we see? If not then there must have been some form of intellect involved.
ID proponents suggest that "natural" forces are not adequately
informational.
As far as the link you provided, it didn't, imo, say anything new or
helpful. Just to describe similarities between organisms or methods of
mutation doesn't really address the issues.
Steve Petermann
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Thu Sep 25 2003 - 13:23:39 EDT