Re: [asa] Theological Naturalism - 'The Nature of God' = Naturalism

(Quoting bits of several posts)
> One apparently knowledgeable person, however, responded that we know almost
> nothing about fetal development, in particular about how zygotic cells begin to
> differentiate into specialized cells to create the different parts of the
> human body.

Actually, we know a good deal about this in many species. There are
both practical and ethical issues for trying to work out this for
humans, but the patterns are clear enough from other vertebrates, and
we have very similar genes. Some other organisms (most invertebrates)
have the fate of each cell fixed from the start, so for example we
know exactly what adult cell in C. elegans comes from what part of the
developing zygote. Hox genes are among the important ones for
organizing major developmental patterns, but many others are known as
well.

> > There are many things I appreciate about Behe...

I would agree with this assessment. Behe could do a lot for the ID
movement by trying to improve the claims of others. However, ID seems
oddly prone to claiming that everyone believes the same thing while
also claiming to be a big tent.

> > P.S. - I have heard some anti-abortion arguments based on denying that
> > humans share common ancestry with other species.

There's also the variant of condemning abortion as evolutionary. Not
well thought out in my experience, but seems to be reasoning that
evolution implies no different from other animals implies OK to kill.

> > I have also heard pro-choice arguments based on denying the humanity of
> > early human embryos, claiming that they are more like nonhuman life at certain
> > embryonic stages.

One of my undergrad biology professors posted an editorial to this
effect on his door. I would strongly expect him to be pro-abortion,
but the quality of the argument was so rotten from a purely
evolutionary perspective (claiming birds as ancestral to humans,
apparently identifying the embryo as being non-human, etc.) that it
seems hard to believe that a biologist would want to post it if in
favor of abortion. The author is fairly promenent as an advocate of
liberal politics in national editorial pages and organizations, so
such arguments may be relatively popular.

> > > Behe...does do a good job though in my opinion of illuminating the observed limits of random mutation which I think is a worthy contribution.< < <

Unfortunately, he doesn't do so accurately. In reality there are
typically numerous ways to achieve any one goal (including
chloroquinone resistance) as well as numerous possible goals, any one
of which allows one to survive and reproduce.

-- 
Dr. David Campbell
425 Scientific Collections
University of Alabama
"I think of my happy condition, surrounded by acres of clams"
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