<<Is there anything which would convince you that morphological transitions
have occurred?>>
A convincing critique of Wise and Johnson, which you have promised, would be a
good start. A convincing argument from the evidence, which does not assume the
answer would also be most helpful. You have assumed major transitions (for
which we have few items of potential evidence) from minor change (abundant
evidence). You have not yet explained why this leap is plausible for all of
life when the list of problems is so vast.
You have asserted "there are thousands of examples of gradual change in the
fossil record." You then leap to the conclusion of large scale change (major
transitions).
But Wise looks at the claimed evidence and asserts, "the total list of claimed
transitional forms is very small..." (TCH pg. 227). He explains why. Then:
"Transitions from one major group of organisms to another are challenges to
the ingenuity of even the most capable macroevolutionists."
Feeling ingenious? I'd like you to explain to Kurt and me why he is wrong.
If you can, you will have begun to construct a convincing argument. So far, we
have only your conclusions. Some steps are missing. Some problems have yet to
be addressed.
For example, you write: <<I mentioned the footed ness of the whale transition.
Does that in your view consitute a transition? If not, why not?>>
Because it assumes connection (the whale TRANSITION...When did you stop
beating your wife, Glenn?), when there are strong reasons to doubt that very
thing:
Johnson (pp. 86-87): "[T]he problems [for whale evolution] are immense. Whales
have all sorts of complex equipment to permit deep diving, underwater
communication by sound waves, and even to allow the young to suckle without
taking in sea water. Step-by-step adaptive development of each one of these
features presents the same problem discussed in connectionn with wings and
eyes...Even the vestigial legs present problems. By what Darwinian process did
useful limbs wither away to vestigial proportions, and at what stage in the
transformation from rodent to sea monster did this occur? Did rodent forelimbs
transform themselves by gradual adaptive states into whale flippers? We hear
nothing of the difficulties because to Darwinists unsolvable problems are not
important."
Looking forward to your reply. Have a nice weekend.
Jim