Re: Burdens of Proof

Steve Clark (ssclark@facstaff.wisc.edu)
Mon, 7 Aug 1995 23:07:31 -0500

Art responds to Will:
>You miss my point: The presence of 600 species of drosophila in the
>Hawaiian Islands that are endemic is not evidence of *no* change. it is
>evidence that there are limits to the amount of change a given species can
>undergo. These limits are not slight as is obvious from a perusal of the
>varieties present there. But they are not becoming other than Drosophila in
>a time span that as you so aptly point out contemprorary human evolutionists
>posit man and chimpanzee to have derived from a common ancestor. They are
>still within the limits of change proscribed by the Drosophila genome.

I think you have a misconception of evolutionary theory. The continuing
presence of Drosophila sp. on the Hawaiin Islands is not evidence that macro
evolution has not occured. There is no a priori necessity for a putative
transitional species to become fully extinct during its putative evolution
into a new species, genus, whatever. If Drosophila had mutated into a new
genus (and not just into a new species), how would you know it?

Steve
____________________________________________________________________________
Steven S. Clark, Ph.D. Phone: (608) 263-9137
Associate Professor FAX: (608) 263-4226
Dept. of Human Oncology and email: ssclark@facstaff.wisc.edu
UW Comprehensive Cancer Ctr
University of Wisconsin "To disdain philosophy is really to
Madison, WI 53792 be a philosopher." Blaise Pascal
____________________________________________________________________________