On Mon, 19 Feb 1996 16:18:43 -0400 you wrote:
TG>I've detected very little activity on the reflector and wondered if
>something was wrong. Perhaps we're all talked out.
Maybe we've exhausted our potential and am awaiting a new random
mutation (or creation event) to start us "evolving" again? :-)
TG>So, I thought I'd throw out a question to see if anyone's
listening. Do we
>consider the endosymbiosis theory of Lynn Margulis to be legitimate? I.e.
>are eukaryotic mitochondria and chloroplasts related to ancestral bacteria
>and blue-green algae? On the Progessive Creationist model or Young Earth
>Creationist model, why would we expect such a relationship to exist?
As I understand it (AIUI), Margulis' endosymbiosis theory proposes
that prokaryotes somehow combined to produce eukaryotes, and the
mitochondria in animals and chloroplasts in plants are relics of that
combination:
"Macroevolution from prokaryotes to eukaryotes involves a
transformation from generally single-celled organisms "that lack a
nucleus" (prokaryotes) to single-celled organisms "that have a
distinct nucleus containing chromosomes" (unicellular
eukaryotes)....The endosymbiont hypothesis proposes that prokaryotic
bacteria were eaten by or invaded an amoeba-like cell, and the
bacteria evolved into mitochondria while a nuclear membrane evolved in
the host cell. (eg. Sagan, "On the Origin of Mitosing Cells", 14 J.
Theoretical Biology, 225, 1967)".
(Bird W. R., "The Origin of Species Revisited", Vol. I, Regency:
Nashville, 1991, p210)
However, There is no actual evidence that such a transmutation did
happen, each aspect of the transition from prokaryotes to eukaryotes
involving speculation, which is "no more than microbial Just So
Stories," according to Levin and Lenski:
"We have made a number of general and specific statements about the
nature and direction of coevolution in bacteria and their viruses and
plasmids.... Most of these statements about how things came to be are
no more than microbial Just So Stories. As is the case with other
evolutionary phenomena, there is no way to formally demonstrate that
the suggested pathways are indeed the actual ways things came to be."
(Levin & Lenski, "Coevolution in bacteria and their viruses and
plasmids, in Coevolution" 99, 126-27, Futuyma D. & Slatkin M. eds.,
1983).
Indeed, Darnell claims that the differences between prokaryotes and
eukaryotes make the transition from one to the other unlikely::
"The differences in the biochemistry of messenger RNA formation in
eukaryotes compared to prokaryotes are so profound as to suggest that
sequential prokaryotic to eukaryotic cell evolution seems unlikely.
The recently discovered noncontiguous sequences in eukaryotic DNA that
encode messenger RNA may reflect an ancient, rather than a new,
distribution of information in DNA and that eukaryotes evolved
independently of prokaryotes." (Darnell J., "Implications of
RNA-RNA Splicing in Evolution of Eukaryotic Cells, 202 Science
1257,1257, 1978).
(Bird W. R., "The Origin of Species Revisited", Vol. I, Regency:
Nashville,
1991, p211)
In short, Margulis' endosymbiosis theory is, like all other Darwinist
macro-evolutionary theory, driven by similarities and naturalistic
Darwinist necessity. If there is no such thing as supernatural
intervention by an Intelligent Designer, then some such process just
*had* to have happened in the past. Such evolution is a *fact*,
although Darwinists do not know *how* it happened or even how it
*could* have happened.
On the Progessive Creationist model, as set out in its most general
form by Ramm:
"In progressive creationism there may be much horizontal radiation.
The amount is to be determined by the geological record and biological
experimentation. But there is no vertical radiation. Vertical
radiation is only by fiat creation. A root-species may give rise to
several species by horizontal radiation, through the process of the
unraveling of gene potentialities or recombination. Horizontal
radiation could account for much which now passes as evidence for the
theory of evolution. The gaps in the geological record are gaps
because vertical progress takes place only by creation." (Ramm B.
"The Christian View of Science and Scripture", Paternoster: London,
1955, p191),
I would expect there to be similarities between living things
(because of a common Designer), but also deep differences which cannot
be bridged, except by the Intelligent Designer's intervention (be it
ever so subtle).
God bless.
Stephen
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