>This is, I think, the BIG unanswered question of genetics. Try to
>get a proof of the thesis and you will be disappointed. The working
>hypothesis of so many geneticists is that all ultimately is coded in
>the genome. But it has never been proved. Furthermore, more and
>more people are protesting about the working hypothesis. It does not
>fit their understanding of the facts. Here are some strong reactions
>from a paper by Harold:
>
>"Why do offspring resemble their parents in form and function? The
>answer is not known, not even in principle, for the quest reaches
>deep into the abiding mysteries of organised complexity." (p.2765)
>
Is this guy saying that DNA is not at the base or is he saying that we don't
have an understanding of organized complexity. One can read this to mean that
DNA (which is not mentioned in the sentence) is not at the base of the
organism, or one can interpret this as saying that getting from the DNA to the
organism is still little charted territory.
>"Most microbiologists look to the genome to play the architect's
>role. From where we now stand, this seems to me to be a rejection of
>reason. All we have learned points to the conclusion that several
>epigenetic layers intervene between genes and form. Morphogenesis
>cannot be orchestrated by the genome, but makes manifest a higher
>level of order, corresponding to the cellular scale of size and
>order." (p.2771)
>
This sounds like the latter interpretation above. If Harold is stateing the
latter interp. then I agree with him.
>"The unstated premise that a cell is at bottom a self-assembling
>structure carries reductionism to the point of absurdity" (p.2774)
>
>Source: Harold, F.M. 1995. From morphogenes to morphogenesis.
>Microbiology, 141, 2765-2778.
>
>Incidentally, that last quote is one which I am planning to use when
>I send a post in on self-organisation. There seems to be a growing
>interest in this topic from Christians who do not want to go down the
>ID route - and I hope we can explore the subject further than we have
>to date.
>
Which Christians? You, I would guess, and who else?
glenn
Foundation,Fall and Flood
http://members.gnn.com/GRMorton/dmd.htm