Re: Genomic data - common ancestry or common designer?


"Ernest Major" <{$to$}@meden.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:6i4FC0CHJb7FFwiW@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In message <JI2Hh.124247$_73.63184@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, rmj
<glenna@xxxxxxx> writes

"Robert Carnegie" <rja.carnegie@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1173127662.317626.293610@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

johnfromberkeley@xxxxxxxxx wrote:

Hi, could you folks help me respond again to my friend? (I shredded
him last time, thanks.)

I sent him a link here:

http://www.asm.org/Media/index.asp?bid=45937

And he replied thusly:

"Here's another myth: 2] comparisons based on genomic data that
support a common ancestry of life

"Comparisons based on genomic data could equally support common
ancestry, or a common designer. NO data can determine what data
cannot see - that which came before it. So, Darwinism (called
evolution in this statement) cannot make this statement and remain
scientific - it's ideology. So who's not scientific now?"

Please help me shred him again.

Um, http://www.google.com/search?q=%22common+descent%22+genetic

Much of our DNA is not functional. In many cases we know this because
we know the function that it /used/ to have. A gene that makes
vitamin C is a popular example. Chimpanzees have it. We have it too,
but damaged so that it doesn't work. This is not functional, not
design, so design doesn't account for it.

Neither does the ToE. Why would preserving a nonfunctioning gene be
beneficial compared to preserving a functioning gene?

It does seem to me that the theory of evolution does account for it.

In an organism (some earlier primate) which eats a diet rich in vitamin C
a mutation which breaks a gene in the vitamin C synthesis pathway is not
harmful, and can be fixed by chance (genetic drift).

According to the theory of evolution the broken gene will be preserved,
unless lost due to selection or drift.

It seems to me that it is not according to the theory(s) of evolution. but
rather that the discovery that the broken gene still exists (as well as
other junk DNA) caused a modification in the theory of evolution.

Any benefits from losing the gene are negligible, so we have no reason to
expect its rapid loss due to selection. Similarly loss due to drift is a
slow process.

But common descent doesn't
just copy the working parts, it copies /everything/. It doesn't copy
it perfectly of course, except for important functional genes which
are "conserved". By the degree of difference in DNA between species,
you can estimate their consanguinity.

Genomic data is a palimpsest.



--
alias Ernest Major


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Culture is not consciously developed? Q for Wilkins
    ... I'm not real familiar with the concept of drift but what is it "useful" ... because "random evolution" is a contradiction of terms. ... process of natural selection operates on as many types of random heritable ... gene centric Neo Darwinism regards the random ...
    (sci.bio.evolution)
  • Re: Genomic data - common ancestry or common designer?
    ... "Comparisons based on genomic data could equally support common ... A gene that makes ... In an organism which eats a diet rich in vitamin C a mutation which breaks a gene in the vitamin C synthesis pathway is not harmful, and can be fixed by chance (genetic drift). ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Genomic data - common ancestry or common designer?
    ... "Comparisons based on genomic data could equally support common ... A gene that makes ... According to the theory of evolution the broken gene will be preserved, ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Genomic data - common ancestry or common designer?
    ... "Comparisons based on genomic data could equally support common ... Why would preserving a nonfunctioning gene be ... It does seem to me that the theory of evolution does account for it. ... According to the theory of evolution the broken gene will be preserved, ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Seanpits immunity lesson for today
    ... Can you name even one time where gene duplication has produced any ... evolution, present any other example of what you would call real ... Look up any of the papers below at www.pubmed.gov by searching ...
    (talk.origins)
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