Re: Co-optation Today

Treus wrote:

John Harshman wrote:


Again: an evolutionary tree would produce the sort of data we see,


So would pixie dust.

Is this just you being annoying, or do you really not understand why an
evolutionary tree would naturally produce a nested hierarchy in sequence
data?

and
we don't know of anything else that could do so.


Argument from ignorance.

This is the way all science works. We can only test theories we have
thought of against other theories we have thought of.

Why is this not good
evidence?


It's a good start and a bad conclusion.

When I ask "why", what I mean is for you to give reasons, not make naked
assertions. Is that clear now?

Similarly, fusion would produce the sort of data we get from
the sun, and we know of nothing else that would. And that's all we have.
Why are the two cases different, and why do you accept one and not the
other?

The measurable properties of solar fusion can be formulated
exclusively in measurable terms of necessary effects from sufficient
causes. Not so with your phylogenesis.

How would you know, since you have no idea how phylogenetic analysis works?

I sure would like to know who these supposed scientists are who have
admitted to you that penguins quite easily could always have been
penguins. I doubt they really exist.

The subject of penguins wasn't brought up, though maybe I should
mention it next time.

It would be hard for you to mention it next time if you don't know who
the people you were talking to are, or what their specialties might be.
We established you don't know that. Perhaps, since you remember that
penguins were not discussed, you could tell me what was discussed, and
what these unknown people actually admitted. That might be useful.

Basically a subset of what I have been expressing here. No one
admitted anything directly. I drew my own conclusions. Only one person
was interested in perusing the topic and we'll do so next time we
meet. I let the conversation move back to social chitchat which was
the purpose of the meeting.

Why are you so reluctant to tell me anything? You haven't said anything
here, except that nobody actually admitted anything. Apparently you were
able to read their secret hearts anyway. Can you remember what these
supposed scientists' specialities were?

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