Re: NTSE #11

Bill Hamilton (hamilton@predator.cs.gmr.com)
Fri, 7 Mar 1997 08:53:03 -0500

David J. Tyler wrote:

>II should perhaps point out that this was the main point in my post -
>this is a case where I don't think any of us shoud present the
>Panda's thumb after the manner of Gould.

Agreed. After reading Paul Nelson's NTSE paper, in which he quoted
extensively from Gould's and others' arguments about how a wise designer
would not have used the same limb structure for such a wide variety of
creatures, my reaction was that if God had desired to optimize the
adaptability a single mechanism, he succeeded. The point is that Gould and
others who use the argument from imperfection have no way of knowing what
the designer had in mind.

Bill Hamilton
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William E. Hamilton, Jr, Ph.D. | Staff Research Engineer
Chassis and Vehicle Systems | General Motors R&D Center | Warren, MI
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