Re: Haldane's Dilemma -- talk.origins rehash

Wesley R. Elsberry (welsberr@orca.tamu.edu)
Wed, 18 Jun 97 13:46:08 CDT

JQ>----I dont think a program is neccesary to see that the most
JQ>complex device in the world was not made from random.

Natural selection != random. That's the point of the
"weasel" program.

JQ>Since natural selection cannot influence or help propogate
JQ>those "favorable" mutations that are not part of the phenotype,
JQ>any mathematical model(and evolution itself) has even more
JQ>problems.

Gobbledygook. If a mutation isn't in the phenotype, it isn't
anywhere. (The instantiation of the genome is a phenotypic
trait. See various studies on "selfish genes" and similar
concepts.)

More problems than what?

JQ>Somehow a highly ordered randomly mutated sequence of genetic
JQ>material would have to arise without the effects of natural
JQ>selection.

Non sequitur.

The real world, in Jim Bell's phrasing, contradicts John's
assertions concerning processes using natural selection.