>Reflectorites
>
>On Wed, 05 Apr 2000 11:33:57 -0500, Susan Brassfield wrote:
>
>[...]
>
>>BP>Sex is a bit of a problem for evolution. No one has been able to figure
>>>out how a man and a woman could have evolved through functional
>>>intermediates to develop a sperm/egg, and the male/female sex organs.
>>>This is the classic example of Michael Behe's irreducible complexity.
>
>SB>this is, of course, hogwash. Sex is not a problem at all for evolution.
>>First, go to this note at the talk.origins website:
>>http://www.talkorigins.org/origins/postmonth/may99.html
>
>[...]
>
>The wording above is illuminating: "this is, *of course*, hogwash" and
>"Sex is not a problem *at all*..." (my emphasis). This is the `Freudian slip'
>of a true believer to whom there can be no "problem at all for evolution",
>even in principle, and therefore no scientific evidence is even necessary.
>All
>one has to do is point to a `verse' in the evolutionist's `Bible', the
>Talk.Origins website, and all will be well!
creationists of all kinds *hate* the talk.origins website :-) There *is*
some childish stuff there, but the bulk of it is well referenced back to
the peer-reviewed scientific literature. This: "`verse' in the
evolutionist's `Bible', the Talk.Origins website" is ad hominem of the
first water. If you want to know the difference between talkorigins.org
and a creationist website go to the "links" page. There you will find links
to all kinds of sites *including* most of the creationist sites. It is
vanishingly rare for a creationist website (or publication or whatever) to
provide easy access to the opposing viewpoint with a tacit invitation to
the reader to make up her own mind.
>But someone better tell Maynard Smith, one of the world's leading
>authorities on the origin of sex. In his book, "The Problems of Biology", he
>included the origin of sexual reproduction among biology's "major
>unsolved problems" (Maynard Smith J., "The Problems of Biology," 1986,
>p.vii). He explains the basic problem is that:
>
>"...it is reproduction, not sex, which is a precondition for evolution"
I have a feeling Maynard Smith does not mean "problem" in the same gleeful
way *you* mean "problem. I have no confidence in your quotes since the time
you openly admitted editing them to make them seem to be saying something
the author didn't intend.
Sex is not a problem for evolution. If you can share genes with another
organism you have an advantage over an organism that must wait around for a
mutation. (that's pointed out in some of the material I gave links for).
I'm pretty sure single-celled organisms have been observed to share genes
from time to time and therefore your dismissal of the origin of sex as a
"just so" story is wishful thinking.
Susan
----------
For if there is a sin against life, it consists not so much in despairing
of life as in hoping for another and in eluding the implacable grandeur of
this one.
--Albert Camus
http://www.telepath.com/susanb/
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