Independent support for Behe's thesis?

From: Bertvan@aol.com
Date: Fri Jun 02 2000 - 08:51:56 EDT

  • Next message: Loren Haarsma: "Scientists changing their philosophy to fit the data."

    Hi Glenn,
    The big complaint has been that ID doesn't do science. When it does do
    science the outrage is even greater. Note that the complaint is not over
    what the Chinese are doing, or even disagreement over their conclusions. It
    is outrage that they are associating with ID scientists.

    Bertvan

    rom Hughes, Nigel
    The Rocky Road to Mendel's Play
    in Evolution and Development, vol 2(2), pp 63-66

    ...The most curious aspect of the meeting, and the most embarrassing for
    Western scientists (particularly those form the United States), was the
    presence of individuals supported by the Discovery Institute - a
    Seattle-based foundation that proclaims intelligent design as a scientific
    explanation for biological diversity. The involvement of te Institute came
    as a surprise to the more conventional attendees, especially when it became
    obvious that the Institute had played a key role in the organization of the
    conference, unbeknownst to the scientific community. Several talks were
    presented along this theme, the main thesis of which seemed to be the old
    Pallian arguments wrapped in a variety of molecular guises. Michael Denton
    spoke on what he saw as a failure of genetics to unveil a universal
    explanation for biological form, Paul Nelson on maternal effect genes, and
    Jonathan Wells on homeotic genes. It takes guts to expose yourself in this
    manner to a generally incredulous audience, but it also places special
    demands if science is your objective. I was depressed to find that my
    rudimentary understanding of molecular biology was sufficient to spot
    egregious errors, candidly dispatched by Eric Davidson. Well's claim that
    aspects of *Hox* gene control, instead of providing yet more evidence for
    homology and common ancestry, actually suggest that all metazoan phyla
    arose independently gives the flavor of what was offered. In doing so he
    effectively denied any defensible meaning in the words such as deuterosome
    or ecdysozoan, well established higher taxa which have been erected on
    characters other than those genes that influence segment identity. A bold
    claim, but one he could not reasonably defend as questioning revealed.
    Denton was dismayed that biotic systems are more complicated than some
    geneticists had expected in the 1960s, but the logical connection between
    this and his belief in immutable natural designs was left unexplained. And
    so it wen ton. The only thing new here was the presence of these arguments
    at a meeting that was ostensibly billed as being scientific.

    How does one deal with such situations? Those speaking were accompanied by
    a coterie of supporters, including a "cosmic reporter" and one-by-one
    scientists attending courteously answered their questions. Many of us,
    myself included, reluctantly agree to be interviewed on tape. As guests in
    China a major public blow-up was to be avoided, but looking back I wish I
    had been more aggressive. We are all used to arguing science, but we are
    not used to telling people that we suspect their motives. Perhaps we have
    to become so, because the extent, if any, to which Chinese colleagues had
    been made aware of the controversial nature of the Discovery Institute, and
    its political agenda within the United States, remained unclear. What was
    clear is that the Discovery Institute is actively encouraging Chinese
    scientists, by means of funding, to promote a view of the Chengjiang fauna
    to which they are sympathetic.

    Several Chinese scientists gave presentations that emphasized the sudden
    appearance of phyla, hinting at the need for a new "top-down" mechanism of
    evolution - music, of course, to creationionist ears. Although the
    Chenjian fauna does forcefully remind us that many body plans were firmly
    established by early in the Cambrian, it does little more than focus
    attention on the interesting things that happened around the
    Precambrian/Cambrian boundary. The "phylogenetic lawn" idea is hardly new
    (recall, for example, Gould's *Wonderful life*), and is clearly an
    inaccurate view. Given the generous way in which scientists at the meeting
    explained this an other matters to those allied with the Discovery
    Institute it is disappointing to find commentaries in the *Wall Street
    Journal* (August 16, 1999) proclaiming that Chinese scientists have new
    evidence that questions the very basis of evolution. Predictably enough,
    the Discovery Institute turns out to be uninterested in scientific rigor,
    and they will do whatever it takes to promote their agenda, including
    taking advantage of Chinese scholars. Creationism is not only a specter
    that haunts rationality in the United States, but it is also willing to
    employ a little cultural imperialism if it furthers the cause.



    This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 02 2000 - 08:52:08 EDT