george murphy wrote:
>
> pruest@pop.dplanet.ch wrote:
>
SNIP
> > 3) The homology of vertebrate limbs: the main problem with all
> > similarities between functional features is that they may need to be
> > similar in order to function: thus, they cannot be evidence for common
> > descent. Genuine evidence for homology may require functionless features
> > (cf. my "How has life and its diversity been produced", PSCF 44
> > (2/1992), 80-94).
>
> I.e., homology doesn't support evolution because limbs MAY (Sic!)
> need to be similar in order to function? Unless it can be shown that the
> limbs actually DO need to be similar to function, this argument is vacuous.
> But even if that could be shown (which I think is unlikely), it doesn't
> explain _how_ the limbs of diverse species came to be homologous. Waiting
> to jump out here is perhaps the answer, "God made them that way." But while
> I agree that "God made them", that isn't a scientific theory.
>
[Hammond]
Pruest is absolutely correct, and Dr. Murphy is signally wrong.
I once had an interesting encounter with an Oxford Don on this point.
I asked him why a horse had 4-legs. He told me it was "Darwinian Natural
Selection". I then asked him a car had 4-wheels? He had no answer.
The point is, all 4-legged animals (all higher animals are,
including notably Man), are 4-legged for a "functional reason", not
by reason of "common descent". Even if they derived from separate
origins they would still have to, by a Law of Physics, have 4-legs.
Sir Richard Owen in fact was the fIrst one to point this out
(essentially) in 1847 when he advanced that the "Archetype" of all
vertebrate animals was 3-Axis Cartesian geometry. He then stated
that this geometry was "immune to Evolution" and further, that
it was "ordained by God". Turns out he was right on both points,
unequivocally right according to Hammond (1994).
Naturally he was viciously attacked by Huxley and the Darwinians and
had to be rescued by the throne of England and safely ensconced
as director of the British Museum. This battle is not over, and
one day Owen will be restored to his rightful place as Britain's
greatest Paleontologist and will be remembered for a far more
important incident than merely coining the word Dinosaur.
HAMMMOND
-- BE SURE TO VISIT MY WEBSITE, BELOW: ----------------------------------------------------------- George Hammond, M.S. Physics Email: ghammond@mediaone.net Website: http://people.ne.mediaone.net/ghammond/index.html -----------------------------------------------------------
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