Re: [asa] New foray by the DISCOVER Institute

> I think some of these are valid unknowns and significant challenges to a
> non-theistic evolutionary paradigm, and these could be valuable
> contributions to a "teach the controversy" approach, but the problem with
> this negative attack on the unknowns while dismissing the known evidences
> for evolution leaving only their alternative for special creation discredits
> and taints anything positive they may stumble upon.

Yes, YEC, ID, and many crank claims rely on the premise that any
apparent problem for the conventional view overturns it, whereas
coherency in their alternative is not even a consideration.

Another major problem is that these claims are at best half true.

Evolutionary biology provides detailed evolutionary
explanations for the origin of some complex biochemical features
(despite the rather limited research attention and funding, the
difficulty of proving what some perishable chemicals were up to
millions of years ago, and the fact that we're still finding out what
complex biochemical systems are).

The fossil record provides support for Darwinian evolution

Molecular biology provides evidence for universal common descent

Genetics and chemistry provide key parameters in understanding the the
origin of the genetic code, and there's molecular evidence pointing at
parts of the process. Exactly why the code is what it is instead of
something different is not fully worked out yet.

Developmental biology doesn't exactly explain why vertebrate embryos
diverge from the beginning of development. Evolutionary biology does.

-- 
Dr. David Campbell
425 Scientific Collections
University of Alabama
"I think of my happy condition, surrounded by acres of clams"
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