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Rolf
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 Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2007 11:02 am Post subject: Behe bashing, or why we don't need his new book. |
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On Dispatches From the Culture Wars,
http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2007/06/exaptation_vs_front_loading_wh.ph
p
Ken Miller is quoted:
"This means that mutations will accumulate in these genes at breathtaking
rates, rendering then hopelessly changed and inoperative hundreds of
millions of years before Behe says that they will be needed."
Miller is responding to Behe in DBB: ""Suppose that nearly four billion
years ago the designer made the first cell, already containing all of the
irreducibly complex biochemical systems discussed here and many others. (One
can postulate that the designs for systems that were to be used later, such
as blood clotting, were present but not "turned on." In present-day
organisms plenty of genes are turned off for a while, sometimes for
generations, to be turned on at a later time.) "
Even as just a layman, I am very critical towards Behe. But this is even
worse than I would have thought possible. Believe me, I had worked out Ken
Millers argument quoted above even before I read it, simply by applying what
little science I may have absorbed during my lifetime. But Behe - presumably
a real scientist - in microbiology isn't able even to see that? And he is
the best that they have? This front-loading thing had been nagging at my
mind for some time, and the answer just struck me a few days ago. I had in
mind presenting that as an argument here on t.o. - and that is what I am
doing now, with Ken Miller backing me up (tongue-in-cheek.) |
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John Wilkins
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| Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2007 11:02 am Post subject: Re: Behe bashing, or why we don't need his new book. |
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Rolf <rolf@tele2.no> wrote:
| Quote: |
On Dispatches From the Culture Wars,
http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2007/06/exaptation_vs_front_loading_wh.ph
p
Ken Miller is quoted:
"This means that mutations will accumulate in these genes at breathtaking
rates, rendering then hopelessly changed and inoperative hundreds of
millions of years before Behe says that they will be needed."
Miller is responding to Behe in DBB: ""Suppose that nearly four billion
years ago the designer made the first cell, already containing all of the
irreducibly complex biochemical systems discussed here and many others. (One
can postulate that the designs for systems that were to be used later, such
as blood clotting, were present but not "turned on." In present-day
organisms plenty of genes are turned off for a while, sometimes for
generations, to be turned on at a later time.) "
Even as just a layman, I am very critical towards Behe. But this is even
worse than I would have thought possible. Believe me, I had worked out Ken
Millers argument quoted above even before I read it, simply by applying what
little science I may have absorbed during my lifetime. But Behe - presumably
a real scientist - in microbiology isn't able even to see that? And he is
the best that they have? This front-loading thing had been nagging at my
mind for some time, and the answer just struck me a few days ago. I had in
mind presenting that as an argument here on t.o. - and that is what I am
doing now, with Ken Miller backing me up (tongue-in-cheek.)
|
I think you'll find a Chez Watt by moi making that exact same point.
--
John S. Wilkins, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Biohumanities Project
University of Queensland - Blog: scienceblogs.com/evolvingthoughts
"He used... sarcasm. He knew all the tricks, dramatic irony, metaphor,
bathos, puns, parody, litotes and... satire. He was vicious." |
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