How do we explain all the forms of life we see around us today? Compare the time when there was no life on earth with today, in which we see multitudes of species of which there are many still to be discovered. Put a black box between these two points in time. The black box has only one function - to get from there to here. To get from no life to life as we know it now. Creationists say the inner workings of the black box are rather simple: God created all life. Intelligent Design proponents say some intelligence "designed" all the life around us, including all that has come before and since gone extinct. Scientists who give us the Theory of Evolution say life evolved from an early self-replicating mechanism that evolved and branched out over millions of years.
The difference between these three views is that two of them leave the black box opaque, while the third is making it more transparent every day. Creationists and IDists have no way to support their particular views other than to attack evolution. The Discovery Institute has frequently linked evolution to eugenics (most recently regurgitated in a podcast here). If evolution was a person, this would amount to nothing more than an ad hominem attack. They have no real science to support them. But if they think they do, then let them answer this challenge:
History Awaits.
(links: Atheist Media Blog, Pharyngula, Thunderf00t, and C0nc0rdance)
2 comments:
I feel like this sort of challenge could easily backfire. I have found plenty of genes that come back as having no known homology to any other species. However, I was searching DNA and not protein. It seems to me that you could find some weird bacteria that has been separated from other organisms for over a billion years that could meet their criteria.
Besides, I think this is a bit of a strawman. IDers would argue that the designer reuses DNA and protein sequence as much as possible. Therefore, they would say that you would never expect to find a gene with no homology to another organism.
These kind of arguments from IDers are what makes it a psuedoscience. It can't be falsified, but I like the idea of having these people put up or shut up.
Of course, you predicted the future. DI CSC has a post out echoing your comments.
Say, whose side are you on anyway?
Post a Comment