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To: Free2BeMe
DNA evidence doesn't prove anything on its own.

You're wrong.

The common ERV virus sequences found primate and human DNA is the smoking gun proof that we have a common ancestor. And not just a common ancestor species, but a single common individual ancestor. Proof of common ancestry is proof of evolution.

Should you claim that "God put those sequences in those various species", then you must answer why he would do that. Why would a designer insert virus DNA sequences into species that have no useful purpose whatever.

The only possible cop-out is claiming "intelligent evolution". Which makes about as much sense as "intelligent weather".

The natural world is what it appears to be, and has no requirement for the supernatural for it to operate. Philosophy can speculate on where the universe came from, but that's not science, that's just speculation. And about where the species came from, even philosophy can't honestly question whether evolution is the source without denying reality.

582 posted on 12/04/2005 12:09:36 PM PST by narby (Hillary! The Wicked Witch of the Left)
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To: narby
The common ERV virus sequences found primate and human DNA is the smoking gun proof that we have a common ancestor. And not just a common ancestor species, but a single common individual ancestor. Proof of common ancestry is proof of evolution.

Species that are more closely related should share a greater portion of their DNA.. Excerpt:

[A]n hypothesis of evolutionary relationships is provided by the fossil record, which indicates when particular types of organisms evolved. In addition, by examining the anatomical structures of fossils and of modern species, we can infer how closely species are related to each other. When degree of genetic similarity is compared with our ideas of evolutionary relationships based on fossils, a close match is evident.

Here's an analogy I posted once before:

You're a teacher. You observe that the test results for students seated one-behind-the-other are somewhat interesting. A misspelled word in an answer from the first student is, surprisingly, also present on the papers turned in by each of the students behind him. It doesn't appear on the papers of any other students. How could such a thing happen?

You also observe that the second student in the row made a spelling error of his own. Amazingly, this too is seen on each of the papers from those seated behind him -- but not on any other student's paper.

Then you notice that the third student in the row made his own error. And that is somehow present on the papers of those behind him -- but on no other papers.

The last student in the row -- perhaps by coincidence? -- just happens to have all of that row's earlier misspellings on his own paper, plus perhaps some of his own.

Question: How blind do you have to be not to figure out how those errors came to be repeated on those papers? And how difficult would it be, even without a seating chart, to figure out who sat behind whom?

585 posted on 12/04/2005 12:15:49 PM PST by PatrickHenry (Virtual Ignore for trolls, lunatics, dotards, common scolds, & incurable ignoramuses.)
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To: narby

Viruses don't randomly insert their gene sequences into host DNA. There are specific locations where the viral genetic material is inserted. Since chimps and humans (some more than others) are so similar, the parts of the genome where viral genes can be inserted are similar, if not the same. Again, you (evolutionists) are applying your conclusion to what you see. Your evidence shows nothing more than that the ERV sequence was inserted in both chimps and humans in the past and is now part of our permanent genome. This doesn't show a common ancestor organism either; that's a leap. No gene sequence in the genome does so, even retrovirus genes inserted into genome. Almost every human in the world has been infected by a herpes virus and carries it genome its own, but that by itself doesn't scream common ancestor. I know a herpes virus isn't an ERV and that its incorporation into our genome is different from that of ERV and its supposed role in protecting an unborn baby from maternal immune attack, but you get my point. Go far enough back and have enough chimps and enough humans "infected," and you end up with chimps and humans having the ERV sequence in their genome. Your "evidence" is inference. If you want something bad enough, you'll find a way to fit everything you see into that paradigm. This isn't proof.


620 posted on 12/04/2005 1:23:37 PM PST by Free2BeMe
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