Stephen C. Meyer Article: The Origin of Biological Information and the Higher Taxonomic Categories

Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington ^ | January 26, 2005 | Stephen C. Meyer

[Doctor Stochastic]

Much effort was spent in trying to evolve fruit flies into something other than fruit flies. The effort was fruitless.

But not flyless.

[WildTurkey]

You said no educated person after 3rd BC, particulary sailors believed in a flat earth. I gave you an educated, Christian SAILOR in 548 AD!

[WildTurkey]

Early Christian Topography:

[js1138]

People who believe there is a God, but don't think He's ever done anything.

Creation is something, but killing children doesn't look good on your resume. There seem to be people who think God does this to punish the parents.

[BMCDA]

Much effort was spent in trying to evolve fruit flies into something other than fruit flies. The effort was fruitless.

Well, of course such a population is still classified as fruit flies but that's due to the fact that they descended from the "fruit fly node".
And for the same reason we are still primates and vertebrates.

[Thatcherite]

A few--at least two and at most five--early Christian fathers denied the sphericity of earth by mistakenly taking passages such as Ps. 104:2-3 as geographical rather than metaphorical statements. On the other side tens of thousands of Christian theologians, poets, artists, and scientists took the spherical view throughout the early, medieval, and modern church. The point is that no educated person believed otherwise.

So, pretty much like the scientific debate about evolution then. A couple of Biblical literalists versus tens of thousands believing the evidence.

[Thatcherite]

I think there are theistic atheists here too. People who believe there is a God, but don't think He's ever done anything.

OK, I've rubbished a lot of your posts, but that is actually pretty funny. Let no-one say that you don't have a sense of humor.

[js1138]

Some things are irreversible. Breaking glass. burning books. Long stretches of evolution.

Once a series of mutations has happened in a certain order, it is unlikely that they will ever happen in exactly the reverse order.

Before a mutation happens there is no requirement for it and no specification. But if you are trying to reverse evolution experimentally, then you have a specification, all the probability calculations that the ID crowd is fond of are applicable.

For this and other reasons, it is unlikely that there will ever be radically new body plans evolving out of established species. New body plans can only emerge from rather simple body plans.

[WildTurkey]

I think there are theistic atheists here too. People who believe there is a God, but don't think He's ever done anything.

What do you call a person that believe that God intervenes to cause good things to happen but believes that nature, not God, is responsible for all the disasters ...

[js1138]

What do you call someone who thinks disease is God's punishment?

[jwalsh07]

For this and other reasons, it is unlikely that there will ever be radically new body plans evolving out of established species. New body plans can only emerge from rather simple body plans.

It is my understanding that all the phyla present today were present at the Cambrian. If that is correct, I am wondering if this was a prediction made by early Darwinists.

[js1138]

I don't know the answer to that, but Darwin pushed the metaphor of the tree of life. If you think about a tree or a bush, the largest branches are closest to the origin.

I would expect someday to see a quantitative theory of evolution that explains and predicts such major events as body plan origination.

I may not live to see it.

[jwalsh07]

What mechanism do you suppose puts boundaries on body plans?

[Condorman]

Thank you.

[shubi]

Its sad that some of the atheists understand the Bible better than either you or Danny.

[shubi]

Devolution... LOL

[shubi]

"Much effort was spent in trying to evolve fruit flies into something other than fruit flies. The effort was fruitless"

Fruit flies are used in genetics experiments to understand how genetic mechanisms work. They have speciated in the wild and in the lab, so that also shows evolution to be true.

The effort was not fruitless. Creationism is simply fruitfilled, rotten fruit at that.

[shubi]

Let no one say he makes any sense.

[WildTurkey]

They have speciated in the wild and in the lab, so that also shows evolution to be true.

For example, it is suspected that the Apple/Hawthorne Fruit Flys are undergoing speciation in the wild at this time.

[WildTurkey]

It is starting to make sense. The YEC'ers see this as a major turning point as we are on the verge of breaking genetics wide open and their wish is to stop the evolution of science before we can do that.