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To: A. Pole
Obviously the bad part.

Darwin didn't postulate a mechanism for diversity, but he did for natural selection. He assumed genetic inheritance but didn't know about Mendel proving it.

If you say something "might" happen, I assume there is some evidence for it. You have no evidence for lamarkian concepts returning. Does the brain change the DNA code? Are we Telemutagenic? Wow, I didn't know I had super powers.

There were numerous tests done on acquired traits. If you have half of a group of men lift weights with their right arm, and the other half lift weights with their left arm and test the arm strength of the children they have after this experiment; what do you think they would find based upon the experiments that disproved Lamarkian inheritance of acquired traits?
90 posted on 09/30/2005 8:33:38 PM PDT by Mylo ( scientific discovery is also an occasion of worship.)
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To: Mylo; ninenot; sittnick; steve50; Hegemony Cricket; Willie Green; Wolfie; ex-snook; FITZ; arete; ...
[Mylo:] If you say something "might" happen, I assume there is some evidence for it. You have no evidence for lamarkian concepts returning.

Many things can happen in science for which we do not have evidence now. To understand it, just move in your imagination to the past while "forgetting" the later discoveries.

At the time of Newton, the Einstein ideas would look strange and most of the scientists would dismiss them as crazy. Most of scientists are conformists and are attached emotionally to the things they learned.

Does the brain change the DNA code? Are we Telemutagenic? Wow, I didn't know I had super powers.

Well, I can find some hints of the possible mechanism. We know that the code can be written back (like in case of retroviruses). We know that at least "primitive" organisms can share genes even between species!

Such things, even if occurring not very frequently could change the dynamics of evolution in a very radical way. And they do not have to be RANDOM! There might be some undiscovered and functional mechanism of doing them.

Second example is the gene regulation and the role of the cellular memory beyond the mere code (which itself contains unexplained parts). When the organisms procreate, the process does not go from the DNA/RNA blueprint to the cells. It is the cells which control/copy the genetic code and read it selectively. The life process is larger, continuous and it seem to to be in charge like a reader using DNA/RNA according to the needs of the moment.

When you combine these two possibility of writing code back and the cellular process being in charge you get the potential for some Lamarkian dynamics. I am not saying that it is the case, and I am not saying that it is not. I just like to keep my mind open, curious and critical at the same time.

It would be sad if the scientific pseudo-orthodoxy has frozen the innovative thinking and at the same time imposed on the society the rigid order. We could end up in a scientistic nightmare of the type described in the Brave New World which would be more intrusive and less respectful of the human beings or spiritual dimension than the last scientistic nightmare of the Soviet system (the last was based on obsolete early XIX century scientific concepts).

There were numerous tests done on acquired traits. If you have half of a group of men lift weights with their right arm, and the other half lift weights with their left arm and test the arm strength of the children they have after this experiment; what do you think they would find based upon the experiments that disproved Lamarkian inheritance of acquired traits?

THIS IS FASCINATING! I would love to read more about this experiment. Please provide some sources so I can look into it.

112 posted on 10/01/2005 6:05:38 AM PDT by A. Pole (Finberg:"FedEx knows that black and Hispanics fail at a higher rate, but has not changed the test,")
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