Hey, good job on ignoring additional information added by replication errors, retro virii and other mechanisms.
I hear rustling ... the winged monkeys of evo freepers are on the way!
Krusty Krab Pizza Placeholder
I tend to think that God allowed the evolution to take place, but that evolution is driven by much more intricate and intelligent mechanism than crude rolling of the dice.
My last post may have been too harsh - if he's really a Professor at Medical University of Ohio then he must have some qualifications.
So we were perfect back then, but inferior now. And I have a possum in my pants.
The same guy who wrote this article, besides getting his PhD from an unaccredited mail order mill, also wrote this:
NAAWP News. 1985 [ca December 1]. Page 2: "Letters to the Editor":
Gentlemen:
There have been many discussions relative to reverse discrimination in academia, a serious problem which is of major concern to many professionals.
Advertisements often state: "Minorities are strongly encouraged to apply."
In actuality, quite often minorities are hired over better qualified whites.
The writer recalls attending a convention which was primarily for the purpose of recruiting new faculty. While discussing a faculty position with the dean, we not uncommonly had the experience of another dean walking in, uninvited, exchange small talk with the dean the writer was being interviewed by and state, "Do you have any blacks in the area of sociology?"
In one case in particular, the dean answered, "No, but I have a highly qualified white who has published quite a few articles and has impressed our faculty considerably." The answer to this was, "No, we're not interested, we're looking for a black," and he walked out!
I was recently informed relative to a position in criminal justice for which I applied why I would not be hired. My second doctorate, which I am currently completing, is in criminal justice. I received a letter from a friend who, although a secretary and not a faculty member, stated that she talked to the hiring committee about the status of my application and whether it was complete. She was then openly told that they were only considering women candidates for the position. This, she informed me in writing. Thus, regardless of my qualifications, I was not going to be considered!
Probably the most blatant example was a position the writer applied for at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. It was specifically stated in writing that unless a minority candidate could be recruited (specifically a black), the position would not be filled. The college was not able to recruit a minority candidate (they all probably had far better offers elsewhere) and felt the position needed to be filled, thus the writer was finally hired, but only temporarily. The writer was then terminated after seven years, and a minority was hired. This was true even though the writer was the most prolific member in the department, and his student ratings were in the 90 percentile.
Admittedly, in the writer's case, other elements entered in, such as objection to the writer's political-religious values. Nonetheless, reverse discrimination was clearly part of the decision to terminate the writer.
The Ohio Civil Rights Board and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission both refused in essence to investigate these concerns. It seems apparent to the writer, in reviewing the Ohio Civil Rights function and actual practice, and interviewing about a dozen persons relative to their performance, that their major interest is not in carrying out the Civil Rights law, but their major concern often is specifically helping blacks. They seem vigilant in fighting cases of discrimination against blacks, but far less so in helping whites.
It has been found that educated blacks now actually begin with a higher starting salary than whites. The writer interviewed a colleague of his at a small college and asked why there were no blacks on the cafulty. He answered that, as a small college, they simply could not afford to pay the salaries blacks demanded. They have repeatedly tried to recruit blacks, but most can obtain a far higher salary elsewhere, so go elsewhere.
Another case was when the writer was employed at a small college. At the same time he was hired, a black was hired in the same department. This man had a master's degree, but hadn't published and had no teaching experience. The writer had a decade of teaching experience, over 230 published articles, and the equivalent of three Ph.D.'s, and was formally completing his second Ph.D. at the time. Because of a severe decline in enrollment, it was decided that one of the persons hired in the writer's department should be let go. Needless to say, the writer was let go instead of his black colleague who was far less qualified. He discussed this with the dean and others, and they were quite open, stating simply "There's no way we could let so and so go. He would bring a charge of discrimination against the college and probably win." He further added that a black with a master's degree is about equal to a white with Ph.D.
In reviewing literature relative to discrimination, a great deal of concern seems to be expressed relative to discrimination in favor of blacks which, in essence, amounts to preferential status. The writer has uncovered a great deal of religious discrimination, discrimination against other groups such as whites and little concern seems to be expressed to right this wrong. I am certainly not advocating discrimination against blacks, but I stronly [sic] believe persons should be hired purely on their qualifications. There are serious problems, though, when the blatant reverse discrimination, which is clearly occurring, exists. This, in the long run, hurts all of us. Hiring should be based upon qualifications and not on skin color. This reverse discrimination is deplorable and will have tragic results for our nation.
Jerry Bergman, Ph.D.
*sniff*
*snicker...*
*chuckle chuckle...*
(busting out laughing) Bwaaa haaa haaa!!!! ROTFLMAO!!!!!!
The likelihood of producing certain families of amino acids such as polar and non polar, must also be determined. This classification of randomly produced amino acids is important in protecting genome information because members of the same amino acid family have similar functions in producing the required protein conformation. Amino acids from one family can sometimes be interchanged and still produce a functional polypeptide or protein. The random production of amino acids based on frequencies of m-RNA codons would yield too few (only 18.8%) of the charged amino acids that are critical to produce the hydrophobic interaction required to maintain the correct conformational structure of proteins (Ritter, 1996, p. 69). Only 4.7% of the 64 randomly produced codons would lead to the sulfur-containing types of amino acids (methionine and cysteine) necessary for disulfide bonding in proteins. Random production of the codes for amino acids would also tend to produce a high percentages of nonpolar uncharged and polar uncharged amino acids (62.7%).
He's just mixed up -- he kind of knows what he's talking about but it is words not understanding of the molecules and chemical properties.
The author says nothing which is not common knowledge in biology and he uses the phrase "...very few...," which means nothing unless he gives it a quantitative value, but he implies that his revelation shows to the world that mutations do not contribute to evolution.
I learned in 1962 in Biology 101 that most mutations are deleterious (e.g., lethal) and, furthermore, whether a non-lethal mutation is "beneficial" depends upon the conditions within the envronment, which is continuously changing.
I love these creation/evolution threads. The creationists trot out their ad hominem descriptions of the evolutionists before the evolutionists even know the thread is started.
Full Dosclosure: I am in the evolutionist camp. Evolution has evidence to back itself up, and religion has only faith. Sorry, but I'll take fact over faith any day. That's how God made me.
To address the point in the article, that seems to say that the vast majority of changes in the genetic code of a species can be harmful rather than beneficial, remember that there are now 7 billion human beings alive today, and that some species feature trillions of living members. If the odds of any particualr mutation being beneficial are 100 million to 1 against, that still leaves a significant number of potential beneficial mutations. If a beneficial mutation provides a survival advantage, the mutatee (mutant?) will have a greater chance at reproducing, and thus a greater chance of adding it to the gene pool. The converse is also true, creating disadvantages. Cancer is one such disadvantage.
It's kind of like elementary school art. Millions of kids all accross the country produce artwork in school on at least a weekly basis. Most of it is pretty lame, except to the child's parents. But every once in a while, some kid is going to draw a really nice picture.
Regarding the question of simultaneous evolution vs. sequence, the question is :
What is the selection criteria for simultaneous
evolution? The functional value of a correction
mechanism is nil until there exists something to
correct. Selection value correlates to function.
Logic dictates the sequence of events.