Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Evolution -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TigerPaw who wrote (50849)	3/26/2014 1:11:57 PM
From: Brumar89	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 69300

In fact then, geologist Charles Lyell already calculated an old earth and Darwin made no predictions about continental drift.

To: TigerPaw who wrote (50849)	3/26/2014 1:19:20 PM
From: Brumar89	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 69300

What Are the Top Ten Problems with Darwinian Evolution? Casey Luskin July 12, 2012 12:01 PM \| Permalink A few months back I gave my top three criticisms of Darwinian evolution that I think should be taught in public schools. But the problems with Darwinian evolution run much deeper. Here are my top ten problems with biological and chemical evolution: Lack of a viable mechanism for producing high levels of complex and specified information. Related to this are problems with the Darwinian mechanism producing irreducibly complex features, and the problems of non-functional or deleterious intermediate stages. (For details see: "The NCSE, Judge Jones, and Bluffs About the Origin of New Functional Genetic Information," "Do Car Engines Run on Lugnuts? A Response to Ken Miller & Judge Jones's Straw Tests of Irreducible Complexity for the Bacterial Flagellum," "Opening Darwin's Black Box," or "Can Random Mutations Create New Complex Features? A Response to TalkOrigins"); The failure of the fossil record to provide support for Darwinian evolution. (For details, see "Punctuated Equilibrium and Patterns from the Fossil Record" or "Intelligent Design Has Scientific Merit in Paleontology"); The failure of molecular biology to provide evidence for a grand "tree of life." (For details, see: "A Primer on the Tree of Life"); Natural selection is an extremely inefficient method of spreading traits in populations unless a trait has an extremely high selection coefficient; The problem that convergent evolution appears rampant -- at both the genetic and morphological levels, even though under Darwinian theory this is highly unlikely. (For details, see "Convergent Genetic Evolution: 'Surprising' Under Unguided Evolution, Expected Under Intelligent Design" and "Dolphins and Porpoises and...Bats? Oh My! Evolution's Convergence Problem"); The failure of chemistry to explain the origin of the genetic code. (For details, see "The origin of life remains a mystery" or "Problems with the Natural Chemical 'Origin of Life'"); The failure of developmental biology to explain why vertebrate embryos diverge from the beginning of development. (For details, see: "Evolving views of embryology," "A Reply to Carl Zimmer on Embryology and Developmental Biology," "Current Textbooks Misuse Embryology to Argue for Evolution"); The failure of neo-Darwinian evolution to explain the biogeographical distribution of many species. (For details, see "Sea Monkey Hypotheses Refute the NCSE's Biogeography Objections to Explore Evolution" or "Sea Monkeys Are the Tip of the Iceberg: More Biogeographical Conundrums for Neo-Darwinism"); A long history of inaccurate predictions inspired by neo-Darwinism regarding vestigial organs or so-called "junk" DNA. (For details, ] see: "Intelligent Design and the Death of the 'Junk-DNA' Neo-Darwinian Paradigm," "The Latest Proof of Evolution: The Appendix Has No Important Function," or "Does Darrel Falk's Junk DNA Argument for Common Descent Commit 'One of the Biggest Mistakes in the History of Molecular Biology'?); Humans show many behavioral and cognitive traits and abilities that offer no apparent survival advantage (e.g. music, art, religion, ability to ponder the nature of the universe). - See more at: evolutionnews.org

To: TigerPaw who wrote (50849)	3/26/2014 1:40:16 PM
From: Brumar89	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 69300

BTW there are a lot of examples of geographically dispersed animals that continental drift can't be used to explain ... so Darwin wasn't wrong to look for other ways of dispersing creatures across oceans: .... rafting or other means of "oceanic dispersal" have been suggested to solve a number of other biogeographical conundrums that challenge neo-Darwinism, including: Lizards reaching South America78 Large caviomorph rodents reaching South America79 Bees arriving in Madagascar80 Lemurs arriving in Madagascar81 T he arrival of other mammals in Madagascar, including the Tenrecidae (hedgehoglike insectivorous mammals), aardvarks, the hippopotamus, and the Viverridae (cat-sized carnivorous mammals)82 Dispersal of salamanders across the western end of the Mediterranean83 Dispersal of certain lizards across the western end of the Mediterranean84 The origin of certain lizards in Cuba85 The appearance of elephant fossils on "many islands," which are said to have arrived by swimming86 Dispersal of freshwater frogs across oceanic island chains87 Certain frogs reaching Madagascar88 The colonization of Anguilla by green iguanas89 Appearance of certain South American insects90 Dispersals of chameleons across the Indian Ocean91 Origin of certain insects in Caribbean islands92 The origin of mantellid frogs found on the island of Mayotte in the Comoros archipelago, despite the fact that "[a]mphibians are thought to be unable to disperse over ocean barriers because they do not tolerate the osmotic stress of salt water"93 The spread of flightless insects to the Chatham Islands94 The origin of indigenous gekkos in South America95 Origin of crocodile distributions96 The appearance of sloths in South America97 The origin of a group of Australian rodents98 The appearance of land mammals of the Mediterranean islands (also suggesting that "Hippos, elephants, and giant deer reached the islands by swimming")99 The origin of various land reptiles in Western Samoa100 The presence of Crotalus rattlesnakes in Baja California101 Indeed, a review in 2005 by Alan de Queiroz wrote that "[s]triking examples of oceanic dispersal" include: (a) Scaevola (Angiospermae: Goodeniaceae) three times from Australia to Hawaii; (b) Lepidium mustards (Angiospermae: Brassicaceae) from North America and Africa to Australia; (c) Myosotis forget-me-nots (Angiospermae: Boraginaceae) from Eurasia to New Zealand and from New Zealand to South America; (d) Tarentola geckos from Africa to Cuba; (e) Maschalocephalus (Angiospermae: Rapateaceae) from South America to Africa; (f) monkeys (Platyrrhini) from Africa to South America; (g) melastomes (Angiospermae: Melastomataceae) from South America to Africa; (h) cotton (Angiospermae: Malvaceae: Gossypium) from Africa to South America; (i) chameleons three times from Madagascar to Africa; (j) several frog genera to and from Madagascar; (k) Acridocarpus (Angiospermae: Malpighiaceae) from Madagascar to New Caledonia; (l) Baobab trees (Angiospermae: Bombacaceae: Adansonia) between Africa and Australia; (m) 200 plant species between Tasmania and New Zealand; (n) many plant taxa between Australia and New Zealand; and (o) Nemuaron (Angiospermae: Atherospermataceae) from Australia (or Antarctica) to New Caledonia.102 Figure 1 of De Queiroz's paper contains a revealing map of the world covered in lines criss-crossing back and forth across oceans showing how many species must have traversed oceans to explain their distributions in locations unexpected by traditional biogeography: (Reprinted from Trends in Ecology and Evolution, Vol.20(2), Alan de Queiroz, "The resurrection of oceanic dispersal in historical biogeography," pages 68-73, (February 2005) with permission from Elsevier. Slightly resized to fit blog formatting.) - See more at: evolutionnews.org