http://www.americanfreethought.com/wordpress/2009/10/15/the-greatest-show-on-earth-chapter-5/ Question. Think. Decide. Sat, 04 Feb 2012 00:05:29 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 http://www.americanfreethought.com/wordpress/2009/10/15/the-greatest-show-on-earth-chapter-5/comment-page-1/#comment-4683 The Greatest Show on Earth, Chapter 13 « American Freethought Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:27:56 +0000 http://www.americanfreethought.com/wordpress/?p=1581#comment-4683 [...] Read my thoughts on Chapter 5. [...] [...] Read my thoughts on Chapter 5. [...]

]]> http://www.americanfreethought.com/wordpress/2009/10/15/the-greatest-show-on-earth-chapter-5/comment-page-1/#comment-4671 The Greatest Show on Earth, Chapter 12 « American Freethought Tue, 20 Oct 2009 01:57:22 +0000 http://www.americanfreethought.com/wordpress/?p=1581#comment-4671 [...] Read my thoughts on Chapter 5. [...] [...] Read my thoughts on Chapter 5. [...]

]]> http://www.americanfreethought.com/wordpress/2009/10/15/the-greatest-show-on-earth-chapter-5/comment-page-1/#comment-4660 The Greatest Show on Earth, Chapter 11 « American Freethought Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:09:15 +0000 http://www.americanfreethought.com/wordpress/?p=1581#comment-4660 [...] Read my thoughts on Chapter 5. [...] [...] Read my thoughts on Chapter 5. [...]

]]> http://www.americanfreethought.com/wordpress/2009/10/15/the-greatest-show-on-earth-chapter-5/comment-page-1/#comment-4650 The Greatest Show on Earth, Chapter 10 « American Freethought Mon, 19 Oct 2009 21:49:08 +0000 http://www.americanfreethought.com/wordpress/?p=1581#comment-4650 [...] Read my thoughts on Chapter 5. [...] [...] Read my thoughts on Chapter 5. [...]

]]> http://www.americanfreethought.com/wordpress/2009/10/15/the-greatest-show-on-earth-chapter-5/comment-page-1/#comment-4636 The Greatest Show on Earth, Chapter 9 « American Freethought Sun, 18 Oct 2009 21:49:47 +0000 http://www.americanfreethought.com/wordpress/?p=1581#comment-4636 [...] Read my thoughts on Chapter 5. [...] [...] Read my thoughts on Chapter 5. [...]

]]> http://www.americanfreethought.com/wordpress/2009/10/15/the-greatest-show-on-earth-chapter-5/comment-page-1/#comment-4627 The Greatest Show on Earth, Chapter 7 « American Freethought Sat, 17 Oct 2009 14:36:09 +0000 http://www.americanfreethought.com/wordpress/?p=1581#comment-4627 [...] Read my thoughts on Chapter 5. [...] [...] Read my thoughts on Chapter 5. [...]

]]> http://www.americanfreethought.com/wordpress/2009/10/15/the-greatest-show-on-earth-chapter-5/comment-page-1/#comment-4621 The Greatest Show on Earth, Chapter 6 « American Freethought Fri, 16 Oct 2009 21:18:53 +0000 http://www.americanfreethought.com/wordpress/?p=1581#comment-4621 [...] Read my thoughts on Chapter 5. [...] [...] Read my thoughts on Chapter 5. [...]

]]> http://www.americanfreethought.com/wordpress/2009/10/15/the-greatest-show-on-earth-chapter-5/comment-page-1/#comment-4618 G.Shelley Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:33:46 +0000 http://www.americanfreethought.com/wordpress/?p=1581#comment-4618 While it is true that creationists have embraced microevolution, generally they deny that mutation/natural selection can be creative - that is to say that new structures or functions can emerge. They have abandoned the old "no beneficial mutations" argument to a more subtle one that mutation cannot generate information. On a trivial level, this is easy to disprove mathematically, but they can then claim they mean some other sort of information - The idea the a mutation can do something new, and not just do something less well. The bacteria experiment (along with numerous others that Dawkins does not mention) show that this simply is not true. New function can emerge, often without the lost of the old ones (I'd be interested to know if in this case it was due to the modification of the active site of an existing enzyme, or that some other part of the protein mutated in such a way it was able to metabolise a new substrate, or at least to do so at a biologically relevant rate (something else that has been observed). Overall, I liked the chapter, but I think Dawkins should have emphasised more strongly that mutation and selection can generate new functions. While it is true that creationists have embraced microevolution, generally they deny that mutation/natural selection can be creative – that is to say that new structures or functions can emerge. They have abandoned the old “no beneficial mutations” argument to a more subtle one that mutation cannot generate information. On a trivial level, this is easy to disprove mathematically, but they can then claim they mean some other sort of information – The idea the a mutation can do something new, and not just do something less well. The bacteria experiment (along with numerous others that Dawkins does not mention) show that this simply is not true. New function can emerge, often without the lost of the old ones (I’d be interested to know if in this case it was due to the modification of the active site of an existing enzyme, or that some other part of the protein mutated in such a way it was able to metabolise a new substrate, or at least to do so at a biologically relevant rate (something else that has been observed). Overall, I liked the chapter, but I think Dawkins should have emphasised more strongly that mutation and selection can generate new functions.

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