[Taxacom] teleology example

[Bevan Weir]

Well you did just cherry-pick one sentence out of an otherwise good article, in fact you omitted the preceding sentence:

"I try very hard to avoid the sloppy thinking that presumes there is an adaptive explanation for every biological observation"

The real link to the post is here: http://sciblogs.co.nz/the-atavism/2012/07/29/sunday-spinelessness-hairy-snails/

Bevan

--
Dr Bevan Weir
Research Scientist, Mycology and Bacteriology
Curator, ICMP culture collection
Systematics Team
Landcare Research


-----Original Message-----
From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu [mailto:taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of John Grehan
Sent: Thursday, 7 March 2013 3:13 p.m.
To: taxacom
Subject: [Taxacom] teleology example

At various times I have raised, in this and other lists, the continued presence of intelligent design theology in science in the form of explicit teleology. Often the response is "that is not what they really intended".
Here's a nice explicit example: "it's hard to see how these hair-like processes would evolve if they didn't serve a purpose." This from David Winter, "a PhD student in evolutionary genetics who very occasionally thinks he has something that the internet simply needs to know..." See http://sciblogs.co.nz/the-atavism/tag/new-zealand/

John Grehan
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