[Taxacom] teleology example

[Michael Heads]

"it’s hard to see how these hair-like processes would evolve if they didn’t
serve a purpose." That's an excellent example of this sort of thinking. New
Synthesis people can't see any other explanation than 'purpose' or
extrinsic 'need'. The idea that a genome could be evolving in a certain way
without an end purpose doesn't occur to them, despite plenty of evidence
for GC-biased gene conversion etc.
One neodarwinian book is even titled 'Plan and purpose in Nature' (GC
Williams, 1996).

Michael Heads
On Thu, Mar 7, 2013 at 3:12 PM, John Grehan <calabar.john at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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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