On Keyboards and Code
Darwin's ideas have been around for a long time. Other branches of science have undergone paradigm shifts, but biology has just been tweaking ol' Charlie. So I was surprised to see a news article last week suggesting there are now some iconoclasts who want to replace mutation/natural selection with something called "evo-devo". You gotta admit, it DOES sound cooler. What does it mean?
Well, as nearly as I could decipher it, the idea is that certain genes are key in development ("devo"). They can switch on and produce alternate forms of, say, a leg, if conditions change. So the organism evolves ("evo") in a certain direction, as a result of devlopment.This seems to be a better explination for big changes than chance mutation. However, "better and "correct" are not necessarily the same thing.
Pundits claim the whole DNA thing is a result of undirected chance, or is inherant in the structure of molecules. One problem: even if either of those could produce a DNA molecule, you still have only the "keyboard". It is the order of the 4 bases on the strand of DNA that carries the code, the data which determines what organism the DNA produces. This is the "story" written on the keyboard- so, who wrote the story? Where did the data come from?
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth".
Well, as nearly as I could decipher it, the idea is that certain genes are key in development ("devo"). They can switch on and produce alternate forms of, say, a leg, if conditions change. So the organism evolves ("evo") in a certain direction, as a result of devlopment.This seems to be a better explination for big changes than chance mutation. However, "better and "correct" are not necessarily the same thing.
Pundits claim the whole DNA thing is a result of undirected chance, or is inherant in the structure of molecules. One problem: even if either of those could produce a DNA molecule, you still have only the "keyboard". It is the order of the 4 bases on the strand of DNA that carries the code, the data which determines what organism the DNA produces. This is the "story" written on the keyboard- so, who wrote the story? Where did the data come from?
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth".
posted by John Elliot | 11:09 PM
1 Comments:
Im glad God is a good composer AND Conductor. I just realized something when you said keyboard (either for piano or computer). It is an object that is meant to be played continuously, not just once and then never touched again. God has been playing that keyboard for over 30 billion years. Every milenia a new song (new species in evolution).
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