Epigenetics: how developed? (Introduction)

by David Turell , Monday, December 23, 2013, 14:54 (3783 days ago) @ David Turell

Where did the gene modifications of the epigenetic mechanisms come from. They had to develop through evolution to accurately follow the theory. What Shapiro has done is push the debate back to a deeper level of development. We can now see how the genome might be changed enough for macroevolution and true innovaton, but we are not there yet:-
"There is another aspect of this issue that is worth mentioning. Imagine for a moment that Shapiro is on to something. Perhaps his natural genetic engineering toolkit can generate biology's many incredible designs. Even if that is true, it would not solve the problem of novelty, it would just push it back one step.
 
"For if those natural genetic engineering tools could create such complexities, it would raise the question of how evolution created such tools in the first place. You see those natural genetic engineering tools are, themselves, the result of complex structures and information. Adaptive mutations and horizontal gene transfer don't "just happen."- 
"Imagine a fully automated factory that builds automobiles. That would be amazing and the discovery of how the factory works wouldn't explain the origin of cars. Likewise, the discovery of genetic tools that created the species would be a tremendous advance, but it would hardly solve evolution's problem of novelty. For how did the novel genetic tools evolve?"-http://darwins-god.blogspot.com/2013/12/james-shapiro-cries-foul-i-was-outraged.html-This last brilliant paragraph is a perfect analogy for the problem. The car has to be planned by intelligence.