First multicellularity: algae (Evolution)

by dhw, Tuesday, May 17, 2016, 11:47 (2900 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: As for atheistic struggles with epigenetics review the following article:
http://www.michaeleisen.org/blog/?p=1894 (no room for excerpts)-I have noticed your own use of epigenetics to explain small changes, and the fact that it is now used so widely and so vaguely to cover so many areas of heredity does make one suspicious. I can't find any allusions to a theistic or atheistic viewpoint, and of course I am in no position to discuss the scientific details (apparently castigated by several other experts in the field), but despite the scathing tone of this review, there is a very important concession, summed up by this paragraph towards the end:
 
“Could the histone modifications that Allis studies and Mukherjee focuses on also carry information across cell divisions and generations? Sure. Our understanding of gene regulation is still fairly primitive, and there is plenty of room for the discovery of important inheritance mechanisms involving histone modification. We have to keep an open mind. But the point the critics of Mukherjee are really making is that given what is known today about mechanisms of gene regulation, it is bizarre bordering on irresponsible to focus on a mechanism of inheritance that only might be real.” (Author's bold)-The author goes on to say that the idea is “attractive” because it runs counter to determinism. Attractiveness is no reason for embracing an idea, but it is no reason for rejecting it either. Determinism is a major issue in any discussion on the human condition (are we nothing but our DNA?), and since our understanding of gene regulation is still “fairly primitive”, and the hypothesis “might be real”, keeping an open mind might be a very good idea. Perhaps I can add in passing that since our understanding of the origin of life, of consciousness, of how evolution works, of the nature of matter, and of the past, present and future of the universe is all “fairly primitive”, the same might be said of those too.