Different in degree or kind: Egnor's take (Introduction)

by David Turell , Wednesday, October 05, 2016, 15:48 (2971 days ago) @ dhw


> David: The gap is on both sides of the transitional fish.
> 
> dhw: I read the article and quoted the following from it:
> " 'It's what we've all been waiting for,' said Jennifer Clack, curator of vertebrate paleontology at the University of Cambridge's Museum of Zoology in the United Kingdom. 'Until this discovery, we weren't able to see the changes by which the pelvic fins of the fish became much larger and more robust, and gradually turned into the tetrapod hind limb.' " (My bold)-Your bold is the same Darwinian drivel: just tell me where the article demonstrates 'gradually turned'. All they have is a transitional form with big gaps in the fossil from on either side. The gradual is Darwinian assumptions! You have accepted all new species come with gaps!-
> 
> dhw: You could scarcely ask for more positive evidence that the change in conditions (moving from water to dry land) created a need, and the body (cell communities) responded to the need by making changes to the structure. So did God change the pelvic fins into the tetrapod hind limb, and THEN fish found they could walk, or did fish attempt to walk and the RESULT was the hind limb? Did God lower the larynx etc. and THEN humans found they could talk, or did humans attempt to talk and the RESULT was the lowered larynx etc.?-All reasoning from an assumption of gradual change, not found in the fossil records-
> 
> dhw: So why do you ask me: “How does your 'need' approach make the jumps? There is no answer, just your desire that it can happen”. I can't know how from the evidence we have.-But we have evidence. Gaps. Organisms can only use what they have to work with. New forms appear and they learn to use them
> 
> dhw: I'm not assuming anything: the ability of cells to do all this complex work IS the hypothesis! It's a hypothesis, not an assumption. It is based on the fact that many scientists believe that microorganisms are intelligent, and on the fact that what you call epigenetic minor adaptations prove to us that there IS an autonomous mechanism by which organisms can change their structures'-You use the observations of microorganisms' ability to respond to assume that complex multicellular organisms are equal. Not so. In the Homo series complex planning has to be part of each gap. The vocal tract had a complex number of changes I've previously listed. Not equivalent to bacterial responses to change. Epigenetics are only adaptations of existing species. You are stretching epigenetics by discussing structure.