I only had time to watch about half of the first episode of
'Intelligent Design On Trial' on SBS.
What struck me, Evan, wasn't so much the soundness of the dismissal of
intelligent design (ID) -- though there were lots of 'missing links'
provided. Rather it was the huge logical non-sequiter underlying it all:
Because this evidence suggests a long and gradual development of the
species, there is therefore no intelligence behind that process.
That just doesn't follow. To conclude that, one must prove either that
there is no possibility whatsoever that an intelligence or a designer is
out there.
It reminds me of Yuri Gagarin: "I went into space and I didn't see God".
Fine, but that proves nothing except that there is no God visible in
space near the earth.
Science can neither prove nor disprove the existence of an intelligent
designer, so let's not fall for the line that ID has been disproved.
Let's not let any side get away with bad logic in the quest for truth
and what really happened.
Cheers and happy birding,
Gordon Cain
Schofields, NW Sydney
Message: 5
Date: Tue, 9 Dec 2008 11:58:15 +1100
From: "Evan Beaver" <>
Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] why swamphens have white undertail coverts
To:
Cc:
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<>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
I haven't read the paper yet, I'll have a look later. However, I'd
wondered the same thing about rabbits and deer, that both have white
under their tails. In rabbits, I think it's to break up the outline
while they're running away. From behind you see a moving grey/white
spot that, surprisingly, disappears into the greenery.
Difficult to prove the why's of evolution, but maybe this helps as
well? The undertail just needs to be a different colour for
signalling, not necessarily white. Maybe the white is an adventageous
colour for camoflage?
Slightly off-topic: Did anyone see Intelligent Design On Trial the
other night? I didn't realise how roundly it had been dismissed. The
scientists on the ID side didn't do their reputations any credit by so
obviously ignoring evidence that discreditted their theory.
EB
On 12/9/08, Andrew Taylor <> wrote:
There is a new paper in Evolutionary Ecology,
"Why some rails have white tails: the evolution of white undertail
plumage and anti-predator signaling"
The authors believe the white-tail on swamphens (and other rails)
are to signal that there is danger from a predator to other swamphens.
I am not sure how convincing the analysis is - but the discussion of
the various rails around the world and their behaviour is
fascinating.
Currently the full text of the paper is freely available at:
http://www.springerlink.com/content/5k21n03541762178/
Andrew
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