http://www.slate.com/toolbar.aspx?action=print&id=2195683
What's really interesting here is that Hitchens is unfamiliar with the argument that he is making; he doesn't realize that other people have noticed that intelligent design doesn't do a good job of explaining vestigial organs, a statement often made with particular respect to cave organisms, of which there is much recent interest.
Hard to say if that is a good mark or a bad mark for Hitchens, being on the one hand unfamiliar with what I thought was a fairly widespread argument, or, on the other hand, coming up with that very argument independently. I suppose at first it seems like a black mark, being so vehemently anti-creationism and at the same time being unaware of what could be considered a basic argument against it. But then again, why need a particularly detailed argument against a concept when you've, presumably, already rejected it from other angles anyway?
Anyway, I am not so certain that the idea that vestigial organs shouldn't've been designed argument is all that good of an argument contra intelligent design. Design-infatuated creationists will, firstly and probably correctly state that we don't know the intent of a designer, so maybe 'purposely poor design' or 'nonsensical design' makes 'sense'. Of course, the whole argument pro design is that intent can be detected in the first place, so not sure what that would really all have to say.
Secondly, it could be argued that degeneration is permissible in creationism, that parts of a genome can mutate, and that mutation will, and in fact can only, screw things up. So destroying functions probably wouldn't 'refute' so called 'intelligent design theory' (ignoring that its not a theory and can't be refuted anyway).
Considering this further, Hitchens has realized one of the things that vestigialism tells us. But, in particular, the eyeless salamander case that he sites tells us even more. Because this is not an organism that has had some weird mutation in one of the genes 'for' its eyes and now has non-functional eyes. It has no eyes. It has evolved to get rid of eyes.
In an environment where sight is useless, some organisms that have mutations that make them blind can have an advantage. Natural selection will 'select' for this trait, in so far as it works to get rid of the eye organ, to get rid of the apparatus that maintains the genetics of that organ, and to not 'waste' energy on the development and nourishment of that organ. Not being able to see isn't necessarily an advantage, even in pitch darkness. But not having all the investments with no rewards that an eye represents can be an advantage. So natural selection, I think, should actually be an explanation for complete loss of eyes in cave organisms.
Now, of course, if I recall correctly anyway; many blind cave organisms still have non-functional eyes. So this might all just have been gibbering over-arching.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Garage Sale
My mother is thinking of having a garage sale in two weekends, so now my wife is going through our stuff. She seems to think that we'll get lots of money for old VHS casettes. Can't imagine who'd actually want these things. We don't even have a VCR at this point, at least not that I know of. In fact if we do have someone somewhere we'd better sell it too.
Maybe it will make a nice 'bundle' along with the tape.
Maybe it will make a nice 'bundle' along with the tape.
Tons of Stuff
I ordered a lot of supplies recently, in particular from Ben Meadows, which is a good supplier. Almost all of them showed up on the same day, and over the next few days the rest showed up. They're all sitting in my office right now, need to start moving them over to a new lab prep-room.
The inlaws also went to India for two weeks recently and just got back the other day. They were visiting their parents. They seemed to have had a good time. Luckily their state seemed to be spared the recent anti-christian riots in Orissa, which is a little far from Kerala, and Karnataka, which actually borders it. Infact, the city of Mangalore, which apparently is right near the border with Kerala, was the site of some of the more recent rioting.
We are all planning on going here in February of 2009. That should be interesting. It will be my first time in the country and the first time meeting the grandparents. I speak no Malayalum, they speak no English. My father-in-law's dad (his only remaining parent) had said that the only thing English he knows is a salute, and he jokes that that's what he'll have to do when he meets me. My mother-in-law says that when he stood to demonstrate this that he seemed to still be effected by chickungunya, of which there was an outbreak in Kerala earlier this summer. He had caught it but generally recovered from it. Apparently it is a mosquito borne sickness that started in Uganda and spread to the rest of the world from there.
The inlaws also went to India for two weeks recently and just got back the other day. They were visiting their parents. They seemed to have had a good time. Luckily their state seemed to be spared the recent anti-christian riots in Orissa, which is a little far from Kerala, and Karnataka, which actually borders it. Infact, the city of Mangalore, which apparently is right near the border with Kerala, was the site of some of the more recent rioting.
We are all planning on going here in February of 2009. That should be interesting. It will be my first time in the country and the first time meeting the grandparents. I speak no Malayalum, they speak no English. My father-in-law's dad (his only remaining parent) had said that the only thing English he knows is a salute, and he jokes that that's what he'll have to do when he meets me. My mother-in-law says that when he stood to demonstrate this that he seemed to still be effected by chickungunya, of which there was an outbreak in Kerala earlier this summer. He had caught it but generally recovered from it. Apparently it is a mosquito borne sickness that started in Uganda and spread to the rest of the world from there.