Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site cbscc.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!cbsck!cbscc!pmd
From: pmd@cbscc.UUCP (Paul Dubuc)
Newsgroups: net.origins
Subject: Re: So simple, even a creationist can understand!
Message-ID: <5565@cbscc.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 11-Jul-85 15:32:39 EDT
Article-I.D.: cbscc.5565
Posted: Thu Jul 11 15:32:39 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 13-Jul-85 08:21:09 EDT
References: <2156@ut-sally.UUCP> <347@scgvaxd.UUCP> <300@azure.UUCP> <350@scgvaxd.UUCP> <535@psivax.UUCP> <786@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories , Columbus
Lines: 28
Keywords: Re: A new voice.

A response to Paul Torek:

>In article <535@psivax.UUCP> friesen@psivax.UUCP (Stanley Friesen) writes:
>>So *most*, mutations are "harmful", this is where N[atural].S[election].
>>comes in, it amplifies the few "beneficial" ones that do occur.

>Exactly.  One creationist expressed bafflement at the idea that mutation
>could result in evolutionary chains that "go so far" as the "distance"
>between radically different organisms.  But try this experiment:  flip
>several (many) coins, and move to the right on a number line (start
>at zero) only when you get all coins coming up heads.  This represents
>movement toward an adapted complex species.  Move to the left every
>time you get any result other than all heads.  Only there's one catch:
>you don't get to move to the left.

*How* do the beneficial mutations get amplified by Natural Selection?
How does that "catch" in Paul's experiment relate to N.S.?  Why don't
some trials cause us to move to the left, or even cause us to start
again from the beginning?  Why must natural selection work the way Paul
says it does?

>You can go pretty far, with enough trials.

Have there been enough yet?  Why, of course, we've gotten pretty far
haven't we?  :-)
-- 

Paul Dubuc 	cbscc!pmd