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From: mangoe@umcp-cs.UUCP (Charley Wingate)
Newsgroups: net.origins
Subject: Re: Catastrophic Evolution: reply # 2 to
Message-ID: <1268@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 16-Aug-85 10:59:24 EDT
Article-I.D.: umcp-cs.1268
Posted: Fri Aug 16 10:59:24 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 20-Aug-85 03:48:22 EDT
References: <369@imsvax.UUCP>
Organization: U of Maryland, Computer Science Dept., College Park, MD
Lines: 31

>>    If Ron's 116 aren't good enough, I've got  several more.  The
>>one that  really kills  Darwinism as far as I'm concerned goes as
>>follows: chance mutations  are mostly  harmful or  fatal and even
>>these  are  rare.   The  ones  which aren't harmful are extremely
>>rare and are isolated  in time  and local  e.g. a child  with six
>>fingers  may  be  born  in  Paris  in 1725 A.D. and the next such
>>child in Chicago in 1912 A.D.  What are the chances  of these two
>>marrying  and   having  six-fingered   children?   Further,  many
>>higher animals will  simply  kill  mutants.   Amongst  humans, in
>>every century  prior to  this one,  this phenomenon took the form
>>of the witchcraft trial.  

This argument has so many holes in it it's hard to know where to start.
First of all, let's take the six finger example.  Assuming that polydactyl
children do arise as a result of genetic mutation, and that it has some
small advantage, then we get three possibilities.  The first is that it
is a dominant mutation; in this case, it only takes one.  Whichever
example survives long enough to bear progeny will serve as the focus for
steady growth.  The second possibility is that it is a submissive trait.
In this case, survival to progeny gives dispersal of the gene, all the more
so because it is hidden.  Eventually the children of the various lines
will come together and the trait will reveal itself again; if it has an
advantage, even a small one, it will continue to grow as a proportion of
the population.  In the third case, the trait is composed of a number of
genes.  This case is much like the submissive case.  So it's simply a question
of how often you roll the dice.

As for killing mutations, it must be pointed out that not all such killings
are successful.  Again, it's simply a matter of rolling the dice enough.

Charley Wingate