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From: peter@baylor.UUCP (Peter da Silva)
Newsgroups: net.origins
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Out-of-Context Quote-of-the-Month.  July 1985.
Message-ID: <463@baylor.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 18-Aug-85 22:55:57 EDT
Article-I.D.: baylor.463
Posted: Sun Aug 18 22:55:57 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 24-Aug-85 16:44:02 EDT
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Look, you can say "man is like an ape because of common design", but that still
doesn't explain why god used a common design for "the lord of creation" and a
relatively insignificant species. All it is saying is "man is like an ape
because god made it so", right?

Why did god make it so?

In what other cases are you likely to find such a similarity?

Why are there so many differences between the Thylacine and the Dingo, when
they obviously serve the same purpose and thus should have a common design?

Why are marsupials (which are much less efficient than placental mammals)
still around?

Why did god create them in the first place?

If all you can say is "that's the way it is because that's the way it is",
which is what arguments about "common design" reduce to, then you're not
talking about a scientific theory. You may be right, but what you're doing
isn't science:

You, by your own admission, can't restrict god.
Thus you can't say what he can and cannot do, or will and will not do.
Thus you can't make any predictions.
If you can't make any predictions (say about what one might find on a yet
undiscovered island or another planet), then...

		IT ISN'T SCIENCE! SO DON'T CALL IT THAT!

As I said. You may be entirely right. But that's a matter for the theologians,
not the biologists. Don't expect anyone to teach it as science outside of a
parochial school.
-- 
	Peter da Silva (the mad Australian werewolf)
		UUCP: ...!shell!neuro1!{hyd-ptd,baylor,datafac}!peter
		MCI: PDASILVA; CIS: 70216,1076