Tag Archives: darwin

We are not alone (to be human is to be part-virus)

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We now know that we “humans” are in fact a mixture of lots of species. For instance our DNA is 8% of viral origin. The mitochondria that produce power within all of our cells were originally bacterial species that we absorbed and recruited to work for us.

One way in which Darwin was WRONG – is that evolution happens in leaps and bounds, not gradually. There are long periods of genetic stability within populations, and then there is a huge leap forward. That can be caused by a dramatic shift in environment of course; but the really big moves have been when our DNA has been combined with others.

Since I finished my degree in vertebrate evolution in 1979 – we have discovered so much about where we came from. Take transposons. Heard of these? Well it now seems that big chunks of DNA get passed around between species. That’s LATERAL evolution. Or what about reverse transcriptase. That’s a mechanism by which RNA can be “read back” into the genetic material that codes it; and why can’t that genetic material then be passed down to descendants? In other words Lamarck was right (or at least part right) – what happens in our bodies can and does influence our genes and therefore the next generation.

Anyway – we are not alone. What appears to be the distinct species – Homo Sapiens – is actually a constantly changing and linking melting pot of lives and species.

Who knows maybe Coronavirus is a blessing – and somewhere in the RNA killing machine there’ll be a bit of code that we’ll make use of. And then, perhaps the next Great Leap Forward will be when we – as bits of biology – combine with machines and algorithms to become another wave of recombinant life? The idea of part man- part machine has always seemed terrifying to me. But perhaps this is all part of God’s loving plan? Maybe this is where Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was pointing when he predicted (in the 1950’s) that our invidividual consciousness would merge and emerge as something conscious of love and God – at the Omega point.

Ramblings? Of course – because who actually knows what comes next – ramblings and musings are a way of contouring and contouring what the future may hold.

The Dawkins Delusion

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The evidence for evolution is overwhelming. BUT, the mechanics are not solely, and probably not mainly Darwinian. (And certainly not NeoDarwinian). The field has been siezed by populists, whos belief systems masquerade as science. Richard Dawkins is the current example.

The problem is that the study of evolution is only partially open to the scientific method. It has much in common with history, spiced with population genetics. There are few facts and much interpretation. I specialised in Vertebrate Evolution at Cambride in the mid 1970’s. I can remember the sense of release (from the physcial sciences), because almost any theory could be justified by one’s interpretation of the evidence.

I remember the excitement of the publication of the Selfish Gene. I was an acolyte and saw this as advancing the truths of sociobiology.

But since then the accumulation of evidence has washed away the foundations of these ideas, but the establishment look the other way. This is shameful, and it isn’t science.

A couple of examples …

  • Neodarwinism predicts gradual progressive change which does not lead to increasing complexity. Since the 1970’s there has been an enormous increase in fossil discovery, all of which evidences sudden emergence of new forms followed by millions of years of equilibrium. Further, that the direction of evolution has always been toward increased complexity.
  • The whole premise of Darwinism is the “survival of the fittest”. That is that it is driven by competition. The gene pool alters (gradually, generation by generation) driven by the success in breeding or otherwise of the bodies for which they code. Darwin, that first populist, ridiculed Lamarck’s theory that the body affected the genes  (giraffe stretches neck, genes altered to express this in next generation). Darwin also drove out the theories of Kropotkin and Meretchkovsky who believed that cooperation and mutual aid were important drivers of evolution. Now there are hectares  of evidence both for Lamarckian  and Kropotkian evolutionary mechanisms:  indeed in all probability our human bodies comprise an agglomeration of different creatures  -even our mitochondria and ghe maternally transmitted genes probably originated as bacteria.

Why do Dawkins et al still defend the outdated neodarwinian fallacy? Largely of course its to maintain their careers and material power and wealth. They founded a theory on conviction and  have ignored these inconvenient truths.