Can this tree be replanted? II

 

Troubles with the Tree of Life

Mike Keas

Paul Nelson

Claims to know that an evolutionary Tree of Life (TOL) existed are increasingly problematic. The TOL is a picturesque way of imagining a branching pattern of universal common descent (UCD) — the alleged evolution of all current life by descent with modification from earlier life forms on earth, with all organisms tracing back to the Last Universal Common Ancestor (abbreviated as LUCA). We will update you on TOL troubles by analyzing a new paper authored by a group of biologists associated with the largest university in Latin America: the National Autonomous University of Mexico. 

Amadeo Estrada and his colleagues show how the huge literature devoted to constructing the TOL by means of large data sets of molecular sequencing (including many complete genomes of many organisms) is fraught with debilitating problems. Following up on earlier stern warnings from top TOL critics such as W. Ford Doolittle, Estrada et al. survey a wide field of molecular-based phylogenetic chaos — a bunch of mutually inconsistent accounts of the alleged branching pattern of evolution. They observe: “The strictly statistical approach [to molecular-based phylogenetic studies] … has resulted in divergent and even contradictory evolutionary hypotheses unsupported by independent evidence, between different research groups, and at times in single research groups.”1 Put more plainly, such studies have produced a large number of deeply inconsistent pictures of UCD, which undermines confidence about UCD itself. 

How Deep? How Severe?

Just how deep are these inconsistencies in the popular story of UCD? Molecular studies have produced radically different answers to what lies near the base of the TOL — that is, these studies have created confusion about LUCA. To grasp the severity of the situation, consider the wildly divergent range of recent opinion about LUCA; in the words of Estrada et al.(their key points numbered by us, with minor edits to English):

The LUCA has been characterized as

1. close to the origin of life (Koonin 2003; Weiss et al. 2016a), or as being far away from the origin of life (Mirkin et al. 2003; Delaye et al. 2005)
2. having a small genome (Koonin 2003), or as having a genome similar in size to many free living bacteria today (Kyrpides et al. 1999; Harris et al. 2003; Mirkin et al. 2003; Delaye et al. 2005; Yang et al. 2005; Ouzounis et al. 2006; Ranea et al. 2006; Becerra et al. 2014)
3. being autotrophic (Martin et al. 2008; Weiss et al. 2016a), or as being heterotrophic (Delaye et al. 2005; Becerra et al 2014, Muñoz-Velasco et al. 2018)
4. being hyperthermophilic (Woese 1987; Weiss et al. 2016a); or as being mesophilic (Galtier et al. 1999; Groussin et al. 2013; Cantine and Fournier 2018)
5. constituted by an RNA genome (Mushegian and Koonin 1996; Koonin 2003), or as having a DNA genome (Ouzounis et al. 2006; Delaye et al. 2005; Becerra et al. 2014)
6. being a simple cell (Koonin 2003), or as having a complex cell, similar to today’s bacteria (Kyrpides et al. 1999; Harris et al. 2003; Mirkin et al. 2003; Delaye et al. 2005; Yang et al. 2005; Ouzounis et al. 2006; Ranea et al. 2006; Becerra et al. 2014).2

Obviously, the evolution of the TOL could not have occurred in all of these mutually inconsistent ways (contradictory inferred stages of evolution near the base of the TOL). These evolutionary inferences are all over the biological map.Nonetheless, Estrada et al. do not extend their skepticism to the entire TOL-UCD paradigm. However, they do note:

New findings and changes in what we think about certain subjects are common in science. Nevertheless, we think that these extreme divergences between and even inside some researchers’ characterizations of the LCA are linked to the fact of relying on statistical approaches only without other kinds of data outside the sequence comparisons methods. In doing so, researchers can become subjects of contradictory algorithm results.3

As they hint here, Estrada et al. (building on Doolittle and others) propose their own way out of this mess, but admit that even their revised approach has its own additional troubles — though these are lesser troubles in their estimation (more on that below).

Scaling Back Claims

This research group recommends making estimations of LUCA that are less detail-rich, by scaling back claims of what we can legitimately know from molecular studies. They also urge fellow evolutionists to take into account more data beyond the confines of comparative molecular sequencing. Let’s explore the first prong of their dual revisionist research program first. 

On the one hand, they acknowledge that without molecular (especially genetic) sequence data, “there is no possibility of phylogenetic [TOL] reconstruction.” On the other hand, they point out the “serious epistemic disadvantages” of these studies “for the reconstruction of early forms of life, despite being rewarded in scientific practice.”4 Put bluntly, many scientists have advanced their careers by churning out shiploads of TOL claims. The relative ease these days of molecular sequencing and computer-aided statistical analysis make this bioinformatics research program hard to resist. When, however, this results in “contradictory hypotheses even within the same team and in consecutive publications, with no recognition of their divergent conclusions,”5 the internal coherence and logical consistency of the TOL / LUCA model inevitably suffer.

As Estrada et al. observe, over the past two decades Doolittle and others have attributed some of the molecular phylogenetic confusion to lateral (horizontal) gene transfer (LGT). By multiplying the possible modes of genetic transmission beyond so-called “vertical” inheritance, LGT greatly complicates tracing organismal lineages through subsequent generations. But most evolutionists do not think that LGT severely downgrades the historical signals that they use to determine the shape of the TOL. But, Estrada et al. note, “the problem is that there are major difficulties to measure LGT, not the least because the statistical criteria and bioinformatic tools used to estimate it share the same methodological constraints that plague phylogenetic reconstructions (Cortez et al. 2009).”6

A Candid Confession

That is a refreshingly candid confession. LGT is often cited as part of the reason why we get very differently shaped candidate TOLs (and different candidate LUCAs). But we should not doubt the overall TOL-UCD story in the face of such conflicting TOL reconstructions, we are told, because LGT is partly to blame for this situation.

This does not solve, however, the severe LUCA retrodictive inconsistencies that the authors bemoan in the large block quote above, listing six major evolutionary contradictions. Why? Because LGT estimates themselves depend upon, and are epistemically limited by, the “same methodological constraints that plague phylogenetic [TOL] reconstructions.”

We now turn to the second prong of this Mexican research group’s revisionist recommendations: the call to take into account more data beyond the confines of comparative molecular sequencing. “Any hypothesis of the LCA must be confronted with current empirical knowledge from the Earth sciences, as well as what scientists know about biochemistry and metabolic pathways….” This sounds wise, but then they immediately admit the severe limitations of this recommendation due to the “scarcity of biochemical and geochemical knowledge surrounding the early stages of life,” which “poses a severe epistemic constraint” on LCA theories.7

In an attempt to remedy this situation, they advocate scaling back LUCA retrodictions to what they call “a slimmer LCA.” This means that phylogenetic reconstructions should be “aiming at a lower resolution” — claiming we know a lot less — so that our claims are less likely to be contradictory or to be falsified by stubborn data. A skeptical philosopher of science could have said this about many branches of evolutionary biology. 

Kuhn’s Diagnosis

Sixty years ago, the historian and philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn listed what he described as the “symptoms” of a research field undergoing destabilizing change. Kuhn’s diagnosis stands as acutely relevant today as when he first offered it — especially the first symptom, which we have set in bold:

The proliferation of competing articulations, the willingness to try anything, the expression of explicit discontent, the recourse to philosophy and to debate over fundamentals, all these are symptoms of a transition from normal to extraordinary research.8

There is only one true history of life. (If you doubt this, ask yourself if you have, somewhere, an unknown set of biological parents with an equally valid claim to being your actual physical ancestors, when compared with the familiar names on your birth certificate.) Estrada et al. identify the competing historical articulations, only one of which can be the case, now current in evolutionary theory. A mature science converges on a single answer. A science in trouble? Not so much.

Notes

1. Amadeo  Estrada, Edna Suarez-Diaz, and Arturo Becerra, “Reconstructing the Last Common Ancestor: Epistemological and Empirical Challenges.” Acta Biotheoretica 70, no. 2 (2022): 1-18, p. 3.
2. Ibid., 3.
3. Ibid., 3.
4. Ibid., 4.
5. Ibid., 9.
6. Ibid., 6.
7. Ibid., 10.
8. T. S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2nd ed., 1970), p. 91.

The design is intelligent, the explaining away, not so much.

 

Yawn: Atheist YouTuber “Professor Dave” Rants about Intelligent Design

Günter Bechly 

Dave Farina is an atheist American YouTuber who runs a channel called Professor Dave Explains with almost two million subscribers. According to his channel he has “a knack for explaining stuff and … want[s] to share some knowledge.” Although he calls himself “Professor Dave,” Farina is not a college professor nor does he have a PhD. He has a Master’s in Science Education. He says he chose “Professor Dave” as his persona “without much thought. It was kind of tongue-in-cheek to be honest.”

Farina mainly produces science videos addressing high school and undergraduate students. Some of his stuff might even be decent edutainment. Unfortunately, he undermines his credibility by ranting about and misrepresenting various people he disagrees with. His latest target for abuse? Proponents of intelligent design associated with Discovery Institute. 

Pardon me while I stifle a yawn. The clichés and misrepresentations Farina recycles about intelligent design are beyond tired. Still, those new to the debate might find it helpful to see Farina’s false claims debunked.

The Scientist Who Made Farina Blink

First, some background: Farina previously targeted Professor James Tour, who ranks among the ten most cited chemists in the world (Berger 2010). Tour does not advocate the theory of intelligent design, but he is a scientific skeptic of unguided chemical and biological evolution. And he has dared to publicly share his expert critique of the hapless field of origin of life research. 

Farina produced three YouTube videos (1, 2, and 3) attacking Tour, which he boasted presented “a demolition of… Tour and his anti-science antics in the realm of origin of life research.” Decide for yourself who was really engaging in “anti-science” antics by watching Professor Tour’s exhaustive 13-part response to Farina and others. Tour cordially invited Farina to participate in a one-on-one public discussion about the issues Farina raised. Farina did not accept. Maybe he feared his claims against Tour couldn’t withstand critical scrutiny?

Instead of manning up to defend his critique of Professor Tour, Farina moved on in search of new targets to denounce. And what could be better than those eeevil intelligent design proponents from the super-villainous Discovery Institute? Accordingly, Farina has begun to produce a series titled Exposing the Discovery Institute, which promises to go after intelligent design proponents “one clown at a time.” Part 1 of the series attacks intelligent design, Discovery Institute, and Dr. Casey Luskin and his appearance in the Science Uprising episode on human evolution.

The ad hominem flavor of Farina’s video series can be seen from its official description on YouTube, which accuses Discovery Institute of “propaganda,” “dishonesty,” “slander,” and “fraudulent activity.” Serious intellectual discussion is not Farina’s forte. Neither is accuracy.

Farina starts his introductory video by calling Discovery Institute “an evangelical propaganda mill.” Of course, he presents no evidence for this assertion. Farina next claims that Discovery Institute is nothing but an “effort to push for creation science or intelligent design to be taught in schools alongside evolutionary biology.” You could hardly pack more falsehoods into a single sentence.

A False Stereotype

First of all, it is an absolutely false stereotype to equate intelligent design theory with creation science. This equation has been refuted so often that nobody can plausibly claim to be ignorant about it. Google is your friend. Here are two classic articles by John West (2002) and by Stephen C. Meyer (2006) explaining why intelligent design is not creationism. I can add a very personal reason: I became an intelligent design proponent when I was still committed to Whiteheadian process metaphysics, long before I became a theist or a Christian. I had no religious reasons at all for supporting ID and still don’t have them. I reject literalist readings of Scripture as some kind of science textbook. Like most ID proponents I accept an old Earth, and like many prominent ID proponents (e.g., Michael Behe, Michael Denton, Richard Sternberg), I also accept common descent. But in the fanciful imagination of someone like Farina, we must still be Bible-thumping creationists. 

Farina seems more interested in caricaturing those he disagrees with than understanding them. That’s too bad. If he were more open-minded, he would learn that intelligent design, in the sense of infusions of information from outside the system, does not necessarily imply any commitment to miraculous divine interventions. After all, the simulation hypothesis, which is now so popular among some physicists and IT engineers (e.g., John Barrow, Nick Bostrom, Michio Kaku, Ray Kurzweil, Marvin Minsky, Elon Musk, Martin Rees, and Neil deGrasse Tyson), is nothing but an intelligent design argument. My own preferred hypothesis of teleological evolution as quantum computation (Raatz & Bechly 2019, also see my website) is another example that has no “God diddit” or “Here a miracle occurs” in the equation.

What about Farina’s second point, that Discovery Institute allegedly pushes the teaching of intelligent design in schools? This is yet another demonstrably false claim. Discovery Institute’s Science Education Policy could hardly be clearer: “As a matter of public policy, Discovery Institute opposes any effort to require the teaching of intelligent design by school districts or state boards of education” (Discovery Institute 2002; also see here). Which part of “Discovery Institute opposes” did Farina not understand? Even before the famous Dover trial, Discovery Institute had strongly advised the Dover school board not to push ID into the curriculum, but they unfortunately did not listen (West 2005). All these facts can be googled in a few minutes. Seemingly, that was too much of an effort for Farina.

Three Major Problems 

Farina also thinks that intelligent design theory “cannot be validated as real science because it does not explain or predict anything.” Here are three major problems with this statement:

1. Who defines what qualifies as “real science”? It is certainly not Dave Farina. It is not judges in court rooms. And it is not even the scientists themselves who define “science.” Reasonably, it is philosophers of science who address this question. But Farina seems to be totally ignorant of the fact that there is no consensus among philosophers of science about a demarcation criterion that could reliably distinguish science from non-science. Any criterion yet suggested, including Karl Popper’s criterion of falsifiability, either excludes too much (e.g., scientific fields like string theory or evolutionary biology) or includes too much (e.g., homeopathy or parapsychology).
2. Of course, intelligent design has explanatory power. Otherwise, we could not even explain the existence of Romeo and Juliet by the intelligent agency of William Shakespeare. There is no doubt that the designing activity of an intelligent agent is a perfectly valid explanation for complex specified patterns. The only question under debate is whether such patterns are confined to the realm of human cultural artifacts or if they are also found in nature. But this question should not be decided by dogmatic a priori restrictions of certain worldviews that do not allow for design explanations whatever the evidence might be, but should rather follow the evidence wherever it leads. It is an empirical question to be decided by the data.
3. It is simply false that intelligent design does not predict anything. Indeed, this is yet another common stereotype that has been refuted so many times by ID proponents that any further use of this argument can be based only on a total ignorance of the facts (or perhaps deliberate lying, but I prefer not to apply that interpretation). Stephen Meyer (2009) included in his book Signature in the Cell a whole chapter with a dozen predictions inspired by intelligent design theory. These are often very precise and easily falsifiable, for example: “No undirected process will demonstrate the capacity to generate 500 bits of new [specified] information starting from a nonbiological source.” Just write a computer simulation that achieves this, without smuggling the information in through a backdoor, and you can claim victory over a core prediction of intelligent design.

Oh No — Theocracy!!!

Toward the end of his dreadful video, Farina raises the hackneyed threat of intelligent design leading to a totalitarian theocracy comparable to the Ayatollah regime in Iran or the dystopian Handmaid’s Tale. No, I’m not kidding. 

We’re supposed to believe that prominent Discovery Institute Fellows like the Jewish agnostic David Berlinski or the deist Michael Denton have nothing else in mind than establishing a theocracy to burn some witches. And these non-believing Fellows apparently agree with their Catholic (DI co-founder Bruce Chapman, Michael Behe, Ann Gauger, Jay Richards, and myself, even though I joined the ID movement when I was still neither a Christian nor even a theist), Jewish (David Klinghoffer), Orthodox (Richard Sternberg), and Protestant (Douglas Axe, William Dembski, Stephen Meyer, Paul Nelson) colleagues on the kind of theocracy they want to impose. 

Didn’t Farina bother to do any genuine research before making such ridiculous claims? And he has the chutzpah to accuse others of slander? Where is his evidence for such an agenda, apart from wild and unsubstantiated assertions? 

Discovery Institute does indeed have an agenda, and it is no secret at all (Crowther 2005; Discovery Institute 2019): it is an agenda directed against the hijacking of modern science by the nihilistic worldview of materialism and atheism. I am proud to contribute to this noble task, because science should be free to “follow the evidence wherever it leads,” which has become the unofficial motto of Discovery Institute and the ID movement. The agenda is not about pushing religion onto society but about freedom of thought and freedom of research. That sounds evil and dangerous, doesn’t it?

Farina’s Metaphysics Is Showing

Farina’s next blunder is another howler. He says that “science is inherently materialistic” and that “science IS materialism.” He then boldly claims that “anyone who says otherwise does not know what science is.” Well, it’s clearly he who doesn’t understand what science is, because science is neither inherently nor actually materialism. Materialism is a metaphysical and not a scientific position. It is the view that all that exists is matter, energy, space, and time. Science can only study this spatiotemporal realm but it cannot say if it is all that exists. Science is just a methodology. Science is silent about metaphysics, which is why the latter is called METAphysics and not physics. Science is perfectly compatible with many different metaphysical positions, from materialism to Platonism, idealism, and theism. 

Many modern scientists are explicitly not materialists. I am not just speaking about the many Christian scientists and Nobel laureates, but, for example, cosmologist Max Tegmark (2008, 2014), who suggests that all that exists is mathematics and that matter does not even exist, or Nobel laureate Roger Penrose (Murphy 2020), who is one of the many Platonists who think that there is a separate realm of math and forms additional to the material universe, or eminent quantum physicists like Anton Zeilinger (NZZ 2008) who reject materialism and endorse some version of idealism instead. Actually, the growing consensus in modern physics (endorsed by world class physicists like Sean Carroll, Brian Greene, Nima Arkani-Hamed, Leonard Susskind, Max Tegmark, and Erik Verlinde) — that spacetime (and thus also matter and energy) is not fundamental but emergent from an immaterial and atemporal realm of entangled quantum information — has thoroughly debunked materialism as an obsolete 19th-century paradigm. New results from modern experimental physics inspire headlines like “Quantum physics says goodbye to reality” (Physics World 2007), “Reality doesn’t exist until we measure it, quantum experiment confirms” (MacDonald 2015), and “A quantum experiment suggests there’s no such thing as objective reality” (MIT 2019). Many more findings that refute naïve materialism — such as the experimental violations of the inequalities of Bell, Leggett, and Leggett & Garg, as well as the experimental confirmation of the Kochen-Specker theorem — are cited in my article on quantum idealism, for those who are interested and can read German (Raatz & Bechly 2019). Even if some may still disagree with certain interpretations of these results, they at least prove that modern science by no means entails materialism. Quite the contrary! 

“Prediction Prior to Investigation”

Farina further claims that evolution is science but intelligent design is not, because only the former follows the rule of “prediction prior to investigation.” That again is nonsense on many levels. The theory of evolution and its predictions did not precede investigation but is a consequence of investigation. Charles Darwin explicitly made a cumulative empirical case and derived his theory by interpreting data which pre-existed the development of his theory. Of course, the theory then makes predictions that can be empirically tested. For example, it predicts a gradualistic pattern where small changes slowly accumulated into big differences over long periods of time. When this prediction was contradicted by the fossil evidence, numerous ad hoc explanations were forged to explain away the conflicting evidence, such as the artifact hypothesis or punctuated equilibria, etc. The same happened with the vast amount of conflicting evidence (homoplasy) in phylogenetic studies, likewise explained away with ad hoc hypotheses like ghost lineages and incomplete lineage sorting, etc. This is not per se a bad thing. No good theory is given up only because of minor anomalies. However, it is a problem when the anomalies become so massive that a paradigm shift is warranted, which is what ID proponents aim to demonstrate. 

What about intelligent design theory and its predictions? Intelligent design predicts, for example, that changes in the history of life came about abruptly by pulses or infusions of new information from outside the system. That is strongly corroborated by paleontological research and the ubiquitous discontinuities in the fossil record that can no longer be explained away by reference to incompleteness or undersampling (Bechly & Meyer 2017; Bechly 2021). Here is another successful prediction that was made prior to investigation: ID proponent Richard Sternberg predicted in 2005 (Shapiro & Sternberg 2005) that junk DNA would turn out not be junk after all. That was later confirmed by the findings of the ENCODE project (Axe 2012). Above, I mentioned the 12 predictions listed by Meyer (2009). Thus, intelligent design theory does make testable predictions just like evolutionary theory does, which is why even atheist thinkers like philosopher Thomas Nagel (Nagel 2012) and physicist Bradley Monton (Monton 2009) have acknowledged the scientific status of ID theory. It is comical when anti ID-activists claim that intelligent design is not science because it is not falsifiable, and a sentence later say that it has been debunked (i.e., falsified), without recognizing the deep inconsistency of such claims.

Missing the Target

In the end, Farina’s potshots against intelligent design and Discovery Institute completely miss their targets. “Professor Dave” needs to do more than recycle past discredited claims if he wants to be taken seriously by anyone genuinely interested in pursuing the truth. 

Farina makes additional false or misleading statements in his video, and I will be reviewing them in the future. Next up will be his claim that the term “Darwinism” is obsolete and only used by “creationists.” After that, I will address his specific charges about Casey Luskin and the fossil evidence for human evolution. 

Man redeprivileged? II

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Who needs Dr. Doolittle?

 

These Animals Know How to Self-Medicate

Denyse O'Leary

It turns out that many animals know how to alleviate some of their common health problems and we are only beginning to (officially) learn about it. Dolphins, for example:

Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins get skin conditions, too, but they come about their medication by queuing up nose-to-tail to rub themselves against corals. In the journal iScience on May 19, researchers show that these corals have medicinal properties, suggesting that the dolphins are using the marine invertebrates to medicate skin conditions.

Thirteen years ago, co-lead author Angela Ziltener (@DWAORG), a wildlife biologist at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, first observed dolphins rubbing against coral in the Northern Red Sea, off the coast of Egypt. She and her team noticed that the dolphins were selective about which corals they rubbed against, and they wanted to understand why. “I hadn’t seen this coral rubbing behavior described before, and it was clear that the dolphins knew exactly which coral they wanted to use,” says Ziltener. “I thought, ‘There must be a reason.’” 

CELL PRESS, “WATCH DOLPHINS LINE UP TO SELF-MEDICATE SKIN AILMENTS AT CORAL ‘CLINICS’” AT EUREKALERT (MAY 19, 2022) THE PAPER IS OPEN ACCESS.

There was indeed a reason: The dolphins were stirring up the coral polyps which then released mucus which may help the dolphins with skin health and with treating infections: “It’s almost like they are showering, cleaning themselves before they go to sleep or get up for the day,” says study researcher Angela Ziltener, who dived down to where the dolphins hang out to find out what was going on.

Natural Healing, the Chimp Way

In one of many other such observations, a chimp mother was recently seen using an insect to ease a bite wound on her offspring:

For the first time, researchers observed chimpanzees in Gabon, West Africa applying insects to their wounds and the wounds of others…

“In the video, you can see that Suzee is first looking at the foot of her son, and then it’s as if she is thinking, ‘What could I do?’ and then she looks up, sees the insect, and catches it for her son,’” Mascaro says. The Ozouga team started to monitor the chimpanzees for this type of wound-tending behavior, and over the next 15 months documented 76 cases of the group applying insects to wounds on themselves and others. 

CELL PRESS, “CHIMPANZEE MOTHER SEEN APPLYING AN INSECT TO A WOUND ON HER SON” AT SCIENCEDAILY (FEBRUARY 7, 2022).

Just what the insect does for the chimp’s wound is unclear but cognitive biologist Simone Pika notes, “There have been studies showing that insects can have antibiotic, antiviral, and anthelmintic functions.” That may be but perhaps the main outcome will turn out to be pain/itch relief.

Learning from Elephants

Elephants have been observed to use plants for medicinal purposes too. Researchers interviewed mahouts (work elephant riders) as to what the elephants did on their own that they had adopted as part of a care routine:

114 species [of plants] were recorded as being consumed by elephants during interviews with mahouts and forest outings with them to collect samples. Twenty species were identified as used by elephants in particular pathological conditions or physiological states. According to interviewed mahouts, the consumption of certain plants improves the health of the elephant. We observed clear convergences between the observations interpreted by the mahouts as self-medication behaviour from elephants and their own medicinal practices (for human and veterinary purposes). 

DUBOST JM, LAMXAY V, KRIEF S, FALSHAW M, MANITHIP C, DEHARO E. FROM PLANT SELECTION BY ELEPHANTS TO HUMAN AND VETERINARY PHARMACOPEIA OF MAHOUTS IN LAOS. J ETHNOPHARMACOL. 2019 NOV 15.

Similarly, dogs self-medicate:

Anyone who has seen a dog eat grass during a walk has witnessed self-medication. The dog probably has an upset stomach or a parasite. The grass helps them vomit up the problem or eliminate it with the feces.

JOEL SHURKIN, “ANIMALS THAT SELF-MEDICATE” AT PROC NATL ACAD SCI U S A. 2014 DEC 9; 111(49): 17339–17341.

So do cats, likely for the same reasons.

Read the rest at Mind Matters News, published by Discovery Institute’s Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence.

 

Darwinism extinct?

 

Fact-Checking “Professor Dave”: Is the Term “Darwinism” Really Used Only by “Creationists”?

Günter Bechly

Is “Darwinism” an obsolete term? That’s what atheist YouTuber Dave Farina says in a recent video attacking intelligent design. As I wrote previously, Farina’s attacks on intelligent design do little more than recycle misinformation and stereotypes. This claim about “Darwinism” is a case in point. Farina alleges that the term “Darwinism” is no longer used by modern scientists, but only by “creationists.” 

This is a common trope among anti-ID activists who do not work in the field of evolutionary biology. I had to debunk the same claim in my debate with Joshua Swamidass (Unbelievable? 2021). Like Swamidass, Farina does not present any scientific evidence for this unsubstantiated assertion. Of course he does not, because he cannot, because it is factually incorrect. 

The Peer-Reviewed Evidence

As this nonsense is so often found in Internet forums discussing intelligent design, I here provide the peer-reviewed scientific evidence to put the point to rest once and for all.

Michael Ruse (1982) edited an anti-ID book titled “Darwinism defended” and Ruse (2015) authored the entry “Darwinism” for an international encyclopedia, where he defined “Darwinism [a]s the theory of evolution through natural selection.” Ernst Mayr (1984), co-founder of the Modern Evolutionary Synthesis, asked “What Is Darwinism Today?” Evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould (1984) in his Tanner Lectures presented “Challenges to Neo-Darwinism.” Richard Dawkins, the famous atheist and popularizer of Darwin’s theory, did not at all think that “Darwinism” is obsolete but instead elevated it to the status of a general theory of everything that he named “Universal Darwinism” (Dawkins 1985). Some 18 years later Dawkins gave a whole lecture on “Neo-Darwinism” (Dawkins 2013). Francisco Ayala et al. (2002) debated “Neodarwinism and infectious diseases transmission.” Arber (2008) used computer modelling to explore the “Molecular mechanisms driving Darwinian evolution.” Deslile (2009) suggested a pluralistic “proper foundation for neo-Darwinism.” Evolutionist philosopher of biology David Hull (2011) presented himself as “Defining Darwinism” in a special issue of a journal entirely devoted to this very question. Brooks (2011) asked in the same issue, “How Darwinian is neo-Darwinism?” and Depew (2011) pondered “the future of Darwinism.” Kampourakis & Gripiotis (2015) wrote in Perspectives in Science about “Darwinism in Context.” Denis Nobel (2015) wrote about “Evolution beyond neo-Darwinism.” Philosopher of science Jamie Milton Freestone (2021) looked at “Contemporary Darwinism as a worldview.” Hancock et al. (2021) published a study in the prestigious journal Evolution and concluded in the abstract, “The Modern Synthesis (or ‘Neo-Darwinism’), …, remains the foundation of evolutionary theory. … Neo-Darwinism is alive and well.” Even more recently, Brown & Hullender (2022) found that “Neo-Darwinism must mutate to survive.”

These are just a few examples of academic publications about (Neo-)Darwinism with that term in the title, which is not to mention the many studies that use the term in the text as a matter of course. An example from my own field of expertise is paleontologist David Sepkoski (2012), who famously identified the five big mass extinction events, and who uses the term “Darwinism” all over the place in his book Rereading the Fossil Record. 

Most of the above-mentioned scientists are renowned mainstream evolutionists, and none of them considers the term “Darwinism” as obsolete or no longer used in contemporary science. That totally debunks Farina’s claim that only “creationists” use the term Darwinism but not real scientists. Even the uber-skeptical Wikipedia, which is dominated by a virtual Mafia of anti-ID activists who successfully conspired to erase my Wikipedia page (Benjakob 2017, Klinghoffer 2017), does not consider “Neo-Darwinism” to be an obsolete term. The prestigious Encyclopedia Britannica concurs.

Embarrassing and Appalling

Farina apparently did not bother to do a minimum of fact-checking. This is embarrassing and appalling for somebody who claims to be a science educator. 

However, there is still more misinformation being peddled by Farina. Next up I will tackle his critique of Casey Luskin and the fossil record relating to human evolution. 

With us in mind? II

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Getting older without aging?

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The challenge to OOL science.

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Fiat money a mistake?

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Overlooked design?

 

Fascia, Your Body’s Fashionable “New” Organ

David Coppedge

It’s not often that a new functional organ is found in the human body, considering that everything has been dissected and drawn for centuries and photographed in detail for decades. This organ is big and obvious! Ignoring it is like throwing away the wrapping paper and then finding out that the wrapping paper was a major part of the gift.

It’s called fascia — a word from Latin meaning bandage. In anatomy, fascia is defined as “a band or sheath of connective tissue investing, supporting, or binding together internal organs or parts of the body.” Laypersons who have heard the word were probably afflicted with plantar fasciitis, an ailment that inflames the fascia along the bottom of the foot. I’ve had it and know that PF is painful. It can sometimes be relieved by weeks of physical therapy or a shot of cortisone. I reflected on a long hike recently how wonderful it feels to walk again without PF pain. I learned from my podiatrist and his foot model that the plantar fascia holds the heel and toes together.

Types of Fascia

Fascia comes in different types. There is “superficial fascia” found under the skin, and “deep fascia” found around internal organs. An intriguing article in New Scientist by Caroline Williams explains the new interest scientists are taking in fascia since Italian anatomist Carla Stecco began studying it around year 2000. There’s a big story for ID advocates in what Williams relates about this multi-functional “overlooked” connective tissue. Fascia is composed primarily of the proteins collagen (for strength) and elastin (for flexibility). It is now becoming understood to play numerous roles, even to the point of earning the title of a new “organ” in the body.

The 19th-century anatomist Erasmus Wilson called this tissue — now known as fascia — a natural bandage. In dissection, that is exactly what it looks like: sheets of white, fibrous connective tissue that are strong yet flexible and perfect for keeping muscles and organs in place. They are also sticky, gloopy and get in the way of looking at the muscles, bones and organs they cover. Which explains why, for years, anatomists cut this tissue off, chucked it away and thought little more about it.

Recently, though, researchers have begun to take a fresh look at fascia and are finding that it is anything but an inert wrapping. Instead, it is the site of biological activity that explains some of the links between lifestyle and health. It may even be a new type of sensory organ. “There appears to be more going on in the fascia than is commonly appreciated,” says Karl Lewis at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. [Emphasis added.]

What kind of biological activity goes on in fascia? What does this network of tissue do for us? 

Here’s a Summary

Cushioning: The main ingredients in “loose” fascia (the “gloopy” kind) are “hyaluronic acid, for lubrication, and proteoglycans, molecules that provide cushioning.” These are secreted by cells in the tissue such as fibroblasts and the “recently discovered fasciacytes.”

Packaging: Fascia surrounds internal organs to offer protection and hold them in place. Think of a simple duffle bag for camera gear; items can shuffle around and become separated or damaged. Newer packs have compartments for lenses, the camera body, memory cards, and other parts that keep them separated and safe. Fascia acts like that. What would happen to a runner or gymnast without it? The thought of organs jostling about in the body cavity is not pretty.

Sensation: Stecco’s father Luigi Stecco, a physiotherapist, “invented a form of physical therapy called fascial manipulation, which he claimed could treat everything from headaches to muscle and joint pain.” He based his now-popular therapy on the belief that fascia could become stiff, and that this painful stiffness could be alleviated by massage. But, as Williams relates, it wasn’t known in 2000 what fascia actually is, or if it contains nerves. 

Since then, she and others have shown that fascia is indeed rich in nerves, and that the information that these relay varies throughout the body. Superficial fascia contains nerves that specialise in sensing pressure, temperature and movement. Deep fascia is involved in proprioception, the body’s sense of its position in space, and nociception, the sensing of pain.

Because of this sensory role, some researchers say that fascia should be considered a new organ, one that is specialised for communication about the body’s internal state. Robert Schleip at the Technical University of Munich in Germany recently estimated that an adult’s fascia contains approximately 250 million nerve endings, similar to, or slightly more than the skin. “It is beyond any doubt our richest sensory organ,” he says.

Immune Response: If one takes the broad definition of fascia to include the interstitium (“the fluid-filled connective tissue that lines every organ, muscle fibre and blood vessel,” then fascia can be thought of as “a whole-body network of fluid that could function both as a shock absorber and an immune network relevant to inflammatory disorders, scar formation and the spread of cancer,” Williams says.

Time for a Fresh Look

It’s about time scientists take a fresh look at this “wrapping” that anatomists, since the days of staged public dissections by Andreas Vesalius and others, cut away to get to the interesting stuff. And without question, an organ with so many roles is likely to hold secrets that could lead to major insights about the causes and cures of a variety of ailments. Williams describes some of the new thinking about how fascia relate to joint stiffness, inflammation, cancer, depression, and lower back pain. For instance, Helene Langevin at the NIH says “people with chronic lower back pain had thoracolumbar fascia that was 20 per cent stiffer than those without this pain.”

Other studies by Langevin with pigs showed that stretching the lower back for 5 minutes, twice a day, not only reduced the size of an area of inflammation, but also seemed to induce a series of anti-inflammatory chemical events from the fascia. This is a promising finding because chronic inflammation has been linked to pretty much every modern ailment going, from heart disease and diabetes to cancer and depression.

One thing we can all learn from the new interest in fascia is that it’s a good investment to keep our fascia network functioning at its best. Williams ends with a story about new imaging techniques by Neil Thiese and colleagues at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, that allowed them to observe fascia’s 3-D structure in living tissue. They found it to have “a sponge-like structure filled with fluid that drained into the lymphatic system, part of the body’s immune set-up.”

The team suggested that physical movement may help keep this fluid healthy, whether due to the pumping of the heart, the movement of the digestive tract or physical movement of the body. “It seems that no such spaces are static,” says Thiese. This discovery opens up the possibility that the body is connected in ways that we are only beginning to understand and that movement is required to keep this tissue healthy.

The body is connected in ways that we are only beginning to understand. Isn’t that true of so many past cases of simplistic material explanations in science that failed? Spontaneous generation, featureless protoplasm, vestigial organs, junk DNA — they all have in common the assumption that the stuff of life is simple to imagine having come into being by unguided natural processes. Fascia reminds us that the closer one looks at life, the more wondrous and well-designed it appears. Never count anything as useless. The wrapping is part of the gift.

Man to man is a wolf. IV

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Man:Son of God

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Man redeprivileged?

 

Professor: We Shouldn’t Necessarily Value Humans Over Other Animals

Denyse O'Leary

New York University environmentalism prof Jeff Sebo, co-author of Chimpanzee Rights (2018), sees human exceptionalism (the idea that there is something unique about human beings) as a danger to humans and other life forms. He does not think that we should necessarily prioritize humans over animals:

Most humans take this idea of human exceptionalism for granted. And it makes sense that we do, since we benefit from the notion that we matter more than other animals. But this statement is still worth critically assessing. Can we really justify the idea that some lives carry more ethical weight than others in general, and that human lives carry more ethical weight than nonhuman lives in particular? And even if so, does it follow that we should prioritise ourselves as much as we currently do? …

My goal is instead to argue against a moderate form of human exceptionalism, according to which humans contingently matter more than nonhumans. If you are among the many who think that we take priority over other animals because of our ‘higher’ capacities and ‘stronger’ relationships, this is wishful thinking. There are too many nonhumans, and our lives are too intertwined with theirs, for that to be plausible. This ‘moderate’ view is not as ethical as you think. 

JEFF SEBO, “AGAINST HUMAN EXCEPTIONALISM” AT AEON (MAY 5, 2022)

Irrational Humans? Sure

He argues that humans are often not rational and that some animals show human-like qualities:

First, we might not always have a higher capacity for agency than other animals. We all lack the capacity for rational reflection early in life, some of us lose this capacity later in life, and some of us never develop this capacity at all. Meanwhile, many nonhuman animals have the capacity for memory, emotion, self-awareness, social awareness, communication, instrumental reasoning and more. Human and nonhuman agency thus overlap substantially in practice.

Moreover, even when we do have a higher capacity for agency than other animals, this difference might be smaller than we think. Our views about agency are anthropocentric, in that we treat human agency as the standard against which all forms of agency should be compared. But while human agency is certainly impressive, nonhuman agency is impressive too. And if we studied nonhuman agency on its own terms, we might discover forms of self-determination that humans lack. 

JEFF SEBO, “AGAINST HUMAN EXCEPTIONALISM” AT AEON (MAY 5, 2022)

Of course, lack of immediate rational qualities is a conventional justification for abortion and euthanasia. 

He goes on, ending with:

And when we take our thumbs off the scales, we can expect the scales to shift. We should already be treating nonhumans much better and, eventually, we might even need to prioritise their interests and needs over our own. We should start preparing for that possibility now.

JEFF SEBO, “AGAINST HUMAN EXCEPTIONALISM” AT AEON (MAY 5, 2022)

In the Real World

Thumbs off the scales? Of course, in the real world, there have been many cultures in which the king’s horse or dog or a sacred animal was worth the lives of several humans. If we don’t have that culture where we live, that is a moral advance, not a decline. Human rights is the thumb on the scale.

Anti-human exceptionalism advocates always manage to avoid the obvious point that we can and do oppose cruelty to animals without claiming that there is nothing special about being human.

Claiming that there is nothing special about being human — given the world we live in — is either a flight from reality or a journey into darker motives. 

Read the rest at Mind Matters News, published by Discovery Institute’s Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence.