Fear itself VI

Fear itself V

Darwin's finches for the prosecution.

Evolution Within Limits: Nature Study Identifies Genetic Basis for Galápagos Finch Beak Variation

Casey Luskin February 17, 2015 11:51 AM

 

 

Decades ago researchers Peter and Rosemarie Grant conducted painstaking research on finches in the Galápagos Islands. They found that during a drought period the seeds eaten by the finches became tougher, and those birds with bigger beaks were better able to survive and reproduce. After the drought ended, however, the seeds returned to their normal state and beaks also returned to their pre-drought sizes. As the Grants explained:

Effects of the droughts of 1977 and 1982 were approximately offset by selection in the opposite direction -- toward smaller body size -- in 1984-85. A relative scarcity of large seeds, together with an ample supply of small ones, favored small finches. Because the food supply on this island changes in composition and size from year to year, the optimal beak form for a finch is shifting in position, and the population, subjected to natural selection, is oscillating back and forth with every shift. Whether or not there is a net directional arrow through the oscillations is unclear and could be determined by a much longer study.

(Peter R. Grant, "Natural Selection and Darwin's Finches," Scientific American, pp. 82-82 (October, 1991).)

The finches thus provide us with an example of natural selection, specifically oscillating selection, but the example entails small-scale evolutionary change. Indeed, many of the finch species can interbreed, regardless of whether they have slightly different-sized beaks. As a paper in BioScience explains, the "finch species retain the ability to interbreed and produce viable, fertile hybrids." There is little doubt that these highly similar and genetically compatible finch species are closely related, but what is the genetic basis for the differences in the size and shape of finch beaks? A new paper in the journal Nature has identified a gene, ALX1, involved in helping to cause the different beak shapes. One variant of the ALX1 gene seems to be associated with pointed beaks, while the other variant is involved with blunted beaks.

But the Nature paper's authors also conducted a phylogenetic study that further confirms extensive interbreeding between the finch "species":

Phylogenetic analysis reveals important discrepancies with the phenotype-based taxonomy. We find extensive evidence for interspecific gene flow throughout the radiation. Hybridization has given rise to species of mixed ancestry. ... The discrepancies between phylogenies based on morphology and genome sequences may be due to convergent evolution and/or interspecies gene flow. ... [O]ur analysis of demographic history using the pairwise sequentially Markovian coalescent (PSMC) model was consistent with extensive interspecies gene flow among the ground finches, as they have maintained larger effective population sizes than the other species.

In other words, they had difficulty creating a gene-based phylogenetic tree because these species are so closely related that they still interbreed, obscuring the true phylogenetic signal. This evidence for interbreeding further reveals the small degree of evolutionary change that has taken place within the finches. As BBC News reports, some of these finch "species" really aren't even different species:

The most extensive genetic study ever conducted of Darwin's finches, from the Galápagos Islands, has revealed a messy family tree with a surprising level of interbreeding between species.

[...]

Prof Peter Keightley from the University of Edinburgh, though largely convinced by the results, was less surprised that the finches had interbred so extensively.

"These islands are pretty close together. So it's not surprising that they are flying from one island to the other," he said.

Some of the traditional species might not, in fact, be genuinely distinct, he added.

It turns out that these interspecies hybrids may be responsible for mixing producing different sizes of beaks. According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, there are different alleles of ALX1 in the population, and heterozygosity for the gene may lead to intermediate-sized beaks:

A lot of evolution is driven by random mutations. The process of natural selection favors mutations that provide some advantage, and organisms evolve in particular directions. But in the Galápagos, another mechanism was at play as well.

In their fieldwork, the Grants noticed that individuals of two different finch species would sometimes pair off, a process known as hybridization.

In theory, that should transfer genes from one population to another. But the evolutionary consequences of this were unknown.

The Nature study shows that the process of hybridization had indeed mixed the different variants of ALX1 and has thus played an important role in the evolution of Darwin's finches.

So can intelligent design make sense of this? What we may be looking at are variants of an allele that have been in this population of finches since long before they migrated to the Galápagos Islands. These variants can help cause pointed beaks, blunted beaks, or beaks of intermediate size and shape. Environmental conditions can cause the variants to increase or decrease their prevalence within the population of finches.

The bottom line is that we might be looking at variants of an allele that are designed to allow a population of finches to evolve different beak sizes and shapes within predefined limits. Of course work on the finches from an ID perspective could bear out this hypothesis, but one thing seems clear so far: the Galápagos finches don't show the unlimited creative capacity of the Darwinian mechanism, as popularly claimed, but instead only small-scale, very modest evolutionary change, the kind almost no one doubts.

Thought your kids were in school to acquire critical thinking skills?You dear sweet child,read on.

Survey Suggests Students Should Not be Allowed to "Make Up their own Minds" on Evolution

Casey Luskin February 9, 2011 5:43 AM | 

As we reported, the journal Science recently published a survey which underreports the number of Darwin-doubting science teachers, instead finding that 28% of teachers are "Advocates of evolutionary biology," 13% are "Advocates of creationism," and 60% are "Advocates of neither." (Strange that their percentages add up to 101%.) Discovery Institute in fact does not support mandating intelligent design, and does not support teaching creationism. Rather, we think teachers should teach the scientific controversy over neo-Darwinian evolution.

What's ironic about the survey is that someone who follows the advice of a different paper published in Science last year could never qualify as an "Advocate of evolutionary biology."

Last year Science published a paper by Jonathan Osborne titled, "Arguing to Learn in Science: The Role of Collaborative, Critical Discourse," which found that students learn science best when they learn "to discriminate between evidence that supports (inclusive) or does not support (exclusive) or that is simply indeterminate." According to Osborne's paper, it's vital to teach students what scientific critique looks like:

Critique is not, therefore, some peripheral feature of science, but rather it is core to its practice, and without argument and evaluation, the construction of reliable knowledge would be impossible.

(Jonathan Osborne, "Arguing to Learn in Science: The Role of Collaborative, Critical Discourse," Science, Vol. 328 (5977): 463-466 (April 23, 2010).)

In fact, Osborne's paper warns about presenting science as a "monolith of facts" or an "authoritative discourse":

Typically, in the rush to present the major features of the scientific landscape, most of the arguments required to achieve such knowledge are excised. Consequently, science can appear to its students as a monolith of facts, an authoritative discourse where the discursive exploration of ideas, their implications, and their importance is absent. Students then emerge with naive ideas or misconceptions about the nature of science itself....

All of this of course flies in the face of the teaching method endorsed by the survey, which recommends authoritatively telling students that "the broad consensus" is that "evolution is fact." If a teacher qualified as an "Advocate of evolution" by the criteria used in survey, they could never take the scientific approach recommended by Osborne's paper

Incredibly, this new Science survey claims that teachers who "teach the controversy" will "fail to explain the nature of scientific inquiry." The reality is precisely the opposite: teachers who teach evolution dogmatically as fact will fail to explain the nature of scientific inquiry.

The authors of the survey even go so far as to criticize a teacher who felt that "Students should make up their own minds" on evolution "based on their own beliefs and research." Their reasoning is that students would not be able to think through the issues:

But does a 15-year-old student really have enough information to reject thousands of peer-reviewed scientific papers? This approach tells students that well-established concepts like common ancestry can be debated in the same way we debate personal opinions.

(Michael B. Berkman and Eric Plutzer, "Defeating Creationism in the Courtroom, But Not in the Classroom," Vol. 331:404-405 (January 28, 2011).)

Here are just a few reasons why their argument for dogmatism fails:

It's false to pretend that dissenting from the Darwinian consensus requires "rejecting" all peer-reviewed science or that dissenters simply have "opinions" but not evidence. There are peer-reviewed scientific papers which dissent from the majority viewpoint on topics like the efficacy of natural selection or the tree of life.

Evolution education deals with a fundamental question of humanity--"Where did we come from?" Yes, modern neo-Darwinian evolutionary biology is the majority viewpoint and students must learn about this viewpoint. But there are significant numbers of scientists who dissent from that viewpoint. From a purely humanistic standpoint, it seems unconscionable to withhold from students the fact that there are credible scientific views that dissent from the majority viewpoint on this fundamental question of humanity--even if those views happen to be in the minority right now.

If students can learn the evidence for a particular proposition of modern evolutionary theory, there's no in principle reason they could not learn about evidence against it. Students don't have to sift through thousands of scientific papers to learn about the debate. A well-trained teacher can synthesize the material, spend a couple weeks explaining the standard neo-Darwinian consensus view, and then cover the scientific controversy over neo-Darwinian evolution in one or two lectures. If Osborne's educational theories are valid, students will understand the topic better under this approach.

As we've seen, science education theorists find that students learn science best when they study different sides of a scientific debate. Scientific elites praise the importance of inquiry-based science education -- with all of its critical thinking, skepticism, and consideration of alternative explanations -- but unfortunately jettison such beneficial educational philosophies when it comes to teaching evolution.

Bloodsport III

The Watchtower Society's commentary on the Beast of revelation Ch.13.

What Is the Seven-Headed Wild Beast of Revelation Chapter 13?

The Bible’s answer

The wild beast with seven heads introduced at Revelation 13:1represents the worldwide political system.

• It has authority, power, and a throne, which point to its being a political entity.—Revelation 13:2.
• It rules over “every tribe and people and tongue and nation,” so it is greater than a single national government.—Revelation 13:7.
• It combines features of the four beasts described in the prophecy atDaniel 7:2-8, including the appearance of a leopard, the feet of a bear, a lion’s mouth, and ten horns. The beasts in Daniel’s prophecy are identified as specific kings, or political kingdoms, that rule in succession over empires. (Daniel 7:17, 23) Thus, the wild beast of Revelation chapter 13 represents a composite political organization.
• It ascends “out of the sea,” that is, from the turbulent masses of mankind that are the source of human governments.—Revelation 13:1; Isaiah 17:12, 13.
• The Bible says that the number, or name, of the beast—666—is “a man’s number.” (Revelation 13:17, 18) That expression indicates that the beast of Revelation chapter 13 is a human entity, not a spirit or demon entity.

Even though nations may agree on few things, they unite in their determination to maintain their authority rather than submit to the rule of God’s Kingdom. (Psalm 2:2) They will also join forces to battle God’s armies commanded by Jesus Christ at Armageddon, but this war will result in the nations being destroyed.—Revelation 16:14, 16; 19:19, 20.

“Ten horns and seven heads”

Certain numbers are used symbolically in the Bible. For example, ten and seven represent completeness. The key to understanding the specific meaning of the “ten horns and seven heads” of the beast ofRevelation chapter 13 is an “image of the wild beast” identified later in Revelation—a bright-red beast that has seven heads and ten horns. (Revelation 13:1, 14, 15; 17:3) The Bible says that the seven heads of this red beast mean “seven kings,” or governments.—Revelation 17:9, 10.

Likewise, the seven heads of the beast of Revelation 13:1 represent seven governments: the primary political powers that have dominated through history and have taken the lead in oppressing God’s people—Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, and Anglo-America. If we conclude that the ten horns represent all sovereign states, small and large, then the diadem, or crown, on each horn shows that each nation rules concurrently with the primary political power of the time.

Daniel Ch.2 the tanakh.

2:1 And in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams, wherewith his spirit was troubled, and his sleep brake from him.

2:2 Then the king commanded to call the magicians, and the astrologers, and the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans, for to shew the king his dreams. So they came and stood before the king.

2:3 And the king said unto them, I have dreamed a dream, and my spirit was troubled to know the dream.

2:4 Then spake the Chaldeans to the king in Syriack, O king, live for ever: tell thy servants the dream, and we will shew the interpretation.

2:5 The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, The thing is gone from me: if ye will not make known unto me the dream, with the interpretation thereof, ye shall be cut in pieces, and your houses shall be made a dunghill.

2:6 But if ye shew the dream, and the interpretation thereof, ye shall receive of me gifts and rewards and great honour: therefore shew me the dream, and the interpretation thereof.

2:7 They answered again and said, Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will shew the interpretation of it.

2:8 The king answered and said, I know of certainty that ye would gain the time, because ye see the thing is gone from me.

2:9 But if ye will not make known unto me the dream, there is but one decree for you: for ye have prepared lying and corrupt words to speak before me, till the time be changed: therefore tell me the dream, and I shall know that ye can shew me the interpretation thereof.

2:10 The Chaldeans answered before the king, and said, There is not a man upon the earth that can shew the king's matter: therefore there is no king, lord, nor ruler, that asked such things at any magician, or astrologer, or Chaldean.

2:11 And it is a rare thing that the king requireth, and there is none other that can shew it before the king, except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh.

2:12 For this cause the king was angry and very furious, and commanded to destroy all the wise men of Babylon.

2:13 And the decree went forth that the wise men should be slain; and they sought Daniel and his fellows to be slain.

2:14 Then Daniel answered with counsel and wisdom to Arioch the captain of the king's guard, which was gone forth to slay the wise men of Babylon: 2:15 He answered and said to Arioch the king's captain, Why is the decree so hasty from the king? Then Arioch made the thing known to Daniel.

2:16 Then Daniel went in, and desired of the king that he would give him time, and that he would shew the king the interpretation.

2:17 Then Daniel went to his house, and made the thing known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions: 2:18 That they would desire mercies of the God of heaven concerning this secret; that Daniel and his fellows should not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.

2:19 Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven.

2:20 Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever: for wisdom and might are his: 2:21 And he changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth kings, and setteth up kings: he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding: 2:22 He revealeth the deep and secret things: he knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him.

2:23 I thank thee, and praise thee, O thou God of my fathers, who hast given me wisdom and might, and hast made known unto me now what we desired of thee: for thou hast now made known unto us the king's matter.

2:24 Therefore Daniel went in unto Arioch, whom the king had ordained to destroy the wise men of Babylon: he went and said thus unto him; Destroy not the wise men of Babylon: bring me in before the king, and I will shew unto the king the interpretation.

2:25 Then Arioch brought in Daniel before the king in haste, and said thus unto him, I have found a man of the captives of Judah, that will make known unto the king the interpretation.

2:26 The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, Art thou able to make known unto me the dream which I have seen, and the interpretation thereof? 2:27 Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and said, The secret which the king hath demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers, shew unto the king; 2:28 But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy bed, are these; 2:29 As for thee, O king, thy thoughts came into thy mind upon thy bed, what should come to pass hereafter: and he that revealeth secrets maketh known to thee what shall come to pass.

2:30 But as for me, this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more than any living, but for their sakes that shall make known the interpretation to the king, and that thou mightest know the thoughts of thy heart.

2:31 Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible.

2:32 This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, 2:33 His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.

2:34 Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces.

2:35 Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.

2:36 This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king.

2:37 Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory.

2:38 And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold.

2:39 And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth.

2:40 And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise.

2:41 And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters' clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay.

2:42 And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.

2:43 And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.

2:44 And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.

2:45 Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.

2:46 Then the king Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face, and worshipped Daniel, and commanded that they should offer an oblation and sweet odours unto him.

2:47 The king answered unto Daniel, and said, Of a truth it is, that your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, seeing thou couldest reveal this secret.

2:48 Then the king made Daniel a great man, and gave him many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon.

2:49 Then Daniel requested of the king, and he set Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, over the affairs of the province of Babylon: but Daniel sat in the gate of the king.

---

The watchtower Society's commentary on "Armaggedon."

What Is the Battle of Armageddon?

The Bible’s answer

The battle of Armageddon refers to the final war between human governments and God. These governments and their supporters oppose God even now by refusing to submit to his rulership. (Psalm 2:2) The battle of Armageddon will bring human rulership to an end.—Daniel 2:44.

The word “Armageddon” occurs only once in the Bible, at Revelation 16:16. Prophetically, Revelation shows that at “the place that is called in Hebrew Armageddon,” “the kings of the entire inhabited earth” will be gathered “together to the war of the great day of God the Almighty.”—Revelation 16:14.

Who will fight at Armageddon? Jesus Christ will lead a heavenly army to victory over God’s enemies. (Revelation 19:11-16, 19-21) These enemies include those who oppose God’s authority and who treat God with contempt.—Ezekiel 39:7.

Will Armageddon literally be fought in the Middle East? No. Rather than being restricted to one area, the battle of Armageddon will encompass the whole earth.—Jeremiah 25:32-34; Ezekiel 39:17-20.

Armageddon, sometimes rendered “Har–Magedon” (Hebrew Har Meghiddohn′), means “Mountain of Megiddo.” Megiddo was once a city in the territory of ancient Israel. History tells of decisive battles that were fought in its vicinity, including some that are recorded in the Bible. (Judges 5:19, 20; 2 Kings 9:27; 23:29) However, Armageddon cannot refer to the literal area near ancient Megiddo. There is no large mountain there, and even the entire adjoining Low Plain of Jezreel could not contain all those who will fight against God. Instead, Armageddon is the worldwide situation in which the nations assemble in their last stand against rule by God.

What will conditions be like during the battle of Armageddon? While we do not know how God will use his power, he will have at his disposal weapons such as those he has used in the past—hail, earthquake, flooding downpour, fire and sulfur, lightning, and disease. (Job 38:22, 23; Ezekiel 38:19, 22; Habakkuk 3:10, 11; Zechariah 14:12) In confusion, at least some of God’s enemies will kill each other, yet they will ultimately realize that it is God who is fighting against them.—Ezekiel 38:21, 23; Zechariah 14:13.

Will Armageddon be the end of the world? It will not be the end of our planet, since the earth is mankind’s eternal home. (Psalm 37:29; 96:10; Ecclesiastes 1:4) Rather than destroying humanity, Armageddon actually saves it, because “a great crowd” of God’s servants will survive.—Revelation 7:9, 14; Psalm 37:34.

Besides referring to the earth, though, the word “world” in the Bible sometimes refers to wicked human society opposed to God. (1 John 2:15-17) In this sense, Armageddon will bring “the end of the world.”—Matthew 24:3, King James Version.

When will Armageddon take place? When discussing the “great tribulation” that culminates in the battle of Armageddon, Jesus said: “Concerning that day and hour nobody knows, neither the angels of the heavens nor the Son, but only the Father.” (Matthew 24:21, 36) Nevertheless, the Bible does show that Armageddon takes place during Jesus’ invisible presence, which began in 1914.—Matthew 24:37-39.

A victory for religious liberty in France.

Highest Administrative Court in France Ends Discrimination

After our meeting together, I am happy and singing to myself. Your visit is comforting, and studying the Bible gives me purpose in life.

I just wanted to thank you for the legal, administrative, and spiritual measures you have taken to put this chaplaincy in place.

This provision is an answer to my prayers.

These comments from prison inmates in France express appreciation for the spiritual assistance provided by a minister of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

On October 16, 2013, France’s highest Administrative Court issued a decision that ended a period of discrimination against Jehovah’s Witnesses in France. The Court’s ruling allows ministers of Jehovah’s Witnesses to enter prisons as certified chaplains to offer spiritual counseling to inmates who request a visit. *

Witness Ministers Denied Chaplain Certificates

For many years, prison authorities allowed Witness ministers to visit prisons to offer spiritual guidance and counseling despite their not having a chaplain certificate that officially recognized them as ministers. This began to change in 1995 after a Parliamentary Commission released a controversial report containing a list of so-called dangerous sects that included Jehovah’s Witnesses. This negative classification did more than attack the Witnesses’ image—it sparked a wave of discrimination against them. One manifestation of this was seen in the prison system.

Although parliamentary reports are not legally binding, some prison administrations used the 1995 report as a basis to restrict Witness ministers’ access to inmates who requested spiritual assistance. A Witness minister could visit inmates under common law as a private citizen but not in his official capacity as a minister. He was no longer allowed to bring a Bible or any religious literature with him. All visits had to be conducted in a public visiting room in an atmosphere that was not conducive to a spiritual discussion. One Witness minister said that the atmosphere in the visiting room “was like that of a train concourse, with a similar noise level.” Some prison facilities required that inmates be strip-searched after a visit because it was not with a government-certified chaplain.

In an effort to obtain the same rights as certified ministers of other religions, ministers of Jehovah’s Witnesses began applying for chaplain certificates through the French penitentiary administration in 2003. All applications were categorically denied. The Witnesses appealed these arbitrary and discriminatory refusals to a higher administrative authority but were again denied. The official reason given by France’s Ministry of Justice for refusing to certify Witness ministers as chaplains was that Jehovah’s Witnesses were not on the list of religions that were authorized to enter prisons. The Ministry also expressed concern that granting a chaplain certificate to one of Jehovah’s Witnesses would only encourage other religious minorities to request chaplain certificates. After unsuccessful attempts to resolve the matter through the Ministry of Justice, the Witnesses had no other choice but to pursue this issue in court.

Government Refuses to End Discrimination

In 2006, Jehovah’s Witnesses initiated lawsuits to annul the refusals and to order the Ministry of Justice to grant chaplain certificates to Witness ministers. Every Administrative Court and Court of Appeals in the country that ruled on the matter declared that the government’s refusals were illegal. Moreover, in 2010, the French High Authority for the Fight Against Discrimination and for Equality denounced the government’s position and recommended that the Minister of Justice put an end to the discrimination.

The French government not only ignored this warning and the court decisions but also lodged appeals with the Council of State, France’s highest Administrative Court.

Historic Decision in Favor of Jehovah’s Witnesses

In 2013, the Witness cases eventually came before the Council of State, which joined nine similar cases for consideration. In its October 16, 2013, decision, the Court rejected the appeals submitted by the French government. It stated that in order to respect a prisoner’s rights, the Penitentiary Administration must, “as soon as the request is made, certify a sufficient number of religious ministers as chaplains, subject only to the safety and good order requirements of the facility.” Further, referring to the French Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights, the Council of State declared that “freedom of opinion, conscience and religion of incarcerated individuals is guaranteed and that they may practice the religion of their choice.” As a result of this decision, to date, 105 chaplain certificates have been issued in France, including its overseas territories, making it possible for prison inmates to receive pastoral visits from Jehovah’s Witnesses.

In January 2014, the French Penitentiary Administration appointed one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, Jean-Marc Fourcault, as the national chaplain of Jehovah’s Witnesses. In this role, Mr. Fourcault has access to all prisons in France. He is also authorized to act as the representative of Jehovah’s Witnesses before the Penitentiary Administration. Mr. Fourcault states: “From now on, just like representatives from other authorized religions, Jehovah’s Witness chaplains will be able to meet with inmates privately and in dignified and appropriate locations, sometimes in their own cell.”

This decision is an important victory for freedom of religion in France. It reaffirms that detained individuals have the right to practice the religion of their choice and to be visited by a minister of their choice. Jehovah’s Witnesses are grateful that French courts ended this discrimination, marking another step forward in the recognition of Jehovah’s Witnesses as a religion in France.

The spectre of Lamarck looms.

Lamarck Rescued by RNA? New "Level of Organization" Found for Epigenetic Inheritance

Evolution News & Views February 5, 2015 4:20 AM |

 

 

 

Here's the bottom line from a new paper in PNAS: "To our knowledge, these results demonstrate for the first time that a somatic tissue of an animal can have transgenerational effects on a gene through the transport of double-stranded RNA to the germline." Whoa!

The triumphalist history of Darwinism shows Charles Darwin trouncing Lamarck's "inheritance of acquired characteristics" with the new theory of natural selection. The narrative is often given a decisive coup-de-grace with the retelling of experiments in 1891, when August Weismann cut off the tails of multiple generations of mice, proving that acquired characteristics are not inherited. If Lamarckism were true, bodybuilders would have muscular sons. That doesn't happen, so ha ha! Lamarck's theory is falsified and defunct. Long live Darwin!

What's usually left out of this narrative is that Lamarckism did not go out the exit so quietly. In fact, Darwin himself became more Lamarckian in subsequent editions of The Origin. There continue to be Lamarck fans (example at The Mermaid's Tale) and detractors (example at Real Clear Science). Scientific controversies are rarely decisive. Historians of science like to point out that some of the most clear-cut cases, like the demise of caloric theory and phlogiston theory, did not convince everyone due to one crucial experiment.

The new paper in PNAS is muddying the waters again. Since the word "epigenetics" entered the vocabulary, more old-school geneticists have had to backpedal from the Central Dogma (DNA makes RNA makes protein) to varying degrees. These days, it is common to see admissions of "epigenetic inheritance" and "lateral gene transfer" adding to the neo-Darwinist recipe. What's new about the PNAS paper is experimental verification of a mechanism for inheritance of acquired characteristics in certain cases. It may only apply to roundworms. It may be limited in what it can accomplish. But it happens; and rather than following Darwin's rule of random variations, it involves information transfer.

The germline is separated from the rest of the body, or soma, during early development in most animals, consistent with the suggestion that environmental effects on soma throughout the lifetime of an animal cannot influence inheritance through the germline. However, some environmental changes can cause effects that last for three or more generations, even in the apparent absence of changes in the genotype... These transgenerational epigenetic effects are presumably initiated either by direct changes within the ancestral germline or by the transfer of information from ancestral somatic cells to the ancestral germline.

The researchers found an agent of information transfer in the form of double-stranded RNA (dsRNA). Previous work showed that dsRNA from neurons can travel from one somatic cell to another, silencing genes. This is the first time this process is observed to affect the germline, at least in the lab roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans.

Here, we show that neuronal mobile RNAs can enter both somatic and germ cells to trigger gene silencing. Although silencing in somatic tissues is not detectably inherited despite multigenerational exposure to neuronal mobile RNAs, silencing in the germline is inherited for many generations after a single generation of exposure to neuronal mobile RNAs.

How many is many? "Inherited silencing due to the ancestral production of neuronal mobile RNAs persisted for >25 subsequent generations," they found. In short,

We found that neurons can transport forms of dsRNA into the germline to cause silencing that can last for many generations, and that such transgenerational silencing is restricted to the germline with distinct genetic requirements for initiation and maintenance.

Requirements? Maintenance? That doesn't sound like Darwin's "random variations." It almost sounds like a designed mechanism to help subsequent generations adapt to environmental changes. Watch out for that word information:

Mobile RNAs that enter the germline can provide an organism with the ability to transfer gene-specific regulatory information from somatic cells across generations and could be one mechanism by which the environment elicits transgenerational effects in animals. Although restricted to the germline, transgenerational silencing by mobile RNAs could underlie effects of the environment across generations in some cases. For example, expression of some genes within the germline can affect longevity, and transgenerational silencing of such genes might underlie the longevity that results from ancestral starvation in C. elegans. Thus, additional experiments are needed to determine the role of mobile RNAs, if any, in the transport of such experience-dependent information from somatic cells to subsequent generations in C. elegans.

That's fine for roundworms, but we can't expect higher organisms to act Lamarckian, can we? The authors consider the possibility that a similar import mechanism for dsRNA (SID-1) works in mammals, but realize that mammals have extra protections against germline changes:

The presence of a mammalian homolog of the dsRNA importer SID-1 that is also required for the uptake of dsRNAs into cells raises the possibility that dsRNA generated from distant somatic cells -- potentially in response to environmental influences -- may be imported through SID-1 into the mammalian germline to trigger transgenerational epigenetic changes. Consistent with this possibility, small RNAs have been found in circulation in mammals; dsRNAs have been detected in mammalian germ cells; and injection of RNAs into the early mouse embryo can trigger epigenetic silencing. However, even if RNAs from somatic cells are transported to the germline in mammals, they may not always initiate transgenerational inherited effects because they have to escape mechanisms that reprogram epigenetic information in each generation. Additional studies are required to determine whether specific mechanisms prevent environmental influences from triggering transmission of information in the form of mobile RNAs from somatic cells to the germline.

It's too early to tell, in other words, if this mechanism works for mammals. But consider these evidences that support the possibility: (1) Cases of epigenetic inheritance in humans are already known. (2) Mammals have a homologue of the SID-1 mechanism for importing dsRNA into germ cells. (3) Epigenetic information doesn't have to reside in the chromosomes; it can be transferred to the zygote via cytosolic proteins in the sperm or egg cells.

Before concluding that mammals need not apply, because they reset all the epigenetic codes each generation, more research will be needed. But if this mechanism for transferring environmental cues to the germline works for roundworms, why would it not work for other organisms? Why would a sophisticated system with "requirements" for "initiation" and "maintenance" be found only here in the animal kingdom?

A news item from the University of Maryland, where the research was conducted, does not restrict this mechanism to roundworms.

For more than a century, scientists have understood the basics of inheritance: if good genes help parents survive and reproduce [classic neo-Darwinism], the parents pass those genes along to their offspring. And yet, recent research has shown that reality is much more complex: genes can be switched off, or silenced, in response to the environment or other factors, and sometimes these changes can be passed from one generation to the next.

The phenomenon has been called epigenetic inheritance, but it is not well understood. Now, UMD geneticist Antony Jose and two of his graduate students are the first to figure out a specific mechanism by which a parent can pass silenced genes to its offspring. Importantly, the team found that this silencing could persist for multiple generations -- more than 25, in the case of this study.

They say that this finding "could transform our understanding of animal evolution." That's a euphemistic way of saying it could undermine it, turning it from chance to design. No more hoping for beneficial mutations by chance; look instead for organized systems for transferring information from the environment to the organism and its progeny, so that it can robustly adapt to change.

"For a long time, biologists have wanted to know how information from the environment sometimes gets transmitted to the next generation," said Jose, an assistant professor in the UMD Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics. "This is the first mechanistic demonstration of how this could happen. It's a level of organization that we didn't know existed in animals before."

A new "level of organization" is design language, even if the researchers can't let go of the Darwin paradigm completely:

The team's biggest finding was that dsRNA can travel from body cells into germ cells and silence genes within the germ cells. Even more surprising, the silencing can stick around for more than 25 generations. If this same mechanism exists in other animals -- possibly including humans -- it could mean that there is a completely different way for a species to evolve in response to its environment.

"This mechanism gives an animal a tool to evolve much faster," Jose said. "We still need to figure out whether this tool is actually used in this way, but it is at least possible. If animals use this RNA transport to adapt, it would mean a new understanding of how evolution happens."

Think about that. There's nothing there about chance variation and unguided processes. There's a "tool" the animal can "use" to "adapt." That sounds like a pre-programmed plan for robustness in a world of change: a plan to keep the population stable when famine, drought, heat, cold, or other factors threaten. Once again, RNA plays the role of a messenger. Like the messenger RNA (mRNA) that ferries genetic information to the ribosome, the dsRNA ferries epigenetic information to other cells and to the next generation. One might imagine an email blast going out, "Attention, all cells: silence gene #59348h; famine detected!" This implies that both sender and receiver understand the protocols and have the necessary infrastructure to get the message out.

We're not out to support Lamarck or Darwin. Neither of them could account for new genetic information, body plans, or hierarchical design. What's intriguing is this "level of organization" that biologists "didn't know existed in animals before." Here is a new avenue where design-based research can take the lead.