Say Anything Blog

I think it’s important to recognize that none of the scientists who put themselves on the list actually work in that area in biology.  Most that have been interviewed specifiy religious reasons for their disputing evolution, which hardly makes this list a major scientific challenge to evolution.  In any case, I personally put about zero wait on "lists of scientists" regardless of the topic they are personally endorsing.  Science isn’t a democracy; the best ideas win, not just the most popular ones.

DocDave:

Why evolution should not be challenged like other scientific theories boggles my mind because the very nature of science is objective discovery and rediscovery.

It is, constantly.

As I’ve said here before, most biologists couldn’t give a rat’s ass whether there is a complete theory of the evolution of species from the first moment life existed to the current date.  What they are interested in is a model that is capable, for example, of predicting divergence of species based on ecological forces. The statement that a divergence of species is observed is a statement of the observation of evolution.  If you ask them to throw that away, you are thus asking them to toss out their observational data!

"We are skeptical of claims for the ability of random mutation and natural selection to account for the complexity of life"

I’ve discussed that point previously.   Anybody who makes that claim now hasn’t been keeping up on recent evolutionary development biology.

To summarize:  There is a problem with random mutation of genes + natural selection being able to account for the complexity of life.

 The problem has been understood to exist since the 1960s and most evolutionary biologists have been aware of this since the 1970s.  (This certainly calls into question your claim of a pseudo-religious belief system.)  The out is Evodevo.  It turns out that species differences have less to do with differences in the genes found in the species than how the genes are expressed. (Unfortunately, we can’t currently search sayanything comments, or I’d provide a link to my previous comment.)

This is one of those topics I’d love a chance to sit down and put together a full discussion of, and how it solves the too-slow a mutation rate conundrum.  Unfortunately, I have a couple of major deadlines looming, so it will be a while before I can do very much in depth postings.