Fred Williams has been referencing his article
"15 Evolutionary Gems Refuted" on this website. One of the many errors I found was in this refutation:
"REFUTED: This is another example of adaptation. In fact, they provide creationist evidence for rapid speciation after the flood: The effect is reinforced by non-random dispersal; individual birds select and breed in different habitats in a way that increases their fitness." The authors conclude that when gene flow is not homogeneous, evolutionary differentiation can be rapid and can occur over surprisingly small spatial scales. They forget that these non-random changes have nothing to do with evolution[11]."
Footnote [11] reads:
"As evolutionist Douglas Futuyama states in his college textbook Evolutionary Biology, "The argument that adaptively directed mutations does not occur is one of the fundamental tenets of modern evolutionary theory" [emphasis added]. Evolutionary Biology, 1998, p 282."
This is quite the bait and switch. I would like to think that Mr. Williams is honestly confused on the issue, but I doubt it.
The error is quite obvious. Futuyama is talking about the randomness of mutation. He is stating that one of the tenets of neo-Darwinism is that the mechanisms which produce mutations are independent of the needs of the organism. That is, mutation and fitness are independent.
Mr. Williams is trying to refute natural selection which
is non-random. This is the bait and switch. Mr. Williams conflates the randomness of mutations with the non-randomness of selection due to environmental pressures. This is made quite clear in this quoted section:
"individual birds select and breed in different habitats in a way that increases their fitness"
Sexual and environmental selection are non-random, and nowhere does Futuyama claim that selection is random. What Futyama does say is that mutations are random with respect to fitness, not selection.
It is these types of errors that make any radio debate with Fred Williams a no go. He is willing to misrepresent scientific data.
Edited by Taq, : No reason given.