Percy writes :For the IDer, taking life from its starting point to its ultimate destination is a MAMMOTH puzzle...
M: Since mammmoths and IDer are in the same sentence I think I am obligated to reply
P: for example, that assuming evolution has stopped for human beings and that the IDer is no longer evolving us introduces additional complexity
M: However, there are ongoing changes in allele frequency in human populations in response to environmental stimuli such as selective pressure of HIV and the protection of a deletion of the CCR5 locus...
"Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2001 Aug 28;98(18):10214-9
The coreceptor mutation CCR5Delta32 influences the dynamics of HIV epidemics and is selected for by HIV.
Sullivan AD, Wigginton J, Kirschner D.
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-0620, USA.
We explore the impact of a host genetic factor on heterosexual HIV epidemics by using a deterministic mathematical model. A protective allele unequally distributed across populations is exemplified in our models by the 32-bp deletion in the host-cell chemokine receptor CCR5, CCR5Delta32. Individuals homozygous for CCR5Delta32 are protected against HIV infection whereas those heterozygous for CCR5Delta32 have lower pre-AIDS viral loads and delayed progression to AIDS. CCR5Delta32 may limit HIV spread by decreasing the probability of both risk of infection and infectiousness. In this work, we characterize epidemic HIV within three dynamic subpopulations: CCR5/CCR5 (homozygous, wild type), CCR5/CCR5Delta32 (heterozygous), and CCR5Delta32/CCR5Delta32 (homozygous, mutant). Our results indicate that prevalence of HIV/AIDS is greater in populations lacking the CCR5Delta32 alleles (homozygous wild types only) as compared with populations that include people heterozygous or homozygous for CCR5Delta32. Also, we show that HIV can provide selective pressure for CCR5Delta32, increasing the frequency of this allele."
....also genetic drift still occurs in populations thus allele frequencies are changing in the human population, evolution has not stopped for humans...we are not clonal. Whether natural selection has anything more than a mariginal effect on humans is another matter..I think it does not...so the assumption that evolution does not occur in humans is not supported.
P: All the IDists can do is rehash the same philosophical arguments about how the evidence for design is all around us.
M: Which gets back to the main reason why ID is not a science as there is not testable or falsifiable hypothesis of ID.
back to thumb twiddling
cheers,
M