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By stumping me or showing me that I'm incompetent you think you can make yourself look good on this forum.
While I do understand that you are addressing someone else I think that your assumption is in error. Namely that WJ is trying to make himself look good to others in this regard. I remember his input into this very area of discussion when PB was pushing some seriously flawed arguements concerning the ascorbic acid pathway and the real and imagined flaws within it (Peter had some very erroneous ideas concerning ascorbate chemistry and metabolism).
Now, as to Camp and his statements. First off I can state that Camp understands very little about the metabolic pathways that he is discussing, and less about how the elucidation of these pathways relates to evolutionary theory. Here is one example (I will asume that your statements are a recap of Camps statements)
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Evolution does not even predict the existence of pseudogenes, much less that they will be found at the same location in two or more species. After all, pseudogenes were not discovered until recently, the first published report being in 1977.
It was predicted under the Neo-Darwinian that species which appeared to be closely related would be similar genetically. And so far it has born out, with some noteable exceptions discovered recently based on wide ranging gene exchange. You appear to be mixing very old NS (pre-Mendel), with old NDS (pre-molecular biology) with modern NDS (post molecular bioplogy). Science works in part be the advent of new tools, followed by new predictions followed by confirmation or lack thereof.
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Moreover, pseudogenes are inadequate in principle to support Dr. Theobald?s claim of universal common ancestry
I am not sure that anyone has claimed that a knowledgable person has said that a pseudogene will be in all organisms as your statement implies. Based on mutations that is almost statistically impossible, do you have a citation for that statement? Pseudogenes can, on the other hand, indicate relationship between more closely related (ie shorter time span since splitting) species. As is the case for pseudogenes, GLO and primates.
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So if the same gene (or a member of the gene family) were duplicated independently in separate species, it would not be surprising to find it at the same chromosomal location.
Partially correct here. For SOME gene families that rate of duplication seems high, either due to the coding sequence or other physical aspects of the chromosome. That said it is relatively rare and therefor statistically unlikely for genes that do not fall within these catagories. And GLO is not one of these duplicated groups of genes so your arguement is irrelevant here.
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Even the staunchest critics of creation theory recognize that "it is impossible to prove absence of function for any region of DNA."
and
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Moreover, the ?failure to observe pseudogenes coding for a product under experimental conditions is no proof that they never do so inside an organism.
OK, but how does that cause a problem with the arguement that the same genetic change (disruption of the ascorbic acid biosynthetic pathway) causing the same phenotypic problem (scurvy in a poor diet) is not best explained by common descent?
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"Chance favors the prepared mind." L. Pasteur
Taz