Re: [Marxism] (fwd) Darwin and molecular biology

["Mike Friedman" <mikedf@xxxxxxxx>]

You're way off the mark, and, as I said, brandishing warmed-over "idiot
design" arguments. Metabolic pathways tend to exemplify the contingent
nature of evolution, coopting, modifying and adding to the raw material
that's been handed down. Metabolic pathways are not conjured out of whole
cloth. The same argument "imbecilic designers" make about male nipples.
These are not evidence against Darwin, but rather demonstrate -- in a
materialist way -- biological constraints at work.


> Message: 11
> Date: Sat, 11 Oct 2008 12:54:59 -0500
> From: Ken Ranney <kranney@xxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: Re: [Marxism] (fwd) Darwin and molecular biology
> To: Activists and scholars in Marxist tradition
>       <marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Message-ID: <20081011175457.33B431076@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
>
> Einde O'Callaghan has written:
> "Perhaps you could sumarise your argument here."  To wit,
>
> I see a serious contradiction between the "small inherited
> modifications" which Darwin imagined, each of which he claimed was
> "profitable to the preserved being" and 18 of 25 steps in the
> synthesis of collagen, none of which is useful in the slightest. Had
> Darwin been aware of the findings of modern molecular biology, which
> of course is impossible, it is hardly likely that he would have
> written the Origin.
>
> He also implies a request for my credentials. They are as follows:
>
> I am a retired pathologist and medical biochemist,  Doctor of
> Medicine, (University of Toronto), Fellow of the Royal College of
> Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, Fellow of the College of American
> Pathologists and Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Clinical Biochemists.
>
> Would you like me to send my essay?
>
>
> At 07:04 AM 10/10/2008, Les Schaffer wrote:
>>[ for Einde ]
>>
>
> Ken Ranney
> 434 Hillcrest Ave
> Peterborough, Ontario
> K9J 6H6
> (705) 743 2939
>
>
>
>
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> End of Marxism Digest, Vol 60, Issue 38
> ***************************************
>


-- 
Michael Friedman
Ph.D. Candidate in Ecology, Evolutionary Biology and Behavior
City University of New York

Institute for Comparative Genomics
Department of Invertebrate Zoology
American Museum of Natural History
79th Street and Central Park West
New York, NY 10024

Office: 212-313-8721
--------------------
"Ya me gritaron mil veces
que me regrese a mi tierra,
Porque aqui no quepo yo
Quiero recordarle al gringo:
Yo no cruce la frontera,
la frontera me cruzo"
- Los Tigres del Norte


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