Check out Doonesbury in the Saturday, 17 Dec, Funni es

[Richard Pyle]

> Richard is correct. I have heard Creationist debate and they
> always make this
> point in response to examples of microevolution. The particular one that
> stuck in my mind was the statement that everyone agrees that many types of
> squirrels but they are all of the same species!

I had a similar conversation with an ID proponent, who believed in
"microevolution", but not "macroevolution".  His assertion was that therer
were a set number of original designs, but that those have since radiated
via microevolution.  So I asked him how we can tell the difference between
forms that radiated via microevolution from a single design, and forms that
were originally designed differently.  For example, are the Red Diamondback
Rattlesnake and the Western Diamondback Rattlesnake examples of different
original designs, or products of microevolution radiation?  What about all
Rattlesnakes -- one original design, or several?  What about all snakes?
...and so on.  I suggested that his version of ID was testable, because if
biodiversity is composed of series of radiated forms that microevolved from
a set of originally designed forms, then there should be at least some
tell-tale indication of whether two given forms came from the same original
design, vs. from two separate original designs.  In other words, there
should only be two taxonomic "ranks" in the ID nomenclatural scheme:
"Design", and "Variety".

Unfortunately, the problem of dealing with it "on the ground" (i.e., in the
public classroom) is complicated by the fact that there are a number of
different "flavors" of ID.  This, by itself, does not represent a strike
against it as a purported scientific hypothesis (many kinds of scientific
theories come in a variety of flavors).  But it's problematic when
confronting it in a public forum, because in order to counter with rational,
science-based retorts, one needs to know which flavor of ID is being argued
(e.g., All living things originally created? Some created and some
microevolved? Only the progenetors of life created, and all biodiversity
evolved? Evolution guided by an intelligent designer? ...etc.).

Aloha,
Rich

Richard L. Pyle, PhD
Ichthyology, Bishop Museum
1525 Bernice St., Honolulu, HI 96817
Ph: (808)848-4115, Fax: (808)847-8252
email: deepreef at bishopmuseum.org
http://hbs.bishopmuseum.org/staff/pylerichard.html