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Dr. Berlinksi

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  • 01-10-2015 10:00pm
    #1
    cowboyBuilder
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,419 ✭✭✭


    What do you make of this guy ?
    apparently he is a molecular biologist yet he seems to be an Evolution denier - go figure ??










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    #2
    Nodin
    Closed Accounts Posts: 46,938 ✭✭✭✭Nodin


    cowboyBuilder wrote: »
    What do you make of this guy ?
    apparently he is a molecular biologist yet he seems to be an Evolution denier - go figure ??

    Intelligent and educated people can believe and do very stupid things. C'est la vie.


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    #3
    robindch
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 24,401 Mod ✭✭✭✭robindch


    cowboyBuilder wrote: »
    What do you make of this guy?
    Is he the same David Berlinski who works as a "senior fellow" at the Discovery Institute?

    http://www.discovery.org/p/51

    I wondering how long it'll be before David Quinn and company start applying the title "senior fellow" to themselves too.

    As for Berlinski? Yeah, whatever. Guy needs to spend some time thinking instead of talking.


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    #4
    cowboyBuilder
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,419 ✭✭✭cowboyBuilder


    robindch wrote: »
    Is he the same David Berlinski who works as a "senior fellow" at the Discovery Institute?

    http://www.discovery.org/p/51

    I wondering how long it'll be before David Quinn and company start applying the title "senior fellow" to themselves too.

    As for Berlinski? Yeah, whatever. Guy needs to spend some time thinking instead of talking.

    Yes it's the same lad.

    OK just looking at the discovery institute site, hmmm "intelligent" design - ok , Im out...


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    #5
    recedite
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,993 ✭✭✭✭recedite


    cowboyBuilder wrote: »
    What do you make of this guy ?
    Maybe he knows about physics, but hasn't a clue about biology.
    His strawman proposal that a cow would turn into a whale is nonsense. In reality its all about a common ancestor. Look at something like a manatee instead and you can see the commonality (I'm not saying that is the common ancestor though).
    Then he says if natural selection was real, there would have to be a plethora of different species around currently, and a fossil record of intermediates. But there is..
    His worst example is the dog; saying "dogs were dogs all the way back".
    Not so, there were a couple of different species of wolves/ wolf ancestors around. Current dogs are probably related to more than one, just as current humans may well have different regional influences such as neandertal and denisova.


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    #6
    Hotblack Desiato
    Registered Users Posts: 34,221 ✭✭✭✭Hotblack Desiato


    "dogs were dogs all the way back"

    And turtles were turtles all the way down...

    Fingal County Council are certainly not competent to be making decisions about the most important piece of infrastructure on the island. They need to stick to badly designed cycle lanes and deciding on whether Mrs Murphy can have her kitchen extension.



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    #7
    cowboyBuilder
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,419 ✭✭✭cowboyBuilder


    Yeah he seemed to focus on how a cow could just become a whale ... :S , what about a Hippo - thats a land mammal that spends a lot of time in the water, you could say it's on the way ..

    Few million years down the line it's descendant could be even more comfortable in the water until eventually it's descendant is a water based mammal ? or am I being naive here?


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    #8
    mickrock
    Registered Users Posts: 1,021 ✭✭✭mickrock


    cowboyBuilder wrote: »
    What do you make of this guy ?
    apparently he is a molecular biologist yet he seems to be an Evolution denier - go figure ??

    He's not an evolution denier at all.

    He's critical of the Darwinian idea of evolution as being blind and dumb.

    Any rational and open-minded person can see that the evolutionary process is intelligence in action.


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    #9
    cowboyBuilder
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,419 ✭✭✭cowboyBuilder


    oops wrong forum !!! :D


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    #10
    PopePalpatine
    Registered Users Posts: 11,851 ✭✭✭✭PopePalpatine


    mickrock wrote: »
    He's not an evolution denier at all.

    He's critical of the Darwinian idea of evolution as being blind and dumb.

    Any rational and open-minded person can see that the evolutionary process is intelligence in action.

    I needed a good laugh today, thanks for your drive-by.


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    #11
    swampgas
    Registered Users Posts: 3,537 ✭✭✭swampgas


    cowboyBuilder wrote: »
    oops wrong forum !!! :D

    I'm afraid you can't get away that easy ... (there is no such thing as the wrong forum...)


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    #12
    Hotblack Desiato
    Registered Users Posts: 34,221 ✭✭✭✭Hotblack Desiato


    recedite wrote: »
    Maybe he knows about physics, but hasn't a clue about biology.
    His strawman proposal that a cow would turn into a whale is nonsense. In reality its all about a common ancestor.

    It's obvious to any moderately intelligent child who's been to the Dead Zoo.

    Hi Mick.

    Fingal County Council are certainly not competent to be making decisions about the most important piece of infrastructure on the island. They need to stick to badly designed cycle lanes and deciding on whether Mrs Murphy can have her kitchen extension.



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    #13
    recedite
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,993 ✭✭✭✭recedite


    cowboyBuilder wrote: »
    Few million years down the line it's descendant could be even more comfortable in the water until eventually it's descendant is a water based mammal ? or am I being naive here?
    That's exactly it, and if you x-ray a whales flipper you see a "hand" with fingers, still inside there.


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    #14
    Michael OBrien
    Registered Users Posts: 533 ✭✭✭Michael OBrien


    recedite wrote: »
    That's exactly it, and if you x-ray a whales flipper you see a "hand" with fingers, still inside there.
    Yes, and the pelvis, and the remains of the back legs, etc. Plus dolphins and other marine mammals share common ancestry too. Dolphins can be born with functional (but not practical) back legs occasionally.
    Common ancestry is so well established you would have to be crazy or just plain dishonest to deny it. Exact pathways of descent is harder to know, but looking at the skeletal structures of animals, how they develop in the womb, and their dna, makes common descent impossible to refute.
    However there are always the fringe guys that creationists and ID'rs pay to say crap. Hey if someone cannot make it as a real scientist, join a religion and get paid to lie instead, plus you get to annoy your former colleagues.
    Berlinksi is not the worst of them.


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