padraig@utastro.UUCP (Padraig Houlahan) (05/27/85)
>> [Jeff Sonntag] >> You're not wrong. The theory of evolution applies to how speciation >> occurs, not to how life arose origionally. Whether life arose from >> nonlife or was planted by aliens or was zapped into being by some >> all-powerful godlike being is immaterial to the theory of evolution. >How does one account for the origin of species without accounting for >the origin of the first species? That seems just a little too >convenient. It would be nice if we knew enough about the formation of life to include it with the theory of evolution, but we don't. It's kind of like being in a desert and studying railroad tracks. We could have a theory that the rails are almost always nearly parallel; are mounted on ties with a certain average separation; made of .... etc. That we might not know from which place they originated in no way invalidates our theory. The theory is valid only over the domain of applicability. >.... But your statement is false in any case. The notion that >chemical evolution is integral to the theory of evolution is widespread. >(Miller and Fox come to mind.) The BSCS (high school biology >curriculum) "Blue edition", for example, is titled "Molecules to Man". >I just saw this in a library the other day, so I looked in it out of >curiosity. The chapter preceding the one on (what Jeff calls) >evolution was about - you guessed it - abiogenesis. Evidently there >was no such false dichotomy between the beginning of life and >speciation of existing life in the minds of the editors. I don't understand this. Where's the problem if they are in separate chapters? The book is on biology, not evolution, therefore it is not out of place to include a section on the biologist's view of origins. >Abiogenesis easier to "snipe away at"? Now I understand why you say >it's not part of the theory of evolution... >-- > | >Paul DuBois {allegra,ihnp4,seismo}!uwvax!uwmacc!dubois --+-- The connection between the earth's magnetic field,the weather, and sunspots, with the theory of evolution is also not clearly defined and not included in evolution. I hope your understanding increased accordingly when you realized this. Padraig Houlahan.