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Peanut Gallery - AronRa/Enyart - Phylogeny

YesYouNeedJesus

New Member
arg-fallbackName="YesYouNeedJesus"/>
This thread is to discuss the discussion between AronRa and Bob Enyart on Phylogeny. Feel free to start discussing now! I'm looking forward to it.
 
arg-fallbackName="he_who_is_nobody"/>
YesYouNeedJesus said:
This thread is to discuss the discussion between AronRa and Bob Enyart on Phylogeny. Feel free to start discussing now! I'm looking forward to it.

I hope that Enyart will get around to responding to this one point from AronRa:
[url=http://www.leagueofreason.co.uk/viewtopic.php?p=130838#p130838 said:
AronRa[/url]"]
The Y-Chromosome of chimpanzees is far away from human beings, from men, as the sponge genome is from human beings. Right? In the great barrier reef, they've now sequenced the lowly sponge, and and the headlines in the science journals are that the sponge has 70% similarity with the human genome.
I haven't found any journals which linked the two unrelated studies you've somehow gotten confused here.

First we'll deal with the genome of the sponge.

On your show, you said "sponges were 70% human"; not 'similar to human', not 'sharing the same type genes as humans', you said they were 70% human. That's not right. We can't even say their genes are human. That would imply that 70% of the genes found in sponges are otherwise unique to our species, when really those genes are common to all animals, including us.

"The new study shows that, while the sponge genome contains most of the gene families found in humans, the number of genes in each family has changed significantly over the past 600 million years. By analyzing which gene families were enriched or depleted in different groups of animals, the authors identified groups of gene functions that are associated with morphological complexity."

ScienceDaily

"This incredibly old ancestor possessed the same core building blocks for multicellular form and function that still sits at the heart of all living animals, including humans. It now appears that the evolution of these genes not only allowed the first animals to colonize the ancient oceans, but underpinned the evolution of the full biodiversity of animals we see today."
-Bernie Degnan, a professor of biology at the University of Queensland, Australia

"According to Degnan, essentially all the genomic innovations that we deem necessary for intricate modern animal life have their origins much further back in time that anyone anticipated, predating the Cambrian explosion by tens if not hundreds of millions of years."
-ScienceDaily

As I said on your show, I was fascinated by the 'Shape of Life' project which further confirmed evolution by finding a common orthologue of all animalia within the genome of Porifera, sponges, the oldest animals on earth. Essentially they are the template that all other animals are made from, so of course a substantial number of their genes would be common among all other animals too. As we are uneshewably animals also, we should expect to share at least basic genetics with them. The same goes Trychoplax placozoans, a karyotype of the earliest and most primitive of all animals, possibly even basal to sponges. Not surprisingly, they share 80% of their genes with us too.

"Trichoplax shares over 80 percent of its genes with humans. We are exited to find that Trichoplax contains shared pathways and defined regulatory sequences that link these most primitive ancestors to higher animal species. The Trichoplax genome will serve as a type of "Rosetta Stone" for understanding the origins of animal-specific pathways."
-Stephen Dellaporta, professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology at Yale.

"Even though sponges don't have specialized cell types like neurons or muscles, they do have many of the genes that operate in those cell types in humans or fruit flies, though the function of these genes in sponges is still unclear."
-Dr.Mansi Srivastava, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research.

"Nearly identical copies of these genes are present in humans and are responsible for determining the structure of major body parts."
-HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology

"That was when the surprise hit, "We found a lot of genes to make a nervous system present in the sponge. We found this mysterious unknown structure in the sponge, and it is clear that evolution was able to take this entire structure, and, with small modifications, direct its use toward a new function. Evolution can take these 'off the shelf' components and put them together in new and interesting ways."
-Prof. Kenneth Kosik M.D., co-director of UCSB's Neuroscience Research Institute

"The authors also identified in the sponge many of the same genes that characterize all other animals: genes involved not only in cell division and growth, but also in programmed cell death; the adhesion of cells to other tissue and to one another, signaling pathways during development, recognition of self and non-self; and genes leading to the formation of different cell types.
Significantly, many of the genes that sponges share with humans may play a role in the development of cancer."

NaturalNews

"Once there is a transition from single cell to multicellular organisms, conflict is set up between the different cells of the multicellular organism. It is in an individual cell's best interest to keep replicating, and this actually is what cancer is -- the uncontrolled replication of cells in the body. So in the history of animals, we can see this link with cancer, because the genes that are involved in the transition to multiple cells during evolution are also known to be linked to cancer."
-Todd Oakley, Prof. Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology, U.C. Santa Barbara

Humans and other vertebrates have since developed their own genes not found in invertebrates. So of course sponges have a different number of genes, and they won't operate the same way as they've been adapted to do in higher animals.
The chimpanzee genome is 30% different in the Y chromosome, "¦'horrendously different from the human Y-chromosome. "¦We are 30% different from supposedly our closest living relatives."
You should understand that sharing 70% of a gene set does not mean the same thing as having a 70% identical codon sequence, the way our genome matches that of chimpanzees and other higher animals.

"Genes only make up about 3% of our genome. Yes, you read that correctly. The rest of our genome is called non-coding or junk DNA. Despite the fact that there is so much junk, we still share 95-98% of our DNA with a chimp. And 80% with a mouse. This means that we share lots of genes and a ton of junk DNA." "
-geneticist, Carrie Metzinger B.Sc., Bergmann Lab, Stamford University

"Humans and mice (also rats) share several hundred absolutely identical stretches of DNA extending for 200-800 base pairs."
-Dr. John W. Kimball, professor of immunology, Harvard University

"Preliminary sequence comparisons indicate that chimp DNA is 98.7% identical with human DNA. If just the gene sequences encoding proteins are considered, the similarity increases to 99.2%."
-Dr. George B. Johnson, Biology Professor at Washington U. St. Louis, Missouri

So the first mistake you made here was assuming that a 70% similar gene set in sponges equates to a 70% identical codon sequence. Your second mistake was thinking that a 30% difference in the Y-chromosome somehow equates to a 30% difference in the entire genome. You simply deducted your 30% from 100 to conclude that chimpanzees were 70% similar to humans just like you thought sponges were. Wow.

Did you think that men were made entirely of nothing but Y-chromosomes? And that women were made entirely of X-chromosomes? You do understand that men have both of these, right?

Dr. Francis Collins, -director of the human genome project- obviously doesn't know as much about genetics as a creationist talk radio host citing Wikipedia, because Collins said that humans and chimps share 98.4% of their DNA. His international research consortium showed that directly comparable sequence between the two complete genomes is almost 99 percent identical, and that when DNA insertions and deletions are taken into account, humans and chimps still share 96% of their sequence. The first comprehensive comparison of the genetic blueprints of humans and chimpanzees shows our closest living relatives share perfect identity with 96% of our DNA sequence.

Even if we forget all about orthologous genomic sequencing for the moment. Given that there is a wide range of human-chimpanzee nucleotide divergence across the autosomal genome, and very low divergence in the X chromosome, if we say that the X-chromosome matches Collin's estimate, and the Y-chromosome is as you misunderstand it, then given that they count as an inseparable pair, you would not have only a 70% similarity; you would have (98.4 + 70) / 2 = 84.2%.

Of course you're forgetting that the sex-determining chromosomes account for only one pair out of 23, and that your divergent Y-chromosome is now outnumbered 45:1. That already more than accounts for the 'horrendous difference' you want people to think there is, but it gets even worse, because the Y-chromosome is disappearing. It is generally diminished in all mammals, not just humans and chimps. It has been reduced to 1/6 the size of its counterpart and has only 1/12 the number of genes. How much do you think your Y-chromosomal variance matters now?

Did you really not know any of this, -I mean none of it- before you broadcast these embarrassing blunders to thousands of listeners? How often do you do these shows?

YesYouNeedJesus, perhaps you would like to give it a shot.
 
arg-fallbackName="YesYouNeedJesus"/>
I think I'm more excited than you he_who_is_nobody!

I would love to take a shot at this, but it's way over my head! I know a bit about science, but it's not my specialty. And this is one area I know nothing about. I'm mostly excited about the debate so I can learn more.

My own personal view is that the issue of phylogeny will actually be the end of evolution. I think as we learn more about genetics, we will see that everything we thought was related, is actually not. Don't ask me to defend this, I can't! Just a wild prediction...
 
arg-fallbackName="Dean"/>
YesYouNeedJesus
YesYouNeedJesus said:
["¦] My own personal view is that the issue of phylogeny will actually be the end of evolution. I think as we learn more about genetics, we will see that everything we thought was related, is actually not. Don't ask me to defend this, I can't! Just a wild prediction ["¦]
Is it not a little unwary of you to wander onto a forum dedicated to reason, make such a bold and outrageous claim, and then ask not to be asked to defend this claim??? You start by saying "the issue of phylogeny will actually be the 'end' of evolution" (what does "the end" mean exactly?) and then go on to gloss over complex areas of research such as phylogenetics. You do not seem to understand what is meant by the term "phylogeny", especially when considering the egregious inexactitude of claiming that phylogeny will inevitably (to paraphrase) "refute evolution".

That IS what is meant by 'evolution' in a scientific context, after all. The statements surrounding the interrelatedness of life, explained by the theory of evolution. To be frank, it is false, if not downright disingenuous to claim that phylogeny will show us that "everything we thought was related, is actually not". That would mean that phylogeny would in effect "refute itself".

It strikes me that the only person who would make such a claim is one who is A. Ignorant of what it meant by the term 'phylogeny' and B. Ignorant of the findings of modern research in (phylo)genetics. Judging from your recently made topic on a similar subject, this seems all the more likely. You really ought to be more careful about what fields of science you choose to oversimplify and contort, while simultaneously asking NOT to be questioned, especially in a venue like this! You seem to make outrageous claims with no exposition for nothing more than your own personal gratification.
 
arg-fallbackName="australopithecus"/>
YesYouNeedJesus said:
And this is one area I know nothing about.

YesYouNeedJesus said:
My own personal view is that the issue of phylogeny will actually be the end of evolution.

You can see how these two sentences conflict, right?
YesYouNeedJesus said:
And this is one area I know nothing about.
YesYouNeedJesus said:
Don't ask me to defend this, I can't! Just a wild prediction...

It's not a prediction, predictions are made using experience and knowledge of the subject. What you've done is thrown out a biased load based on nothing but ignorance of the subject.
 
arg-fallbackName="Inferno"/>
YesYouNeedJesus said:
I would love to take a shot at this, but it's way over my head! I know a bit about science, but it's not my specialty. And this is one area I know nothing about. I'm mostly excited about the debate so I can learn more.

[...]

Don't ask me to defend this, I can't! Just a wild prediction...

After the above two comments as well as the Where does the number 4.5 billion come from? Thread, I must ask: What field of science ARE you knowledgeable about? You stated yourself that you don't know much, if anything, about phylogeny and by extension evolution and you apparently don't know anything about geology, astronomy, physics, chemistry, etc. either. (All related to figuring out the age of the earth, so I have to assume you don't know anything about that.)

So again: What do you know something about and what do you feel comfortable talking about, meaning what are you capable of talking about that would prove Creationism? Also, I'd much recommend the Evolution By Natural Selection Thread that Dan suggested, it's a great place to ask questions related to that subject.
 
arg-fallbackName=")O( Hytegia )O("/>
Dammit.
Is it too late to ask Gnug if he could impliment a [CITATION NEEDED] emotocon? I have this abrasive feeling in the back of my mind that we are going to be needing it... A lot.
 
arg-fallbackName="Inferno"/>
Let's hope I resized correctly... Yep, this is as small as it gets without making it unreadable.

CitationNeeded.png
 
arg-fallbackName=")O( Hytegia )O("/>
If I ever go to a William Lane Craig debate, I'm going to be the guy holding that sign up.
Every time.

I'll also have one that says [FALLACY] in all red.
 
arg-fallbackName="YesYouNeedJesus"/>
Dean said:
Is it not a little unwary of you to wander onto a forum dedicated to reason, make such a bold and outrageous claim, and then ask not to be asked to defend this claim???
No, I don't think so. I think it's rather humble of me. I'm not saying I can't be challenged. I'm saying I'm an idiot. BIG difference.
Dean said:
You start by saying "the issue of phylogeny will actually be the 'end' of evolution" (what does "the end" mean exactly?) and then go on to gloss over complex areas of research such as phylogenetics. You do not seem to understand what is meant by the term "phylogeny", especially when considering the egregious inexactitude of claiming that phylogeny will inevitably (to paraphrase) "refute evolution".
Maybe I don't understand the meaning of the word. When I said "end," I meant like spontaneous generation, which was believed by every single scientist for over 2,000 years.

I think that genetics will show us that everything we thought was related is actually not. That's what I meant by my statement. Sorry if I used the wrong terms.
 
arg-fallbackName="YesYouNeedJesus"/>
Inferno said:
After the above two comments as well as the Where does the number 4.5 billion come from? Thread, I must ask: What field of science ARE you knowledgeable about? You stated yourself that you don't know much, if anything, about phylogeny and by extension evolution and you apparently don't know anything about geology, astronomy, physics, chemistry, etc. either. (All related to figuring out the age of the earth, so I have to assume you don't know anything about that.)

So again: What do you know something about and what do you feel comfortable talking about, meaning what are you capable of talking about that would prove Creationism? Also, I'd much recommend the Evolution By Natural Selection Thread that Dan suggested, it's a great place to ask questions related to that subject.
I've only started studying science about 6 months ago. So it's safe to say that I don't know anything about anything about science! I'm sure everyone will cry foul, but I've been reading YEC and ID books like crazy. I'm eating them up faster than you can imagine. I now love science more than anything. My favorite topic is as of late is actually logic and reason. (Which happens to be something that I don't think atheists or evolutionists can account for.)
 
arg-fallbackName=")O( Hytegia )O("/>
YesYouNeedJesus said:
I've only started studying science about 6 months ago. So it's safe to say that I don't know anything about anything about science! I'm sure everyone will cry foul, but I've been reading YEC and ID books like crazy. I'm eating them up faster than you can imagine. I now love science more than anything. My favorite topic is as of late is actually logic and reason. (Which happens to be something that I don't think atheists or evolutionists can account for.)

That's like saying that it's irrational for someone to read up on Geocentric Theory.
It's not ignorant if you read up on it - it is if you are using it as your source and begin spitting it out as fact.

The problem here is that you most likely don't actually understand what a scientific theory is, or even the process that science uses to come to conclusions. The fact is that, in order to learn science, you have to know what scientific method actually IS - something taught in any gradeschool.

If you were also read-up, you would know that there's no such thing as "evolutionists" - there's only those that accept where the evidence has brought us, and those who don't. That's like saying that there's Gravitationalists and atomicists.
And, if you'd be as so kind, millions of people have no problem with accepting science and also being religious, like myself, so there's no reason to bring up religion at all in this discussion. This will be a topic of science, and not of religion. Of fact, and not faith.
 
arg-fallbackName="Inferno"/>
YesYouNeedJesus said:
Maybe I don't understand the meaning of the word. When I said "end," I meant like spontaneous generation, which was believed by every single scientist for over 2,000 years.

I'm not sure if you're making the common mistake of conflating Spontaneous Generation and Abiogenesis, but I thought it'd be prudent to point out that they are not the same.

As for genetics proving that "everything we thought was related is actually not", how do you expect this might come about? Do you expect that something like the creationist "kind" will be verified? Give us some vague, rough idea of what you expect and why that might be so.

Oh, just noticed your next post:
YesYouNeedJesus said:
I've only started studying science about 6 months ago. So it's safe to say that I don't know anything about anything about science!

Most probably not, especially when it's just next to this:
YesYouNeedJesus said:
I'm sure everyone will cry foul, but I've been reading YEC and ID books like crazy. I'm eating them up faster than you can imagine.

Also, allow me to be cynical but you don't "love science more than anything", you love bad and easy cop-out explanations with no foundation in science whatsoever.
YesYouNeedJesus said:
My favorite topic is as of late is actually logic and reason. (Which happens to be something that I don't think atheists or evolutionists can account for.)

An excellent start, I'd say. I take it what you mean in general is "philosophy of science", correct? I'd suggest Sir Karl Popper's "Science as Falsification". Read it, it's only 6 pages or so. Then tell us what you think, maybe in a different thread though and explain why creationism is or is not science, explain why the theory of evolution is or is not science and any other theory that you agree is science.

And agreed with Hytegia, of course.
 
arg-fallbackName="he_who_is_nobody"/>
YesYouNeedJesus said:
Dean said:
You start by saying "the issue of phylogeny will actually be the 'end' of evolution" (what does "the end" mean exactly?) and then go on to gloss over complex areas of research such as phylogenetics. You do not seem to understand what is meant by the term "phylogeny", especially when considering the egregious inexactitude of claiming that phylogeny will inevitably (to paraphrase) "refute evolution".
Maybe I don't understand the meaning of the word. When I said "end," I meant like spontaneous generation, which was believed by every single scientist for over 2,000 years.

With this in mind, can you define evolution in a biological context?
YesYouNeedJesus said:
I'm sure everyone will cry foul, but I've been reading YEC and ID books like crazy. I'm eating them up faster than you can imagine.

This explains why you thought AronRa wrote a book in the other thread. When I saw AronRa's posts, I saw seven essays, three of them being a little long. Most books I read are dozens of essays worth of information.

Nevertheless, have you actually taken the time to read the seven posts AronRa posted? Did you even take the time to read the whole quote I gave from AronRa? He cites all his sources, thus it should be easy to follow. In addition, if you have read AronRa's earlier posts, will you point out something you know he got wrong?
 
arg-fallbackName="AronRa"/>
YesYouNeedJesus said:
My own personal view is that the issue of phylogeny will actually be the end of evolution. I think as we learn more about genetics, we will see that everything we thought was related, is actually not.
Then you obviously haven't read the thread that your man is now trying to avoid.
 
arg-fallbackName="AronRa"/>
YesYouNeedJesus said:
I've only started studying science about 6 months ago. So it's safe to say that I don't know anything about anything about science! I'm sure everyone will cry foul, but I've been reading YEC and ID books like crazy. I'm eating them up faster than you can imagine.
Then everything you know is wrong, because you've been lied to your whole life.
 
arg-fallbackName=")O( Hytegia )O("/>
AronRa said:
YesYouNeedJesus said:
I've only started studying science about 6 months ago. So it's safe to say that I don't know anything about anything about science! I'm sure everyone will cry foul, but I've been reading YEC and ID books like crazy. I'm eating them up faster than you can imagine.
Then everything you know is wrong, because you've been lied to your whole life.

Aron -
Not trying to be the police here, but you're not supposed to post in Discussion threads regarding debates until the end of such debates. It keeps things all in good humor and disables side-bar shit talking between parties that may have ill feelings towards one-another.
 
arg-fallbackName="Anachronous Rex"/>
Mod Note: Technically the debate hasn't started yet, but I'm in agreement. Sorry Aron, please refrain from posting here.
 
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