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echo: evolution
to: All
from: Jim McGinn
date: 2004-04-02 08:36:00
subject: Re: Dawkins on Kimura

Guy Hoelzer  wrote 

> > Science was supposed to explain the way things are.  Random genetic drift
> > shrugs its shoulders and says there is no explanation.
> 
> Drift is as much an explanation as selection.  It is not giving up, nor is
> it a mysterious black box.  Drift is based on the physical reality of
> sampling error.  Sampling error is as real and meaningful a source of change
> as say patterns of predation.  

Sampling error is not a source of causation.  It 
represents the inability to measure accurately.  
What you are literally saying here, Guy, is that 
evolution is, to some degree, the result of our 
inability to measure it with 100% accuracy.  If 
you were a physicist or a chemist and you presented 
this notion to your colleagues you'd be laughed out 
of the room.  

Jim

Evolutionary Biology: the last vestige of spiritualism in science.
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