The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #134693   Message #3068180
Posted By: Kent Davis
05-Jan-11 - 09:43 PM
Thread Name: BS: Young Earth Creationism
Subject: RE: BS: Young Earth Creationism
Steve Shaw,

I am surprised you found statements 14 and 15 misleading, incorrect, garbled and off-beam. Statement #14, the one that says that "In a population, the degree of divergence from the common ancestor is inversely related to the proportion of successfully reproducing organisms in the population" is straight Darwinism. It is a bit of Darwinism that creationists also accept, and it was well known before Darwin was born, but he adopted it as part of his theory.

Consider two previously finch-free islands. A storm blows 20 finches (10 male and 10 female) to each island. These 40 finches all come from the same population on the mainland. Island one is perfect for the finches. All 20 of the original colonizers reproduce and reproductive success is high for many generations. Island two is terrible for finches. Only six of the original colonizers reproduce (the six with, let us say, the longest beaks)and the population barely hangs on for generations. A century later, which population will be most divergent from the mainland population? It will be the population on Island Two. Their beaks will be longer than those of the mainland population and longer than those of the population on the other island. In other words, the degree of divergence is inversely related to the proportion of successfully organisms in the population.   

As for statement #15, the one that says that, in a population, the traits of the organisms with the greatest reproductive success will tend to increase, and the traits of those with the lowest reproductive success will tend to decrease, that too is straight Darwinism. Mr. Darwin called it sexual selection, I believe. This occurs naturally, or it can be done artificially. In my population of sheep, I am reducing the reproductive success of certain organisms, the rams Bartlett and Dale, to zero (by keeping them in the ram's field, with no access to the ewes). The traits of those organisms are therefore not being passed on. I am increasing the reproductive success of another organism, Caldwell the Ram, by putting him in with the ewes. His traits will tend to increase.

Kent