Argument #3: Mutations

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

One of our cats has six toes instead of the normal five on each front foot. Since a six-toed cat contains more information than a five-toed cat, clearly, some mutations do indeed increase information.

Rev, do you ever get tired of your 'arguments' being so easily and readily refuted?

Boru

[Angrboda]

One of our cats has six toes instead of the normal five on each front foot. Since a six-toed cat contains more information than a five-toed cat, clearly, some mutations do indeed increase information.

That's not necessarily true. The number of digits appears to be a function of when and where certain chemical triggers are turned on and off; individual digits themselves aren't necessarily hard-coded into the DNA.

[Tonus]

And a cat with six toes can't properly flip you the bird, which is clearly detrimental.

[popeyespappy]

One of our cats has six toes instead of the normal five on each front foot. Since a six-toed cat contains more information than a five-toed cat, clearly, some mutations do indeed increase information.

That's not necessarily true. The number of digits appears to be a function of when and where certain chemical triggers are turned on and off; individual digits themselves aren't necessarily hard-coded into the DNA.

This is an excellent point. It is also why I keep puhing Neil Shubin's Your Inner Fish. Early on in the book he does a great job of explaining how regulatory elements control expression. It's how fins became legs, feet, arms and hands, and how bat wings evolved.

[SteelCurtain]

I think he realizes how shitty this argument was. NEXT!!!!

[ignoramus]

I love reading this thread ...I have learnt plenty.
It may have started by with an I'll prepared post but the knowledge shared as a result was well worth it!
OK, so evolution is a fact ...that's sound like a robust scientific model.

Can I ask, say with sharks, etc they call them the perfect killing machine and say they haven't really evolved since the dinosaur ages.

I can understand that as their perfect environment hasn't needed them to change...
Does it actually change or mutate as a result of of the environment or is it oblivious to the environment and mutates anyway. Does the idea of the short neck/long neck giraffe still hold.

Both mutations were alive and healthy but as food got scarce only the long neck survived simply as a result of the environment. Basically dumb luck ... The DNA obviously didn't know that there's going to be a food shortage in the future. So as far as giraffe DNA is concerned, it has prospered through one of its mutation variants...

Basically, when does a species stop evolving?

[Cyberman]

When it goes extinct.

[Clueless Morgan]

I've predicted it in the other Argument threads and it's panning out: Rev777 just can't put together a worthwhile argument.

[LastPoet]

I tingle with antecipation for the nest argument

[pocaracas]

I tingle with antecipation for the nest argument

He did have the 7 arguments all planned out ahead of time, right?
So... we can't really expect him to take input from one to the next... sorry, nest