Detecting design or intent in nature

[Mr.wizard]

If we consider Mycoplasma Laboratorium as man-made, then it is in a different tree of life than all other living things on earth. If it will be subject to reproductive error and selection, then evolution will occur.

The fact that Mycoplasma Laboratorium was invented says precisely nothing about how life came about on Earth. The fact that it may evolve simply shows that my definition is correct.

It demonstrates that intellects can create biological evolutionary systems. It is not unreasonable to think that other biological evolutionary systems will soon be created by Venter or others like him. The situation will very soon likely be this:

There will be thousands of different trees of life on this planet.
All those trees except one will be known to be the products of intellect.
There will be one tree where we just don't know if it is the product of intellect or not.

If most trees and possibly all trees of life on this planet are products of intellect, would it then be unreasonable to believe that most and possibly all trees of life in the universe are products of intellect?

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Some additions for discussion:

Evolution often plateaus. The crocodile is largely unchanged in 250 million years. The title of the article is misleading. As long as replication, heritable traits, change, and selection is happening then evolution is happening.

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Let's say there is a single grain of sand on a table, placed by a 3rd party. However, it is hidden under a napkin, so we cannot see its color. I pose to you the question, "Which is more likely true: that the grain is white or that it is not?" I now start dropping white grains of sand on the table, one after the other, until there are many thousands of them. You would say, "In the Big Set of all grains of sand on this table, there are now 100,000 grains of sand and 99,999 of them are known to be white-- therefore the remaining one is almost certainly white as well." I can contrive to pile millions and millions of grains of sand in this way, and you will get more and more excited, because you will feel more and more confident that you know what's under the napkin: a white grain.

I hope I can meet you sometime, and that you like gambling.

If I have only ever observed white grains of sand in existence, I have no reason whatsoever to believe that the one under the napkin is a color other than white. I apply the same logic to photons. If every photon I have ever observed travels at 299,792,458 meters per second in a vacuum I have no reason whatsoever to believe the photon I cannot observe is traveling at a speed other than 299,792,458 meters per second in a vacuum.

Physicists do the same thing I do....and like me...they are often very good gamblers.

It does not show man creates " biological evolutionary systems". It shows we can create partially synthetic species of bacteria that is capable of replicating and that's all it shows, we didn't create a new system of evolution.