Evolution of the gaps
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Evolution of the gaps are dogmatic inferences to adaptive just-so stories, stated with absolute conviction and marked with an extensive usage of buzzword 'evolution' serving as camouflage for complete lack of any scientific explanation or observational evidence for postulated unkown alien phenomena. For example, Stephen Jay Gould admitted his own functionalist biases as he was once criticized by Francis Crick for hastily attributing a certain phenomenon to evolution, expressed in form of an adaptive story invented with alacrity and agility, even prior to finding out the real mechanism behind it.[1]
Typical examples
- Evolution of the eye during the so called Cambrian explosion. It is assured that "Complex eyes appear to have first evolved within a few million years, in the rapid burst of evolution known as the Cambrian explosion. There is no evidence of eyes before the Cambrian, but a wide range of diversity is evident in the Middle Cambrian." The Cambrian explosion is postulated as replacement for the gap in any scientific explanation of what have allegedly happened and alien faculties for rapid innovation in fine-scale anatomy as well as gross morphology are attributed to it, resulting in what is presented as 'great evolutionary event'.[2]
- 2011 Nobel Prize interview on description of immune system.[3]
- Participants in interview take effort to impose into the discussion the buzzword 'evolution':
- The expression "This is really 'evolution' at work" is associated with following phenomena: the fight between bacteria and immune system: "the bacteria are trying to get around our immune system and the immune system is trying to work against them". Immune defense response has however nothing to do with any known definition of evolution whatsoever and the association with its simple description is far-fetched.
- "If something is conserved through 'evolution', its probably very important". First of all the discovery describing how immune system works at present time provided no evidence whatsoever that evolution played any role in the history of immune system let alone any grounds are given that even if it would be so, the expressed dogmatic faith in its importance is substantiated. The statement "something is conserved through 'evolution'" simply reads like religious belief in something aesthetically very plausible and as something that crosses the gap in knowledge what took place in [in principle] unobservable past.
- Dogmatic claims stated with absolute conviction without providing any further details on research design how one landed at such figure:
- The bold expression "we have kept our immune system for more than 600 million years" simply crosses the gaps in absolute lack of any idea of what have actually happened. Even though Hoffman discovered the immune system in flies and it is amazing the same type of system operates in us, "in you and me", it still does not logically follow the system is "more than 600 million years old".
- Participants in interview take effort to impose into the discussion the buzzword 'evolution':
References
- ↑ Stephen J. Gould (1995). Adam’s Navel. Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-146-000-478. “I well remember something that Francis Crick said to me many years ago, when my own functionalist biases were strong. He remarked, in response to an adaptive story I had invented with alacrity and agility to explain the meaning of repetitive DNA: ‘Why do you evolutionists always try to identify the value of something before you know how it is made?’”
- ↑ Lee M.S.Y., Jago, J.B., Garcia-Bellido, D.C., Edgecombe, G.E., Gehling, J.G, Paterson, J.R. (30 June 2011). Modern optics in exceptionally preserved eyes of Early Cambrian arthropods from Australia 631-634. Nature (journal). Retrieved on August 4, 2013.
- ↑ Interview about 2011 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Nobelprize.org. “...So this is really evolution at work, I mean the bacteria are trying to get around our immune system and the immune system is trying to work against them. Exactly, that is what it is and you mentioned the word evolution - it's amazing that we have kept our immune system for more than 600 million years. Hoffman discovered the immune system in flies. Amazingly, the same type of system operates in us, in you and me. I got it that it's actually the same gene that works in fruit flies and in us. Yes, it's a very similar gene which indeed to us means that something is important. If something is conserved throughout evolution, its probably very important.”