Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site rabbit.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!harpo!eagle!allegra!alice!rabbit!wolit From: wolit@rabbit.UUCP Newsgroups: net.physics Subject: Example of Evolution Message-ID: <2123@rabbit.UUCP> Date: Thu, 27-Oct-83 09:18:14 EDT Article-I.D.: rabbit.2123 Posted: Thu Oct 27 09:18:14 1983 Date-Received: Fri, 28-Oct-83 04:36:53 EDT Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill Lines: 18 [This discussion has clearly grown beyond the bounds of net.physics. Maybe it should be continued in net.philosophy or something.] For anyone looking for an observable demonstration of REAL evolution, there is much evidence readily at hand: the appearance of drug-resistant strains of bacteria (which evolved from susceptible strains when penicillin opened up a new niche), the development of dark-colored moths (from white ancestors) in (sooty) industrial England during the last century (the better to hide from their predators on sooty trees by), etc. The combination of such easily available observations, evidence for the existence of a mechanism to implement such changes, laboratory experiments, the fossil record, and Occam's razor (i.e., the simplicity of the theory tying it all together) makes a compelling case for Evolution. It is the overwhelming unlikelihood that all of these factors are simply coincidental, and not any act of faith (or lack thereof), that forces a rejection of Creationism as bunk. Jan Wolitzky, AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ