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From: bill@utastro.UUCP (William H. Jefferys)
Newsgroups: net.origins
Subject: Re: Orphaned Response
Message-ID: <483@utastro.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 4-Aug-85 00:02:43 EDT
Article-I.D.: utastro.483
Posted: Sun Aug  4 00:02:43 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 5-Aug-85 00:36:51 EDT
References: <347@scgvaxd.UUCP> <14600028@hpfcrs.UUCP>
Organization: U. Texas, Astronomy, Austin, TX
Lines: 35

> Do these "vestigal" organs show "pregression" or "regression".  In otherwords,
> can these mean that at one time whales could walk, but due to some mutation,
> the legs became useless?  I would call this "regression".  On the other hand,
> does this mean whales never could walk, but may in the future as the legs
> further develop?  I would call this "progression".
> 
> As a creationist, I believe that "vestigal" organs demonstrate "regression" of
> species over time, and serve no evidence for evolution.  I may be all wet, but
> I really fail too see how "vestigal" organs serve as good evidence of
> evolution.
> 
Your distinction between "progression" and "regression" is semantic 
gameplaying, not science.  From a point of view of genetics, there is 
no distinction.  The vestigialization of an organ is no simpler, 
genetically, than the formation of a new organ.  Both are examples 
of evolution, pure and simple, and whether you believe it or not, 
when you accept the fact that organs can vestigialize, you have
accepted evolution.  (Unless I miss my guess, Paul Dubois understands
this quite well, judging from his terse response to Dan's proposal 
about Whale legs).

For the record, in the case of whales, the fossils, which form a very 
complete sequence, show "progressive" changes (development of swimming
organs and the Whales' "blowhole" - needed for its aquatic mode of life)
simultaneously with the vestigialization of its hind legs.  So you
can't have the one without the other.

-- 
"Men never do evil so cheerfully and so completely as when they do so from
	religious conviction."  -- Blaise Pascal

	Bill Jefferys  8-%
	Astronomy Dept, University of Texas, Austin TX 78712   (USnail)
	{allegra,ihnp4}!{ut-sally,noao}!utastro!bill	(uucp)
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