Subject: Re: Essay on Darwinism

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2007 18:50:47 EST

Dear Mr. Harris:
 
Thanks so much for your prompt reply.  Perhaps I need to do some  rewording 
of the section on predictions.  Your example about sickle cell  shaped 
hemoglobin does not apply to my prediction:  your example is not  about two presently 
coexisting traits on one and the same genome at one and the  same time that 
are presumed to have arisen distinctly, like vertebrae and lungs  in humans.  
Instead, your example is about one trait, sickle shaped  hemoglobin, replacing 
an earlier trait, standard shaped hemoglobin, which,  given the replacement, is 
no longer expressed.    Sickle cell  shaped hemoglobin and normal shaped 
hemoglobin are not two traits that coexist  in individuals that are hypothesized 
to have arisen distinctly. In other words,  your example does not in any way 
relate to the ordered acquisition of traits  deduced from the fossil record, 
which is what this set of predictions is all  about.
 
I will reread the prediction section to see if I can make this point more  
clear.  Obviously, something is unclear about it. Otherwise, you  would not have 
offered the sickle cell example as a falsification. 
 
Thank you so much, again, for your encouragement.
 
Sincerely,
 
Lydia