clipka <ano### [at] anonymousorg> wrote:
> Well, in its essential form, the most popular version /does/ predict 
> something. Like, all creatures should have been there from the beginning.

> So yes, it can be regarded a theory. A falsified one, but a theory 
> nonetheless :-P

  I think that the proper term is "hypothesis", not "theory" (except if
we are talking in vernacular terms).

> BTW, my favorite about ID is the banana: Gee, it's /the/ ideal fruit! 
> Ideal size and all... how could this not be by design?

> Well, sure, it /is/ by design, or - to use a slightly better fitting 
> term - by intention: The intention of those people who cultivated the 
> banana in the last 8000 years or so :-P

  I think you are confused. The modern banana (that yellow one) is
only something like 200 years old. It's the product of a mutation of
a single wild banana plant which suddenly started growing that yellow
sweet version. The wild banana is much smaller, green, full of seeds
and almost inedible in raw form.

  The mutation in question is actually so severe that the modern banana
plant is sterile: It cannot reproduce by itself, requiring human
intervention for cultivation (this happens mainly by transplanting
underground stems or tissue cultures).

  (Ironically, the modern banana is so mutated that it can be considered
by all practical means "unnatural", as without human intervention it would
have died right from that very first mutated plant 200 years ago, which
makes it a perfect example of gene manipulation by humans, yet people who
strongly oppose gene manipulation have usually no problems in eating
bananas.)

> I'm not saying Intelligent Design is the right thing. All I'm saying is 
> that neither(!) side even seems to notice that evolution may be a means 
> of design, too, and actually a pretty efficient one.

  Biological evolution could be considered "design" only insofar as
emergent behavior in general could (because that's basically what
biological evolution is). Evolution just happens, without the need of
an external intelligent actor.

  You could only claim evolution to be "design" if you assert that the
universe was created with the precise laws of nature that exist in this
universe.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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