horizontal gene transfer: the real IM? (Introduction)

by Balance_Maintained , U.S.A., Thursday, December 18, 2014, 21:53 (3416 days ago) @ dhw

DHW: “Definitely” could hardly be more factual, and David says it is “accepted as happening” (I presume he means by the scientific community). You wrote: “In order to save the theory of evolution, we have to create some new method that can be neither proved nor disproved to support the theory.” I would say that if HGT is an established fact, it's not unreasonable to investigate the extent to which it might be responsible for major innovations that lead to new species. A theist can always argue, as David does, that it's all part of the mechanism God devised in the first place. As I have pointed out ad nauseam, evolution is not an atheistic theory. 
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> However, the problem you raise is very significant for non-scientists like myself, and can be extended to most walks of life in which we ourselves are not proficient. We simply don't know how far we can trust the so-called experts. That's why we so rarely get consensus on any of the subjects that we discuss here!-Note that I did not say HGT does not happen. We know from experimental data that virus's do in fact copy dna to/from it's host. We also know that during sexual reproduction genetic material is transferred in the blending of genes from both parents into the final child life form. My main point was that the other methods of transmission were clearly, by the wording of the author, speculation, not the result of experimental data which would have been cited had it existed.

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What is the purpose of living? How about, 'to reduce needless suffering. It seems to me to be a worthy purpose.