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But didn’t everyone know this about dogs?

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From Evolution News & Views:

Excerpt: In his latest book, geneticist Wolf-Ekkehard Lönnig of the Max Planck Institutes in Germany takes on the widespread view that dog breeds prove macroevolution. … He shows in great detail that the incredible variety of dog breeds, going back in origin several thousand years ago but especially to the last few centuries, represents no increase in information but rather a decrease or loss of function on the genetic and anatomical levels.

But of course this would be true because we breed dogs for functions that come at the expense of other ones. Functions that help us more than the dog—except insofar as we look after him. But that isn’t natural selection.

Michael Behe writes:

“Dr. Lönnig shows forcefully that one of the chief examples Darwinists rely on to convince the public of macroevolution — the enormous variation in dogs — actually shows the opposite. Extremes in size and anatomy come at the cost of broken genes and poor health. Even several gene duplications were found to interfere strongly with normal growth and development as is also often the case in humans. So where is the evidence for Darwinian evolution now?
The science here is indeed solid. Intriguingly, Lönnig’s prediction from 2013 on starch digestion in wolves has already been confirmed in a study published this year. … ”

Solid science actually won’t make much difference compared to the Darwinian narrative. For that, see Why the narrative trumps facts. Narrative decides which facts are allowed to matter. Facts about dog breeds are not important when citing them as an example with lots of great photo ops helps market Darwinism to the public.

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Comments
#3 phoodoo Absolutely it is my scientific opinion. In biology success is breeding in the available environment. As a result there are about 400 million dogs in the world. There are about 200,000 wolves and they are extinct or endangered in many geographies. It is irrelevant how they would thrive without us. We are the dog's environment and they have exploited that very effectively getting us to care for them by manipulating our parental instincts (and also providing some services).Mark Frank
October 30, 2014
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rounding up sheep without being tempted to eat them seems like an increase in function to me
Indeed, at least when the sheep herder that employs the dog makes the judgement However, for a function to be even evaluated as either an increase or decrease over its prior requires just that...an evaluation. Nature makes no such evaluation does it? It couldn't, as that would presuppose a direction or goal for the function, would it not?ciphertext
October 30, 2014
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My daughter's Havanese could hunt chipmunks, mice and squirrels. She's pretty good too. Unfortunately she would get eaten by the bigger predators.Joe
October 30, 2014
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Phoodoo, a wolf released in NYC might not last as long as a chihuahua in the wild. "Success" needs to be measurable. Dog Industry, (Purina, IAMS, Etc, Etc,) is much more successful than Wolf Industry. Dogs generate far more love too, which a materialist would agree is measurable. Of course, all that success is by design. No NS & RM anywhere in sight. Teaching NS & RM to kids in school is child brain abuse. It's sad.ppolish
October 30, 2014
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I predicted that the increase in genetic information was the barrier to macro evolution. I was right :) Now over to Keith S and Thornton and their predictions... Anything we can verify gentleman?Andre
October 30, 2014
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rounding up sheep without being tempted to eat them seems like an increase in function to me
I'm surprised by that comment and really don't understand it.Silver Asiatic
October 30, 2014
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Mark, Is that your scientific opinion? Try putting a couple of chihuahuas into a forest in Alaska and see how well it does. Or better still, put it anywhere and don't feed it, let's see how great their genetics are.phoodoo
October 30, 2014
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Dogs are only successful thanks to us. Without us the wolves would just eat them.Joe
October 30, 2014
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Well dogs are certainly a much more successful species than wolves. What counts as a loss of function seems a bit subjective - rounding up sheep without being tempted to eat them seems like an increase in function to me.Mark Frank
October 30, 2014
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