Readers may recall that in a recent post I quoted molecular biologist wd400 undermining Theodosius Dobzhansky’s silly maxim that “nothing in biology makes sense except in light of evolution” when he asserted that a lot of molecular biologists, including world-famous leader of the human genome project Francis Collins, “don’t understand much about evolution.”
I noted that it follows as a matter of simple logic that Dobzhansky was wrong if one of the world’s leading biologists can do his job perfectly well without even understanding evolution, far less depending on it to make sense of everything.
Today wd400 doubled down when he asserted that not only does Collins not understand evolution, but in fact he is dead wrong about key aspects of the theory, such as junk DNA, HGT and gene counts.
Simple logic again: One can be dead wrong about key aspects of modern evolutionary theory and still lead to a successful conclusion one of greatest undertakings in applied biology in the history of the world.
That swirling sound you hear is Dobzhansky’s maxim circling the drain.
UPDATE:
I pointed out to wd400 that if Collins does not understand evolution and in fact is dead wrong about key aspects of the theory, Dobzhansky’s maxim implies that Collins can’t “make sense” of the human genome, even though he was the head of the human genome project.
Frankly, I expected wd400 to back down in the face of this reductio ad absurdum argument. He did not. He tripled down on his claim and said: “I also very much doubt Collins himself would say the genome ‘makes sense’ to him.”
Yet again we have an example of someone willing to sacrifice rationality itself for the sake of their creation myth. wd400 please do us all a favor. Never poke fun at those religious “fundies.” It would be hypocritical.