Claim CB350, or the claim that sex cannot have evolved is something that creationists use a lot against evolution. Lets see what talk origins says against this claim:
It starts by saying:
"The variety of life cycles is very great. It is not simply a matter of being sexual or asexual. There are many intermediate stages. A gradual origin, with each step favored by natural selection, is possible (Kondrashov 1997)."
This appeal to authority sites Alexey Kondrashov. If you go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_of_sex and search for his name, you will find the "deterministic mutation hypothesis" which he created. In the last paragraph you see that "there has been much criticism of
Kondrashov's theory, since it relies on two key restrictive conditions." In other words, Kandrashov should not be considered an expert as talk origins has considered him by citing his work.
Talk origins continues:
"The earliest steps involve single-celled organisms exchanging genetic information; they need not be distinct sexes. Males and females most emphatically would not evolve independently."
In an attempt to debunk the proposed argument, they attempt to attack one of the weaker arguments. In other words, instead of focusing on the evolution of sex, they focus on the fact that there is no need for males and females to evolve independently. So what? That doesn't support their argument.
Talk origins finishes:
"Sex, by definition, depends on both male and female acting together. As sex evolved, there would have been some incompatibilities causing sterility (just as there are today), but these would affect individuals, not whole populations, and the genes that cause such incompatibility
would rapidly be selected against."
This conclusion deviates from the argument, because ultimately it didn't answer how sexual organs were slowly created, and how the switching between asexual and sexual reproduction happened. In other words, it never got around to explaining what the intermediate stages actually were.
2007-11-02
09:19:00
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6 answers
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asked by
Tony C
4
in
Religion & Spirituality