• Starting today August 7th, 2024, in order to post in the Married Couples, Courting Couples, or Singles forums, you will not be allowed to post if you have your Marital status designated as private. Announcements will be made in the respective forums as well but please note that if yours is currently listed as Private, you will need to submit a ticket in the Support Area to have yours changed.

  • CF has always been a site that welcomes people from different backgrounds and beliefs to participate in discussion and even debate. That is the nature of its ministry. In view of recent events emotions are running very high. We need to remind people of some basic principles in debating on this site. We need to be civil when we express differences in opinion. No personal attacks. Avoid you, your statements. Don't characterize an entire political party with comparisons to Fascism or Communism or other extreme movements that committed atrocities. CF is not the place for broad brush or blanket statements about groups and political parties. Put the broad brushes and blankets away when you come to CF, better yet, put them in the incinerator. Debate had no place for them. We need to remember that people that commit acts of violence represent themselves or a small extreme faction.

Recent content by Willby

  1. W

    The Coccyx

    One last go, I tried to explain to you the problems with the term monkey, it is not a clade but a paraphyletic group. This is why people have issues with the whole 'we evolved from monkeys' wording, but not all do (myself included) once the context is explained. e.g...
  2. W

    The Coccyx

    To say 'Nested Hierarchies are just groups of organisms that share many similar characteristics and a number of shared traits.' is just plain nonsense. These patterns are repeated over and over again, of course there is 'noise' in the data, which mean trees don't alway perfectly align (they are...
  3. W

    The Coccyx

    Sorry if unclear, I was using primate as a clade containing all the Strepsirrhini and all the Haplorhini please throw in the Dermoptera and replace primate with Primatomorpha if you wish. This is not just merly a taxonomic classification but based on the nested heirachy of morpholgical and...
  4. W

    the self replicating watch argument

    If we apply the term watch as loosely as motor has been then, no I don't think a self-replicating watch needs a designer. Suprachiasmatic nucleus - Wikipedia EDIT: OK not exactly 'self-replicating' but a cool bit of biology.
  5. W

    The Coccyx

    pshun2404 First off 'monkey' is a tricky term. On the one hand in everyday speak we all know what we mean when we refer to a monkey, biological speaking it is trickier. This diagram shows the a simple version of the phylogenetic tree for primates. This tree is supported by genetic and...
  6. W

    The Coccyx

    Old world monkies have (usually) tails, 'pre-ape' old world monky fossils have tails, apes including proconsul (oldest known ape fossil) don't have tails. Proconsul did not have a tail - ScienceDirect (paywall only first page). Frankly semantic arguments over the word vestigial are irrelevent...
  7. W

    Replaying the Tape of Life

    J19 I linked to the following paper in another thread it adresses atleast some of what you appear to be questioning. Please have a go at reading it, it is quite technical but worth it. Relatedness, Conflict, and the Evolution of Eusociality
  8. W

    Replaying the Tape of Life

    Once again the above shows that you simply do not understand the concepts you are talking about. Kin selection is a consequence of the Aunt having many of the same genes as her sister (or brother), copies of which will be in the nieces (or nephews). The whole point is that it anything a gene...
  9. W

    Paradigm Shift: Holistic Darwinism VS the Selfish Gene

    OK one last try. J19 your claim was that Dawkins the Selfish Gene had been 'proven wrong'. You then linked to material from Corning that in no way proved your point, in fact an article that started by saying how useful the Selfish Gene was. Then we moved onto a 'New Tree of Life' which...
  10. W

    Paradigm Shift: Holistic Darwinism VS the Selfish Gene

    Any response to one of your leading (opposed) experts stating: 'It should be stated at the outset that there can be no gainsaying the heuristic value of Richard Dawkins’s “selfish gene” metaphor' Which is exactly the position I have been taking.
  11. W

    Paradigm Shift: Holistic Darwinism VS the Selfish Gene

    As to Wilson. Yes he and Dawkins disagree about group vs kin selection, and unfortunatly both have at times behaved poorly in their argument. However if you were to sit down with the pair of them I willing to bet they would agree with each other far more than either would agree with you when...
  12. W

    Paradigm Shift: Holistic Darwinism VS the Selfish Gene

    Have you even read Corinings article that you link to here are some quotes from the first 2 paragraphs. 'It should be stated at the outset that there can be no gainsaying the heuristic value of Richard Dawkins’s “selfish gene” metaphor' 'A gene-centered approach has led to many new...
  13. W

    Paradigm Shift: Holistic Darwinism VS the Selfish Gene

    Okay I thinks its pretty clear that you don't actually understand what 'The Selfish Gene' is about or you wouldn't have written. 'The selfish gene is based on a high school sport mentality where you have to have a winner and a loser.' The whole premis of Dawkins book was to discus how altruism...
  14. W

    Paradigm Shift: Holistic Darwinism VS the Selfish Gene

    None of what you have shown backs up your original comment of: 'In Dawkins 1976 book: The Selfish Gene, it was never a question that Dawkins would be proven wrong. The only question was when and where would he be proven wrong.' At best you have shown that some consider it insufficient. Also...