| Final-Fan said: I think our Commie-hating friend got his attack (most likely second- or third-hand) from something like this: http://www.reasons.org/fossil-record/cambrian-explosion/biology%E2%80%99s-big-bangs |
From your link
Koonin proposes a mechanism to account for this pattern of changes. He suggests that at certain periods in life’s history extensive genetic “scrambling” (horizontal gene transfer, recombination, fusion, fission, transposition) took place. Most of this genetic chaos proved nonproductive, but on rare occasions—by chance—a stable genetic combination emerged. These robust islands of genetic novelty represent a transition to a new regime of biological complexity.
Koonin points out that his idea merely extends the speculations made by other biologists such as the late Stephen Jay Gould, Niles Eldredge, Lynn Margulis, Carl Woese, and Thomas Cavalier Smith, who have all suggested the identical pattern for aspects of the history of the biosphere.
The primary implication of Koonin’s proposal is that no evolutionary tree of life exists.
Koonin’s proposal is intriguing, and on the surface makes sense, but upon more careful reflection raises a number of questions. Why is this pattern of explosive innovation repeated throughout life’s history? What causes the genetic scrambling to take place? Why doesn’t this process happen continuously throughout the history of life? Why should the mechanism Koonin envisions ever result in coherent changes that lead to stable genetic islands that represent discontinuous increases in biological complexity?
Repent or be destroyed
