John Clegg wrote:
> 2) There are complex structures that could not have evolved in stages
> because each earlier stage would be destructive of the owner of that
> structure. A perfect example is the bombardier beetle that fires a
> chemical flare out of its rear end and would have incinerated itself
> at each stage until the full system was evolved.
Buried in there is presumably a claim that the (half a thousand
different species of) bombardier beetles' hydrogen peroxide and
hydroquinone explode when mixed.
The semiotics is interesting, in that Dawkins and others have taken
beakers of chemicals and poured them into each other and observed the
(absence of) effect, that the discussion of bombardier beetles is
distinct from discussion of the bombardier beetle, and that, as is
usual, Gish etc continue to repeat the incorrect assertions as to
mechanism after being corrected.
Faith-based reasoning.
--
Midgley
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