Evolutionary Science-v- Creationism

[Happy Monkey]

He'd probably go with "kinds" and macroevolution vs microevolution, like OnyxCougar. Or just say, "God did it."

Another amusing part of his misconception is the idea that it is the female that is unexplained by evolution. I mean, it is theoretically possible for females to self-clone, so even if evolutionaty theory worked the way Comfort claims, it should be the male that is unexplained.

[DanaC]

I may be wrong, my biology is a tad shaky, but don't fetuses start out female and then some develop into males ?

[DanaC]

I'd also find his explanation for mitochondrial (sp) DNA interesting...

[Undertoad]

The zygote/fetus is male or female from the start due to presence of XX female or XY male chromosome.

[Sundae]

Ah - must be a British educational issue, because although I learned that the sperm determines the sex of the foetus, I also learned all foetuses are essentially female. Explaining the nipples in a male (cat as well as human, as I know from Diz) and the clitoris inc hood (NOT known from Diz) which becomes the penis in the male.

I haven't googled it because I don't want to pretend to knowledge I don't have. But if someone could match up these two opposite strands of knowledge I'd be grateful.

[Happy Monkey]

I've heard that, too. Female-like physiology comes first, which develops differently for males. But for humans (all mammals), it actually "is" male or female based on genetics.

Some reptiles have the gender based on incubation temperature rather than genetics, though. I don't know if they also have the physiological female-to-male effect.

[Sundae]

Ahhh, 'splains it, thanks. Female develops first, but can become male after.

Poor Diz cat - he occasionally gets static shocks from his otherwise redundant nipples when I stroke him. And some to the nose too. Must be my parents' choice of carpet!

Then again, his claws rip my skin when he is supposedly just playing... Frequently! Sod it, a few shocks to the nips don't count between friends. (Gitmo excepted).

Re male & female, I was shocked to learn it was the sperm that made the difference. Because even at a Catholic school we learned Henry VIII did what he did (divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived) because no woman could bear him a son. Oh, well, Jane, but she died and so did her son it doesn't count, okay?

[morethanpretty]

That is why he did it SG. He just didn't know it was his own damn fault, women tended to have the blame heaped on them for any procreation issue: infertility, sex of child, deformities, ect.