Re: paleonet More ID

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I wrote one yesterday; will let everyone know if its accepted.
 Here is the text:

To the Editors:

Sally Jenkins' August 29 column ("Just Check the ID") is
one of the most nonsensical, rambling, and fuzzy-headed pieces
of writing I have ever read.  The claim that exceptional
athletic ability could not arise through natural selection
acting on genetic variation is transparently feeble.  Why on
Earth not?  Does she really believe that the ability to run
faster, jump higher, or think with greater focus and clarity
does not confer very significant selective advantages?  Of
course it does, both in the natural environment (hunting and
eluding predators, for instance) and in the human social
environment (fighting, prestige, mate selection).  In fact,
its hard to come up with a more obvious example of a set of
traits which we should expect to be honed to a very high
degree by natural selection. 

On what grounds do great athletes constitute evidence that
"Deep within the complexities of molecular organization lies
an intrinsic intelligence... that we can connect with through
the willful focus of our minds"?  What exactly does this
statement mean?  If I learned to connect with this "intrinsic
intelligence", would I have the athletic abilities of Michael
Jordan?

In her next column, maybe Ms. Jenkins will do us the favor
of explaining, precisely, the logic and empirical evidence
behind Mr. Johnson, Mr. Shwartz, and Mr. Stenstrom's
critiques, and the specific ways in which evolutionary theory
fails to counter them.  Otherwise, perhaps she should confine
her philosophical musings to subjects in which she is better
able to explain herself.

                             Seth Finnegan
                             Riverside, CA

---- Original message ----
>Date: Tue, 30 Aug 2005 08:07:02 -0400
>From: Lucy E Edwards <leedward@usgs.gov>  
>Subject: Re: paleonet More ID  
>To: paleonet@nhm.ac.uk
>
>OK, so who is going to write a letter-to-the-editor to the
Washington Post?
>Lucy Edwards
>
>
Seth Finnegan
Dept. of Earth Sciences -036
University of California
Riverside, CA 92521
Phone:(951)452-2759
Fax:  (951)787-4324