The Myth of Junk DNA by Wells Ph.D. Jonathan

Author:Wells Ph.D., Jonathan
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781936599004
Publisher: Discovery Institute Press
Published: 2011-05-31T00:00:00+00:00

IF THE GLO pseudogene turns out to serve any function at all, then the sequence similarities in humans and chimps on which Miller and Coyne based their arguments could be due to natural selection rather than common ancestry. In fact, as we saw in Chapter 5, Balakirev and Ayala in 2003 and Khachane and Harrison in 2009 argued that similarities in pseudogenes are presumptive evidence that those pseudogenes are functional.31–32 Why don’t Miller and Coyne argue likewise that the similarities in primate vitamin C pseudogenes suggest functionality rather than common ancestry?

The difference is that the organisms analyzed by Balakirev and Ayala (humans, mice, chickens and fruit flies) and Khachane and Harrison (humans, monkeys, mice, rats, dogs and cows)—unlike humans and chimps—are not thought to share a recent common ancestor. In other words, if organisms are not thought to be closely related through common descent, then pseudogene similarities imply function, but if organisms are thought to be closely related through common descent, then pseudogene similarities imply that they are closely related through common descent. The second form (used by Miller and Coyne) is a circular argument, because the conclusion is already stated in the premises.

To break the circle, Miller and Coyne would either have to establish the recent common ancestry of humans and chimps on other grounds (but then, why bother invoking the vitamin C pseudogene at all?), or they would first have to establish that the vitamin C pseudogene has no function whatsoever (but this is impossible). So their argument not only fails to refute ID, but it also fails to establish that humans and chimps are descended from a common ancestor.

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