My brother, clinging to creationism quoted Prof. James A. Shapiro to support his idea. this our Facebook dialoge:
Him: Innovation, not selection, is the critical issue in evolutionary change.
Thirty years ago, I was at a conference in Cambridge, England, to celebrate the centennial of Darwin's death. There, Richard Dawkins began his lecture by saying, "I will not only explain that Darwin had the right answer, but I will show that he had the only possible right answer."
Hearing this (and knowing that alternative explanations inevitably arise in science), I said to myself that the Creationists have a point. They are dealing with a form of religious belief on the "evolution" side. Dawkins' transformation into an aggressive proselytizer for his undoubting and absolutist version of atheism confirms this conclusion.
- James A. Shapiro, Professor of Microbiology, University of Chicago
Me: Don't rejoice yet! Prof Shapiro is not a proponent of Creationism. Far from it, he is one of the leading researcher and advocator of Modern Evolutionary Theory as opposed to Neo Darwinism. His postulates are fine and intriguing.
In his boo k: Evolution: A View from the 21st Century, Shapiro integrates advances in symbiogenesis, epigenetics, and saltationism into a unified approach that views evolutionary change as an active cell process, regulated epigenetically and capable of making rapid large changes by horizontal DNA transfer, inter-specific hybridization, whole genome doubling, symbiogenesis, or massive genome restructuring.
His book, marshals extensive evidence in support of a fundamental reinterpretation of evolutionary processes, including more than 1,100 references to the scientific literature. Shapiro's work will generate extensive discussion throughout the biological community, and may significantly change your own thinking about how life has evolved. It also has major implications for evolutionary computation, information science, and the growing synthesis of the physical and biological sciences.
http://www.amazon.com/ Evolution-View-Century-Pres s-Science/dp/0132780933
Him: Yep, he is an honest evolutionist.
"In order to be truthful, we must acknowledge that certain questions, like the origins of the first living cells, currently have no credible scientific answer." - James A. Shapiro
Meanwhile..
"I will not only explain that Darwin had the right answer, but I will show that he had the only possible right answer." - Richard Dawkins
One can immediately distinguish between the two which one is a true biologist(scientist) from an evangelist. hehe
Me: First of, your right, Prof Shapiro is not opposing the general theory of Evolution. Rather, he is refining the details of the mechanisms, arguing that the classical definition of Darwinism is lacking, and that through the advancement of modern technology and recent biological data, offers alternative details on evolutionary processes. He is not arguing about whether Evolution did occur or not, but rather the on the details. For him the classical definitions are either lacking or incorrect.
Second, the cherry pick quoted: "In order to be truthful, we must acknowledge that certain questions, like the origins of the first living cells, currently have no credible scientific answer." was lifted out from the rest of his comments, & used by some creationist fans to suit their needs. Here is the entire context:
"We need to demonstrate that evolution science is alive and well, as well as show how it is making remarkable progress through the application of molecular technologies -- even though it does not have all the answers.
To the thoughtful scientist whose job is to uncover natural processes, this is surely a better way of advocating the scientific method than dogmatically asserting that we found all the scientific principles we need in centuries past.
In order to be truthful, we must acknowledge that certain questions, like the origins of the first living cells, currently have no credible scientific answer. However, given the historical record of science and technology in achieving the "impossible" (e.g., space flight, telecommunications, electronic computation and robotics), there is no reason to believe that unsolved problems will remain without naturalistic explanations indefinitely." - James A. Shapiro.
Now, who's the evangelist?
C'mon lets get over that stone age superstition!
http:// www.evolutionnews.org/2012/ 05/ more_reasons_to059221.html
Did i answer him correctly? please give me your inputs. thanks