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A comment on New finding: 600M years ago, a single mutation changed everything. Parent comment

Re:New finding: 600M years ago, a single mutation changed ev... by fiatjaf on Monday January 11, 2016 @06:16PM (#10884380)
> The answer to this proposition is that the fact we aren't aware of the evolutionary advantages which were obtained en route doesn't mean there weren't any.

Your argument begs the question. It is the same as saying: "since evolution actually happened, these mutations must have conferred some evolutionary advantage".

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Re:New finding: 600M years ago, a single mutation changed ev... by cperciva on Monday January 11, 2016 @06:20PM (#10884405)
That wasn't an argument. That was pointing out a flaw in the counter-evolution argument.

The fact that we are not aware of any evolutionary advantage conferred by a change yields no information in either direction about the validity of the evolutionary theory.

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Re:New finding: 600M years ago, a single mutation changed ev... by nitrogen on Tuesday January 12, 2016 @12:56AM (#10885801)
You might enjoy reading this book:

http://smile.amazon.com/Why-Evolution-True-Jerry-Coyne/dp/01...

It summarizes the strongest evidence for evolution in several categories, including the fossil record; the evolution of various features like feathers, eyes, and wings; sings of path dependence that can only be explained by evolution, like the recurrent laryngeal nerve[0]; etc.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recurrent_laryngeal_nerve#Evid...

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Re:New finding: 600M years ago, a single mutation changed ev... by logingone on Tuesday January 12, 2016 @05:47AM (#10886616)
I'm giving you an up-vote for knowing the difference between begs the question and raises the question.
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