Plognark's Evolution Primer

Galvatron · Post by **Galvatron** » 2005-12-06 08:57pm

Anyone seen this web page? Looks great as a tool for educating the layman about evolution, but I'm curious how much accuracy may have been sacrificed for simplicity's sake...

Link

Molyneux · Post by **Molyneux** » 2005-12-06 10:00pm

Not bad at all...it seems fairly accessible and well-written without getting rid of too much of the actual information in the process.

Also, those little critters are cute!

SyntaxVorlon · Post by **SyntaxVorlon** » 2005-12-06 11:49pm

According to my resident evolution expert(GF), it's oversimplified and misuses a bunch of terms. Reproductive isolation for instance is not what he says it is, that is geographic isolation that makes it so the population can't swap DNA. Reproductive isolation is the point where the two populations can't swap DNA no matter their geographic isolation.

There are a number of other simplifications where he is introducing concepts, but loses sight of a lot of the information.

Post by **Lagmonster** » 2005-12-07 08:14am

Plognark is a good cartoonist and a witty guy; you can interact with him at Internet Infidels if you like, and straighten him out if you like. That said, he knows it's oversimplified. That's more or less the point, as I take it.

Darth Servo · Post by **Darth Servo** » 2005-12-07 04:13pm

His discussion of the Creationist "spork" argument is particularly amusing.

Molyneux · Post by **Molyneux** » 2005-12-07 06:40pm

Darth Servo wrote:His discussion of the Creationist "spork" argument is particularly amusing.

Yeah, uh...what the heck is that...? I looked on Google for about half an hour and I couldn't find anything that he might have been referring to.

Darth Servo · Post by **Darth Servo** » 2005-12-07 06:47pm

Molyneux wrote:Yeah, uh...what the heck is that...? I looked on Google for about half an hour and I couldn't find anything that he might have been referring to.

Not sure myself but its probably something along the lines of "sporks are a mixture between spoons and forks but they were still designed by intellignet humans. Its the same with animals that evilution says are related"

GrandMasterTerwynn · Post by **GrandMasterTerwynn** » 2005-12-07 06:49pm

Molyneux wrote:
Darth Servo wrote:His discussion of the Creationist "spork" argument is particularly amusing.
Yeah, uh...what the heck is that...? I looked on Google for about half an hour and I couldn't find anything that he might have been referring to.

It is, I suspect, a dig at the creationist's idea of a transitional species, or, rather, the strawman they create. The strawman claims that a transitional species should look like some bizarre chimera combining the traits of the first species, and the one following it.

Post by **LadyTevar** » 2005-12-08 01:39pm

Really cute!

dworkin · Post by **dworkin** » 2005-12-08 02:07pm

I like it. It's a good intro and done in a witty and amusing manner.