SO writes:
My question is, why can convergent evolution not make 2 different species genetically similar? What is stopping evolution from doing so?
Pretty much the same thing that is stopping all of the air molecules in your room from suddenly all being in one half of the room.
What about the beefalo, then?
Well, lest I get into a True Scotsman retreat, I'll just say I was wrong.
Perhaps I would point out that in these cases, it was by Intelligent Design via Homo Sapiens.
SO brings up
inside we find:
It is now believed that Pax 6, even before the origin of eyes, had an unknown function in eyeless organisms, and was subsequently recruited for its role as an eye organizer.
I would strenuously object to the words "recruited for its role", but rather something closer to "given the role".
My reading of the site leads me to believe that they dont have the "Tree of Life" properly defined in their heads, especially since their own words regarding Pax 6 would seem to imply common ancestry.
Continuing from the site:
Mayr tries to explain away this extreme genetic convergent similarity by appealing to hidden potentials of the genotype. Does this sound compatible with the kind of blind, unguided, and even random processes inherent in neo-Darwinian evolution? No. This sounds like a goal-directed process intelligent design.
No - this just means that that particular sort of result is heavily favored when it randomly comes up.
The first is that the development of homologous structures can be governed by different genes and can follow different developmental pathways. The second discovery, conversely, is that sometimes the same gene plays a role in producing different adult structures. Both of these discoveries seem to contradict neo-Darwinian expectations.
No, no, no. You cant have your cake and not have your cake. All the research shows is that there are ZILLIONS of ways biology evolves. Fascinating.
Just because they haven't gone back far enough in the "Bush" of life doesn't mean they've falsified it.
BTW Bush Of Life is probably a better way to describe it rather than insisting on only 2 branchings at a time.
Conclusion
The methodology for inferring common descent has broken down. Proponents of neo-Darwinian evolution are forced into reasoning that similarity implies common ancestry, except for when it doesn’t. And when it doesn’t, they appeal to all sorts of ad hoc rationalizations to save common ancestry. Tellingly, the one assumption and view that they are not willing to jettison is the overall assumption of common ancestry itself. This shows that evolutionists treat common descent in an unfalsifiable, and therefore unscientific and ideological, fashion.
Yeah - it's way more complex than the untrained peanut gallery observers can imagine. There lots of systems that have "except when it doesn't" clauses that - upon careful educated scrutiny - turn out to be reasonable conclusions based the data to date.
No surprises here.
What I see in this site is an unbelievable amount of smugness on the authors. You can almost see them rubbing their hands and nodding to each other with grins "Oh - we got them now!" LOL
They haven't made a point at all.
- xongsmith, 5.7d