Talk:Eugene McCarthy

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Heeey, is this characterization really fair? "Despite having a PhD in genetics ... etc" Yes, in fact he also has a Post Doc (and Masters...) in genetics. Instead of saying anybody on the street could refute a guy who has spent decades studying the subject, why not look for actual peer reviewed refutation of his wonky ideas? Are there any? Is it because it's so "obviously wrong," or because the idea makes people uncomfortable and it's an unpopular topic? Evolution is not scientific LAW, it is THEORY - and yes I know that's the stupid shit Creationists say, but I point it out because that's supposed to mean the scientific community acknowledges that the ideas can still be refined and made more elegant. Just because a guy says there might be some things we need to change about how we look at evolution doesn't mean he's an "Intelligent Designer." Automatically dismissing a hypothesis without examination is not science, it's dogma. Atomfenrir (talk) 13:32, 21 October 2014 (UTC)

  • Yes, actually. It's harsh, but fair. While unexpected theories are sometimes shown to be true, McCarthy's proposal is so far from accepted science that it's on the order of questioning whether human beings might have actually developed in Nebraska rather than eastern Europe (bothof those are very deliberately places where no one seriously considers human beings might have developed). Anyone would know that something seems instinctively wrong about the idea of an ape producing viable offspring with a pig, and anyone who has completed high school biology can give a very basic explanation of why. Genetic and physiological differences make hybridization above the species level rare and hybridization at or above the level of the order impossible among animals. Pigs and apes have their closest relationship at the level of the unranked clade Boreoeutheria, which is significantly above the level of the order (for some perspective, a gorilla mating with a rabbit would have a closer genetic similarity than the human/chimp LCA mating with a wild boar). His other suggestions, like platypuses being the result of a breeding between a mammal and a bird, involve an even greater degree of physiological and genetic incompatibility. It implies interbreeding at the class level, and is literally the same as the idea of a hawk mating with a gopher. TudorGothicSerpent (talk) 20:57, 27 November 2014 (UTC)
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