Slog - Comments on Germ Factory

Comment by cpualani

cpualani — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 16:42:10 -0800

I wonder how many people are going to use this as a pro-creationist talking point. You know, something along the lines of, "See, on the basis of one possible fact that has been discovered in the last few days, we can throw out the entire idea of vestigial body parts, and thus, evolution as a whole!"

Morning television news is going to be unbearable the next few days, I bet.

Comment by Amelia

Amelia — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 18:03:24 -0800

I hope my appendix never bursts. That would suck.

Comment by flamingbanjo

flamingbanjo — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 18:43:25 -0800

The appendix is an organic antenna that allows you to receive transmissions from God.

Comment by kinaidos

kinaidos — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 19:33:00 -0800

@1 I would LOVE to see Kirk Cameron film THAT piece, apropos given that his is almost entirely at this point a vestigial body par.

BUT this doesn't demonstrate what you claim at all. In fact it shows that we likely retain the appendix as a mostly vestigial organ that played a robust roll in our remote past when we would snack on newly killed organ meat and such. What we see in the modern appendix is a transition to vestigial status. If it were truly vestigial it's hard to explain why it has stuck around so long since it was a killer up until recently. That it also might play some positive role shows at least a possible reason why it's still here.