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Jonathan Wells: We are far from a good theoretical model of organisms’ development

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Jonathan Wells

We are far from having a complete list of the components, as a matter of fact.

Further to “Jonathan Wells: Far from being all-powerful, DNA does not wholly determine biological form”: In response to the question, “How close are we to defining a theoretical model that accurately depicts the essential components of an organism’s global developmental control system (components such as the epigenetic control subsystem, spliceosomes, editosomes, space positioning control subsystems, etc.) and their interactive relationships/organizational form?”, Jonathan Wells replied,

My guess is that we’re very far from having a complete list of the components; new ones are being discovered every year.

In 1980 I heard a prominent cell biologist at Yale University say that we know basically all there is to know about the cell — we’re just filling in the details. (You may recall that a prominent physicist reportedly said something similar about physics in 1900…) If Faust had said that, Mephistopheles would have rightly taken possession of his soul.

Since we’re far from having a complete list of the components, we’re even farther from having a good theoretical model. Such a model awaits a major scientific revolution. In my opinion we’re currently on the verge of, or perhaps even in the early stages of, such a revolution. ID is part of it, but I think there’s much, much more.

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