Re: Findings on Hostility at Smithsonian Noted in NRO Article

[JMHACLJ]

The relationship of the brachial arches in different mammals, for example, demonstrates evolutionary heritage.  Critics complain it's inaccurate to call them gill slits.  Well, yeah -- they only develop into gills in gilled animals.  But the heritage relationship is shown whether they are labeled correctly or not.    So, you can holler all you want to about ontogeny and phylogeny.  The facts are that the brachial arches demonstrate that giraffes and all other mammals share a heritage with sharks and fishes (especially with regard to the vagus nerve and the aorta).  That heritage relationship is what the critics don't want shown, under any name, accurate or not. You say that similarity of structures demonstrates evolutionary heritage.  I say that art experts testify, even in court cases, that similarity of form is evidence of common design and origin; "this painting is a Van Gogh," they tell us, and with experience and study, they identify the period of the artist's life in which it was created.  Commonality certainly suggests common origin, but what is the basis in science for disputing common designer?   You call "critics" those that complain that it is "inaccurate" to "call them gill slits."  Language matters.  How can science be served by making words meaningless.  Because gills are related in some way (functionality) to lungs, why not call them lungs.  In fact, why not pretend, all of us, that our lungs are gills?  We can jump into the ocean, and conduct an empirical observation of whether calling something gills makes them gills.   Jim Henderson Senior Counsel ACLJ

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