Title Author Date

Flagella article / Skeptic Magazine Perakh, Mark Aug 25, 2008

Dear Mr. Francis:

thanks for your email. I appreciate your comment. I hope you realize, that I had to reply to the actual arguments by creationists who routinely assert that flagella look like man-made machines, and this, in their view, points to Designer. The simplest way to reject their claim was to point out that in fact flagella do not look like man-made machines. As to your notion asserting that machine-like appearance points to evolution because God is not limited in his ways of creation, I could not use such an argument because, first, it implies the existence of an omnipotent Creator, and such an asseveration in itself requires a strong support by evidence, and claiming that such evidence exists and is reliable, would invoke another controversy, leading away from the main point of my topic.

Second, the assertion that machine-like appearance point to evolution certainly would invoke a strong resistance from various quarters, while the simple notion I used - namely demonstrating that flagella do not look like machines, shows the creationists' thesis to be wrong, in a simple and straghtforward way. Nevertheless, if you are interested, I'd suggest that you send your letter to Talk Reason ( [email protected] ) where it can be posted in the letters section, and perhaps answered by other readers.

Best wishes,
MP

Related Articles: Flagella -- real and fictional