Sunday School

[TheEncogitationer]

Jake:

To get back to Lamarck, just because his notion of inherited acquisition is mistaken, does not mean he made no contributions to biological (and indeed other sciences.).

He served in the French Army against the Prussians in the Seven Year War. He was a great botanist who collected many species of flora, as well as fossils and minerals for French Museums. He was a great Taxonomist who created and studied the subphylum Invertabrata, which encompasses over 95 percent of all extant species on Earth. Lamarck was the first proponent of a coherent Theory of Evolution and was praised by Darwin for attributing the behavior of living things to Natural Law and not the Supernatural. And Lamarck was the first to use the term Biology to denote the study of living things.

Even though he stumbled, Lamarck was still a giant whose shoulders Darwin and other great scientists stood upon and reached for intellectual succor, much like Lamarck’s giraffe.

Science has no Inquisition for those who get something wrong, but instead a place of honor for all who contribute something right.

[jakelafort]

Enco, the inheritability of acquired characteristics is not wrong. It is part of the story of genetics. Mendel’s rules are part of that story also but the simplest version. Maybe there is an analogy between Newton’s understanding and Einstein’s. But the inheritability is beyond dispute. It is factual if not satisfactual to you.

It’s role in evolution will unfold as our knowledge of biology grows. More primitive organisms seem to have greater number of generations that observe the epigenitic inheritance. I suspect that those inherited characteristics offer a bridge without which some species may have gone extinct. Below is one article that relates to the topic.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/05/260530053420.htm

[jakelafort]

Hope you are right Reg about it being a small minority. If you are only including those who go out in kefiyeh’s and scream the slogans then i think that is true. In terms of actual views i don’t believe it to be the case. Certainly not in the USA. And from what i have read many places have greater numbers of anti-Israel/Jew like Belgium, Australia, Canada, Spain.

The far left in USA is becoming more mainstream. Muslim candidates who are Jew hating/pro communism are doing surprisingly well. So few democrats are outspoken allies of Israel and Zionism. The greater the political influence of the far left the more gutless the formerly mainstream dems become with some exceptions.

What i have observed online is that the emotional attachment to Jesus/Palestine is palpable. The messaging is consistent. They are parroting each other with alarming Jew hating mantras. Genocide in Gaza is a fact. You are a baby killing zionist if you question their belief. The country of Palestine was stolen by the White settler Colonial Jews. Zionism bears no resemblance in their defintion to zionism. Palestine is this mythical wonderland where freedom will ring and diversity will be celebrated.

Just think it was not long ago that in USA we had the red scare. Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party? And now it is hip to be a Jew hating Communist. The indoctrination is continuing. In my state there is this. “A new Connecticut law directs the State Board of Education to develop optional curriculum materials for Islamic and Arab studies and encourage local school districts to offer them.”

[TheEncogitationer]

Jake:

Epigenetic inheritability is a fact, but that, of. course was not what Lamarckianism defended.

What Lamarck defended would amount to saying that a tattoo, a cut, a burn, or an amputation on a parent would pass on by heredity to offspring. Obviously, none of that is the case.

Epigenetic Inheritability is closer to Mendelianism in that genetics is the source of changes in species over time. Though epigenetics wasn’t part of Mendelianism, it wouldn’t have taken much to convince Mendel when shown with a microscope and In-Vitro Fertilization.

And thank The Void that politics or religion don’t pass to future generations by either acquired or epigenetic inheritability! That takes Rodgers and Hammerstein “carefully taught” memetics that fortunately doesn’t always take!

Moammar Quadaffy Duck thought that Jihad could be done by immigration demographics but it isn’t without resistance both from native-born populations and from encounter of Muslims with other ideas and lifestyles.

We aren’t apart here, but Lamarck’s imperfect understanding of the mechanism of Evolution is what make the journey a circumnavigation.

[TheEncogitationer]

Reg and Jake:

Great article from The European Conservative! Perfectly in the same genre as the resolute works of Ibn Warraq, Wafa Sultan, and Salman Rushdie!

What I find disturbing is that the Jew/Israel hatred is not only spreading among the politically fanatical Woke Left and Woke Right, but it is even spreading among people who professedly identify as Atheist, Agnostic, Freethinking, Pro-Science, Secular, and Skeptical!

Kyle Kulinski of the Secular Talk Channel actually wants to bully fellow Democratic Party members to support the bandwagon of the torch-and-pitchfork pogrom punks, much to the delight of the sadistic Joy Reid and the Dickensian-named Krystal Ball:

[TheEncogitationer]

On the Talk Heathen Channel, Emma Thorne, so-called Objectively Dan, and caller David all garble a few kernels of facts about Evangelical Christians and Observant Religious Jews with the usual hateful screeds of Israel as an Apartheid, Colonialist Ethnostate, with Israel smeared by all conversationists and all viewers left rolling their eyes and numbed by the experience:

[TheEncogitationer]

Hemant Mehta of the Friendly Atheist Channel has it right about which religion is the bigger threat to freedom in the U.S.A., but not which one is the biggest threat globally. This probably also informs Mehta’s support elsewhere of the propaganda of Gaza Genocide by Israel. Armin Navabi and Johanna Browne call Hemant Mehta out on his myopia:

[Simon Paynton]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:

cooperative breeding is also evolving 🙂

The Homo erectus cooperative breeding was the culmination of a long process of peeling un-weaned infants away from their mothers, that might have taken 2-4 million years.  Great ape mothers do not like to give up their babies to anyone else.  It makes sense that the first people whom mothers trusted, was their own mothers, the grandmothers of the infant.  So, the more that grandmothers looked after their grandchildren, the longer the grandchildren eventually survived, forming an evolutionary feedback loop that resulted in the evolution of grandmothers long past their menopause.

[jakelafort]

Enco, I can’t sign on to your read of Lamarck. I see him as a rationalist who sought to explain the natural world. Acquired characteristics passed on to offspring that are the stuff of change in that era is impressive. And while he did not know the mechanism in terms of the biology he was proposing evolution. And we are learning that the unknown mechanism likely plays a role in evolution.

Mendel’s understanding is so primitive compared to today’s of genetics. There is Dawkin’s selfish gene. There is genetic drift. AI definition follows. a mechanism of evolution where gene (allele) frequencies change over generations due to random chance rather than natural selection. It causes some traits to become common or disappear entirely, reducing genetic diversity, and its effects are strongest in small, isolated populations.

This: but the concept is known in biology as epigenetically-driven mutagenesis or epiallele-facilitated mutation. In this process, chemical marks like DNA methylation increase the physical rate of real genetic mutations.

And check out this recent article! There are more things under the stars Horatio….yea the simplicity of Darwin’s theory is no longer sacrosanct and i have little doubt more and more discoveries about biology will continue to enhance the story. The part that looks inviolate is that we and everything alive is result of natural processes.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260803080911.htm

[jakelafort]

Enco,

Was not familiar with Dan. What an ignorant moron.

One more example that being an atheist in and of itself is no assurance of intelligence.

[jakelafort]

Greater threat of achieving power in USA, USI or some version of a Dominionist Christian? Which would be worse?

I am pretty sure the kneejerk response is gonna be far right Christians are a legit threat of achieving power. Islam is a fringe fad among far left and young.

What do i think? I guess it depends on whether far left or far right is ascendant. Trump has weakened our institutions and made us more vulnerable to a political metamorphosis.

I would be more alarmed by an Islamic state. Christianity has had its reckoning with absolute power and come away with a less evil set of norms. Islam is simply over the top evil right now.

[TheEncogitationer]

Jake:

Enco, I can’t sign on to your read of Lamarck. I see him as a rationalist who sought to explain the natural world.

You just did sign on, because that and more is exactly what I said of Lamarck. But Rationalists can make mistakes as well, zas long as Reason is free to correct them, which Reason has.

Mendel’s understanding is so primitive compared to today’s of genetics. There is Dawkin’s selfish gene. There is genetic drift. AI definition follows. a mechanism of evolution where gene (allele) frequencies change over generations due to random chance rather than natural selection. It causes some traits to become common or disappear entirely, reducing genetic diversity, and its effects are strongest in small, isolated populations.

Darwin, Lamarck, and Mendel are all primitive compared to the discoveries of today, but all are part of the metaphorical turtle tower which is Science.

And as with the turtle, slow but steady wins the race, ol’ Mutt, unless it’s the slow and steady drift of a raft through Deliverance Country with the slow and steady drift of banjo music through the trees. It takes lots of effort to perpetuate genetic drift over generations. And in the end, what is the result? Not cromulent with flourishing.

WEEEE!-WEEEE! 🐖🐷

This: but the concept is known in biology as epigenetically-driven mutagenesis or epiallele-facilitated mutation. In this process, chemical marks like DNA methylation increase the physical rate of real genetic mutations.

I’ll take this over the afforementioned drift anytime. Spock’s ethic of Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations does make for flourishing and lots to flourish for as well.

And check out this recent article! There are more things under the stars Horatio….yea the simplicity of Darwin’s theory is no longer sacrosanct and i have little doubt more and more discoveries about biology will continue to enhance the story. The part that looks inviolate is that we and everything alive is result of natural processes.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08

Wow! I wonder if “Jumping Genes” could jump between larvae and beans to make Mexican Jumping Beans that jump without the larvae! And would they be something only Bobby Brainworm would eat?

If they’re palpable, I’ll jump on them and eat a bowl in tribute to Lamarck, Darwin, Mendel, and whoever breeds the “Jumping Gene” Beans! Make a Hop for the Border!

🫘🪇🌮🌯🫔🌶️🫓

[TheEncogitationer]

Simon:

The Homo erectus cooperative breeding was the culmination of a long process of peeling un-weaned infants away from their mothers, that might have taken 2-4 million years. Great ape mothers do not like to give up their babies to anyone else. It makes sense that the first people whom mothers trusted, was their own mothers, the grandmothers of the infant. So, the more that grandmothers looked after their grandchildren, the longer the grandchildren eventually survived, forming an evolutionary feedback loop that resulted in the evolution of grandmothers long past their menopause.

Good to know where the affection for Maw-Maw and Paw-Paw, Mee-Ma and Pop-Pop, and Grammy and Gramps came from! 👵🏼🧔🏼‍♀️

As for that AI at the crib monitoring sleep and vital signs that Reg presented, I just thought: something like that would need programming with Medical Confidentiality/HIPPA rules, as well as an ungrided IntraNet and the most seamless encryption to foil kidnappers and predators.

[jakelafort]

Here is 24 intersting minutes topic Lamarck.

[TheEncogitationer]

Jake:

I DuckDuck-ed up the words “Epigenetics” and “Dutch Famine 1944” and “Holocaust victims.”. I think I now see where you get your attachment to the idea.

I also watched some short videos on the subject and am in the middle of a Neil DeGrasse Tyson video on the subject of Epigenetic Trauma.

Without meaning to drag up any pain you may have, do you think you as a Jew may have this epigenetic trauma?

Could anyone who bore witness to any part of the Twentieth Century have a version of this trauma, even it was just from history books or video?

(I once seriously wanted to make a Zazzle shirt that said:”Adult Survivor of the Twentieth Century.” Maybe make younger skulls full of mush look back and take notice before they jump on the latest “current thing” that repeats the worst of that time.)

I hope for the future that we are more resilient than it seems or than we may think.

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