Re: Flight SPECULATION

[Dinogeorge@aol.com]

In a message dated 95-12-03 14:44:24 EST, martz@holly.ColoState.EDU (Jeffrey
Martz) writes:

>One might argue (and some have), even in light of overwealming 
>evidence,  that saying that evolution really happened and that man 
>really landed on the moon cannot be verified 
>because we ourselves never actually saw it happen an it could all be a 
>humungous fake or misinterpretaion.  I refer to this way of thinking as 
>keeping your mind so open that your brains fall out.  Advocates of 
>BCF may feel that my brains are spilling in said fashion, but I 
>think that the evidence really IS too scanty in this particular case for 
>certainty.

Certainty, of course, can never be guaranteed, particularly when devising
evolutionary scenarios. Every scenario has alternatives, every scenario has
plausible objections. Perhaps the best thing to do would be to simply call
for a moratorium on speculation about the origins of flight until a
significant number of pre-archaeopterygid dino-birds (or whatever) are
discovered. How likely is _that_ to happen?!

But I still think "ground up" is impossible, and "trees down" works. :-)