> -----Original Message-----
> From: Peter Borst [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Thursday, January 03, 2002 1:46 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Do bee disease evolve to be more benign?
>
[cut]
>
> I have never heard anyone state that selective breeding is a
> form of evolution. Selective breeding introduces a variety of
> procedures and criteria that simply do not exist in nature.
> For example, nature does not favor line breeding and in fact,
> tries to keep a large gene pool to prevent inbreeding.
> Inbreeding and hybridization are just two examples of human
> intervention.

Selective breeding could very well be part of evolution. The process
does not
care what gives the trait an advantage. One species developing traits
that
benefit another species, and then become a breeding/survival trait are
not at
all uncommon.

Nature does not try anything, that is anthropomorphic!
A closed breeding environment, such as a species becoming isolated on an
island
,happen all the time. With DNA a closed population has a big
disadvantage, but closed
is a relative term.

[cut]

> Regardless whether or not selective breeding is a good thing
> or not (most people would agree that it is, having given us
> most of the domestic plants and animals we use), I simply do
> not see how it can be *equated* with evolution. I think, for
> better or worse, humankind parted ways with "Nature" several
> hundred years ago.
>
>
This sounds very much like "special pleading"
( http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/special-pleading.html ).
 We would need to understand how we "parted ways", to put us apart from
the
rest of nature.