In another thread, Roy wrote about the ridicule which followed my original proposal of “ontogenetic depth” (OD):
The ridicule is self-inflicted and richly deserved.
Indeed. I had only myself to blame. PZ Myers needed simply to step in and point out the obvious. My 2003-4 proposal, that OD could be calculated as the product of the average of cell divisions (between fertilized egg and any cell in the reproductively capable adult), times the number of cell types, was hopelessly wrong.
Nonetheless, I have continued to work on OD since 2003, and today am more persuaded than ever that OD is real and therefore significant for evolution and intelligent design. OD represents the major obstacle to theories of undirected evolution for the origin of the animal body plans.
Evolution fails to explain OD, which is why (160 years after Darwin) the origin of the animals remains an open puzzle. Whether ID explains it depends critically on the ID hypothesis (take note, John Mercer!) on the table.
I am eager to discuss OD, but only with people who have taken the trouble to inform themselves, so – if you want to talk about OD – watch this 2018 talk first, which runs approximately one hour:
Note to Faisal Ali. You prefer to criticize ID people without reading their work. That’s fine. We all have to decide how to use our time.
But I will continue to ignore what you say unless you inform yourself. Watch the talk.
This video is also relevant: