Reductio ad absurdum can be fun and effective but nothing is as devastating to specious arguments as a simple counterexample. If someone claims that A implies B, find a case in which A is true but B is not. A in this case is a large, long-lived multicellular organism; B is having an adaptive immune system. Trees can be classified as A, but do not have B; therefore A does not imply B.*3 It takes practice to find good counterexamples, and few will be as effective and crushing as the tree example. If and when you do find one, please be kind. If the claims were made in earnest with no ill intent,
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