I agree totally with Olivia Judson of the New York Times that Darwinism is passé. But so is its replacement, Neo-Darwinism. Evolution involves everything, not just biological systems. Galaxies evolve; planets evolve; mountains evolve; societies evolve. The mechanism of evolution proposed by Darwin, natural selection, was only a primitive start (it essentially overemphasized the environment of the systems being studied). When genetics was discovered, biologists were forced to include at least part of the insides of the systems being studied. Darwinism had to be renamed “Neo-Darwinism.” It is time that we recognize that even this mechanism is only a special case of the universal mechanism of evolution. The universal mechanism, which I have termed “univironmental determinism,” states that what happens to a portion of the universe is dependent on the interaction between the microcosm and the macrocosm (i.e., the system and its environment). We need to discuss evolution on a higher level. Fighting a rear-guard action against the creationists (who have now evolved into intelligent designers) may be pedagogically entertaining, but does it lead to the rapid advancement of science? The fact that the evolution vs. creation battle must be fought at all, only shows how far behind we are in the U.S. Folks in other countries pay almost no attention to our debates, simply because so many of them never had to overcome the religious indoctrination so common in the U.S.
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5 comments:
You seem to have a real problem with religion. I pity you, man. And I ought to pray for you. Of course, you ought to pray for me as well, as I am no better. I am not the virtuous sort, but only a hypocrite who cannot practice what he preaches.
Still... it is evident that you have grown conceited in your atheism. Worse, you have grown proud, fat, and lazy (figuratively speaking). With your vestigial intellectual muscles, withered by decades of undue comfort, you lash out at something you do not understand, something that would surely defeat you in battle.
But old age need not make a fool of every man. There is still time. Read Anthony Flew.
Anthony Flew.
Read him.
Anthony Flew: pathetic. The questions of whether there was a first cause, one big bang, or multiuniverses. Egads!
You have the gift of eloquence, a gift I do not have in abundance. You write incredibly well. Your audience could be anyone from the highly educated to the very young.
But surely, you are missing something. You, Glenn Borchardt, are personally missing something in your life, something your soul yearns for, something that you are willfully denying (in the same breath that you deny free will). I cannot give it to you, much less could I lead by example. But I hope you find it.
I found it! It was at the Rational Response Squad's wonderful website: (http://www.rationalresponders.com).
But you are in despair.
And by taking refuge in an organization founded on bitterness and denial, you are only prolonging your despair. I have an alternative for you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ii8UoZXNbJ8
After you're done with that little dandy, listen to the song "Gone" by Switchfoot. It has some of your favorite words in it like "infinity" and "forever."
You need to take a walk on a spiritual treadmill.
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