On Sat, 20 Jan 1996 14:48:26 -0600 (CST) you wrote:
[...]
>Darwin's personification of nature, even the capitalizing of "her" as
>"Nature" indicates that he is replacing one deity with another. He does
>so by such a transparent sleight of hand that I'm astounded it still
>carries weight as an argument. For on the one hand we have the animal
>breeder (an intelligent agent) producing changes (consciously, contra
>Darwin) serving as an analogy for nature (without intelligence, purpose
>or consciousness) plus time. Why is this inconsistency not obvious to
>even the most ardent philosophical naturalist?
There are other personification passages:
"It may metaphorically be said that natural selection is daily and
hourly scrutinising, throughout the world, the slightest variations;
rejecting those that are bad, preserving and adding up all that are
good; silently and insensibly working, whenever and wherever
opportunity offers, at the improvement of each organic being in
relation to its organic and inorganic conditions of life. We see
nothing of these slow changes in progress, until the hand of time has
marked the lapse of ages, and then so imperfect is our view into
long-past geological ages, that we see only that the forms of life are
now different from what they formerly were." (Darwin C., "The Origin
of Species", 6th edition, 1872, Everyman's Library, J.M. Dent & Sons:
London, 1967 (reprint), p84).
The ealier editions did not even have "metaphorically", so the
substitute deity is more obvious. As Johnson points out:
"Darwin added the word "metaphorically" to the sentence, apparently
realizing that he had written of natural selection as if it were an
intelligent, creative being.", (Johnson P.E., "Darwin on Trial",
InterVarsity Press: Downers Grove Ill., p58).
I find it interesting that materialists must still speak and write
like theists! It seems they cannot bear to live out their philosophy
consistently?
God bless.
Stephen
----------------------------------------------------------------
| Stephen Jones ,--_|\ sjones@iinet.net.au |
| 3 Hawker Ave / Oz \ http://www.iinet.net.au/~sjones/ |
| Warwick 6024 ->*_,--\_/ phone +61 9 448 7439. (These are |
| Perth, Australia v my opinions, not my employer's) |
----------------------------------------------------------------