>
>Goodwin seems to be saying that self-replication can only occur if the
>whole "cellular context" is already in place? If so, this seems
>near-conclusive evidence for Intelligent Design and a near-disproof of
>the Darwinian blind watchmaker evolutionary paradigm?
>
I hope that you chuckled when you wrote this. Goodwin is an evolutionist
and he doesn't believe that his notions undermine evolutionary theory or
contravene the *vast evidence* for it. Goodwin is an opponent of the
neo-Darwinian view and for that matter, the Gouldian view (at least in
terms of notions of contigency) of evolution. Does Goodwin believe in
common ancestry? Yes. Does that make him an evolutionist? Yes. Perhaps
Brian Goodwin is that second beast of Rev. 13.
Goodwin is part of that new evolutionary synthesis that I mentioned in a
previous post. So he makes critical comments about neo-Darwinism while
still being a full-fledged evolutionist. Your use of Goodwin in support of
PC is like YEC using Gould and Eldredge and punctuated equilibrium in
support of their view. Johnson plays the same games. He uses internal
debates among people who are convinced of evolution to show that evolution
is not true when neither side believes that their comments lead to that
conclusion.
The other thing I see here, Steve, is that you don't seem to recognize that
there is any other evolutionism besides the neo-Darwinian synthesis. Many
evolutionist recognize that neo-Darwinism is inadequate. Of course, it
still has it's supporters: Dawkins, Dennett, etc. But to quote Steve
Gould in his anti-neo-Darwinian comments in support of a PC position seems
ridiculous. Gould, Goodwin, Kauffman, Eldredge, etc. are advocating a new
perspective and our Christian apology suffers when we're fighting positions
that criticizing evolutionary positions that evolutionists themselves are
criticizing in the name of a creationist apologetic.
TG
_____________________________________________________________
Terry M. Gray, Ph.D. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Calvin College 3201 Burton SE Grand Rapids, MI 40546
Office: (616) 957-7187 FAX: (616) 957-6501
Email: grayt@calvin.edu http://www.calvin.edu/~grayt