Re: Origins of life; Sci-Am review

Susan Brassfield (Susan-Brassfield@ou.edu)
Tue, 23 Nov 1999 16:21:46 -0600

>Chris wrote:
>>I wonder if you've noticed that no evolutionist for the past thirty or forty
>>years or so (with a few die-heard exceptions) has claimed that *Darwin's*
>>theory alone, in its pure form, *did* account for complexity. Perhaps you'd
>>like to catch up with modern times and modern theory? Darwin's theory does
>>not *predict* extreme complexity, except in some cases, but it does not
>>forbid it either. It simply leaves the question open.
>
>Bertvan
>You say no one knows for certain what accounts for complexity and the
>question is open. In that case what is all the controversy about?

It's about teaching religion in science classes. Not all religion, of
course, just Christian mythology.

>Atheists, and apparently some Christians, should be free to believe it
>happened without purpose, plan or design.

none can be detected by science even if it is there.

>Theists, and some agnostics,
>should be free to believe purpose, plan and design were involved.

they are--in church. They can't inject their religious beliefs into science
class or suppress science (as Kansas has done) to protect religious
mythology from challenge.

>Neither
>assumption should be imposed upon anyone else as "scientific truth".

"scientific truth" is information that is backed up by evidence and
research. No scientific research backs up "intelligent design" or "creation
theory" both are propaganda tools developed strictly for the purpose of
keeping Christian dogma from being challenged.

oh, and btw. Remember when you talked about 97%, uh, 95% of all
psychiatrists are atheists, uh, a mixture of atheists and agnostics? I
noticed that neither you nor your source cared to break down the statistic
into how many are atheists and how many are agnostics. However,
self-identified atheists are quite rare. Most people who don't believe in
gods will usually identifiy themselves as agnostics. That means most
psychologists believe as you do. You should find some comfort in that :-)

Susan

----------

For if there is a sin against life, it consists not so much in despairing
of life as in hoping for another and in eluding the implacable grandeur of
this one.
--Albert Camus

http://www.telepath.com/susanb/