> I think this hits more at the heart of the problem.
> Despite Michael Topper's point that most of the
> people who contributed to science in the first
> half of the 1800s were devout Christians who had
> no problem with an ancient earth, we are regularly
> presented with the science/religion conflict thesis.
Does anyone have any names of early Christians who began to study the age of
the earth etc in the 1700s? I know Leonardo da Vinci studied geology, was he
a Christian? I know Darwin was initially a Christian, and I believe his
grandfather Erasmus Darwin who had ideas about evolution may have been.
Help appreciated!
> If one must teach evolution, there is no need
> whatsoever to present a theory of how it comes
> about.
Not sure who wrote this, but what the heck do you mean by "how it came
about"?
There appears to be a great emphasis on
> Darwinian evolution when it is a theory which Gould
> disputed. One can present facts without presenting
Gould did not dispute Darwinian evolution! Nobody can dispute natural
selection, which is the mechanism of evolution that Darwin came up with.
What has been questioned by Gould and others is the extent to which natural
selection has provided the ONLY means for differentiation of the species (ie
evolution) compared to random genetic drift or other stochastic events. Such
events can not provide any evolution in themselves, they can only limit the
gene pool and affect the direction of future evolution by narrowing down the
possible gene pool that natural selection has to "work on."
Natural selection is the only theory I have heard of that for a plausible
mechanism behind evolution.
If any one has any other info I'd be interested in hearing.
Thanks!
Wendee Holtcamp
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Wendee Holtcamp -- wendee@greendzn.com
Environmental Journalist ~~ www.greendzn.com
Adjunct Instructor of Biology, Kingwood College
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