Re: textbook problems, from Cobb County...

>I came across and ASA message from 1999 that read, in part.
>
>"For example, the popular 10th grade textbook, "Biology", by Miller and
>Levine,
>states that "evolution is random and undirected" and also that "evolution
>works without either plan or purpose" (Prentice-Hall, 1993, 1995 and 1998
>editions, pg. 658). At the Science Ed Commission's request, co-author
>Kenneth
>Miller has agreed that since such statements are unsupported by scientific
>evidence, he will remove them from subsequent editions."
>
>Does anyone have access to the most recent edition?

Those statements, by themselves, cannot necessarily be linked with
philosophical materialism. "Random and undirected" must be understood
as being from the human perspective, not the divine, as must "plan or
purpose". Whether or not "random and undirected" and/or "plan or
purpose" is ultimate, i.e. under the purview of God's providential
work, is a religious and not a scientific claim.

While I'm all for Miller clarifying his language here, there's
nothing different about this language than about the probabilities of
coin flipping, dice throwing, or independent assortment in genetics.

TG

-- 
_________________
Terry M. Gray, Ph.D., Computer Support Scientist
Chemistry Department, Colorado State University
Fort Collins, Colorado  80523
grayt@lamar.colostate.edu  http://www.chm.colostate.edu/~grayt/
phone: 970-491-7003 fax: 970-491-1801