Recent blogs at the Post-Darwinist

Current topics are:

1. No, some people do not really believe there is such a thing as free will:

Sometimes, people who are arguing about intelligent design use the term
"naturalists" to describe people who believe that there is no design in the
universe (though others insist that "materialists" is a more correct term.)
There are people who are <a
href="http://www.naturalism.org/">Naturalists</a>, and one thing you need to
know about them is that they do not believe that there is any such thing as
<a href="http://www.naturalism.org/freewill.htm#Exchange">free will</a>.

Now, much as I disagree with the naturalists, I think that if you are a
strict Darwinist, you <em>should</em> reasonably be a naturalist and should
not believe that there is any such thing as free will.

Read the rest at:
http://post-darwinist.blogspot.com/

(Note: these people have really picked up their Web site. Used to be a real
dog. They must be getting new resources and money, or maybe just a better
Web designer. -d.)

2. Can a gene really make you fat?

Many people have worried a lot about genetic determinism-the belief that
there are master genes that control our behaviour - crime, obesity,
sexuality, honesty ...

There are two separate worries here: First, is it true? If so, free will
does not really exist.

More practically, what if large numbers of people believe it is true, even
if it isn't? Then those people will act as if they, and we, have no free
will. They will have a bad effect on society even if they are wrong.

Fortunately, recent developments in genetics are making clear that this sort
of "reductionism" - reducing everything to a single factor - is nonsense.
There are no single genes that control human behaviour. Popular literature
often does not catch up with new science developments very quickly, so it
might be helpful to summarize a couple of key points here:

Read the rest at
http://post-darwinist.blogspot.com/

Cheers, Denyse

--
Read brief excerpts from my book, By Design or by Chance?: The Growing
Controversy On the Origins of Life in the Universe (Augsburg Fortress, 2004)
at
http://www.designorchance.com/press.html
Study Guide:
http://www.arn.org/arnproducts/books/b088sk.htm
Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0806651776/qid=1109790930/sr=8
-1/ref=pd_csp_1/104-8617533-8799957?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
My blog:
http://post-darwinist.blogspot.com/ 
(go to other blogs from here)
Denyse O'Leary
Tel: 416 485-2392
Fax: 416 485-2392
oleary@sympatico.ca 
www.designorchance.com