Re: transitional fossils

Agreed - Many Christians speak of Darwin as if he were the devil. But those at the other end of the spectrum sometimes talk as if he were a god. (Think, e.g., of his staged burial in Westminster Abbey.) Neither the demonization nor the apotheosis of Darwin helps serious discussion. There's far too much attention given to Darwin personally - what his religious views were, &c. None of this makes any difference to scientific, or for that matter theological, evaluations of evolution. People & ideas get labelled "Darwinist" while no one calls people who accept relativity theory "Einsteinists."

One corrective to this is always to give Wallace his share of the credit for natural selection as the primary mechanism of evolution.

Shalom
George
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Dawsonzhu@aol.com
  To: asa@calvin.edu
  Sent: Monday, December 05, 2005 3:10 AM
  Subject: Re: transitional fossils

    Let us not deny the flexibility, if not total elasticity, that exists in the theory of evolution that can account for any new evidence that was originally thought as “surprising.” Witness punctuated equilibrium which is a modified form of the original thought.

  I have always wondered if the three minute hate sessions of "Goldstein"
  in Orwell's 1984 was a reference to the figure of Jesus.

  It's worth reflecting that the "Goldstein" of many Christians seems to
  be Darwin. Some people even foam at the mouth as they speak his
  name.
Received on Mon Dec 5 07:56:32 2005