[asa] Quoting Evolution [was Darwin] out of context

Thanks to Rich for the excerpt to his paper, which discusses, among other things, how he thinks choice *is* an evolutionary adaptation. I would like to make just a few comments, though not all of them are within the fields of knowledge or expertise in which I study and research. Hopefully the inter-disciplinarity of such discussion will show through.
   
  If the existence of Adam and Eve is taken for granted (which I don’t think is a bad idea), then the question of ‘evolution of consciousness’ can be closely discussed with spirituality via the presence of a non-material human dimension. If Adam and Eve were supposedly ‘conscious’ in the Garden of Eden, then naming animals, making tools and generally surviving can be viewed as not just physical-material topics and can include extra-physical considerations. Consciousness is scientific, but also a supra-scientific topic.
   
  In his paper, Rich asks: 'What do scientists say about 'the beginning?' I wonder about this also. Could anyone out there suggest a guess about how many scientists (i.e. what percentage) actually pronounce on ‘the beginning’ of life or human existence? It seems to me this is a surprisingly minuscule number of scientists, yet their views are accorded such respect for their speculations and the experiments they carry out. Isn’t it true that a vast number of scientists don’t pronounce on ‘beginnings’?
   
  Several questions arise about the limitations of evolutionary thought. May it be that the concept of ‘evolution’ can be taken out of context, misquoted so to speak? Is this a possibility that can be further explored at ASA or should it be swept under the carpet due to fears about anti-evolutionism? I ask this because it seems to me that not only those like Dennett and Dawkins abuse the term ‘evolution’ and over-stretch its uses, but also those theists, even Christians, who tie together or integrate their views of science with their theology to such a degree that evolution has become one of the most important theological concepts in their vocabulary (e.g. de Chardin). Could it be, for example, that process theology is so intimately intertwined with evolutionary thinking that to remove evolutionary thinking would result in a catastrophe for process theology?
   
  When can a person legitimately conclude that ‘evolution [has] run mad,’ as C.S. Lewis once suggested of de Chardin’s evolutionary universalism?
   
  It may be that Rich and I differ on this issue, not from a standpoint of Christian thinking, but based on the different disciplines and approaches we take in the diversified academy. As a social scientist who has witnessed the pervasiveness of evolutionary ideas in several social-humanitarian fields, I cannot help but think that natural scientists, as well as mathematicians, don’t give enough attention to this feature of evolution or the evolutionary paradigm as it represents normal science.
   
  Arago
   
  p.s. not anti-natural science, but anti-naturalism – how can this be expressed in our scientistic (and technologistic) age?

  RFaussette@aol.com wrote:
      In a message dated 8/13/2006 5:19:20 AM Eastern Standard Time, gregoryarago@yahoo.ca writes:
    I wonder if most people out there think 'choice' is an evolutionary adaptation? The brain gets big enough and then one special day, poof!, a choice is made, forever defining human history?
   
  Gregory
   
   
  Yes, I think "choice" is an evolutionary adaptation. I wrote a paper on it.´Here's an excerpt:
   
  If Adam and Eve’s eating of the forbidden fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is the pivotal event that marks the Biblical transition from one consciousness to another and we are to apply a Darwinian perspective to the text, we must ask: what is the corresponding pivotal event that marks the scientific evolution from one consciousness to another? What do scientists say about “the beginning?
     
  From:
  True Religion, Biblical Symbols from a Darwinian Perspective
   
   
  rich faussette

                 
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Received on Mon Aug 21 07:36:10 2006