--- Ted Davis <TDavis@messiah.edu> wrote:
> But "Darwinism" and "Evolutionism" have several definitions also. That is,
> they are used by various writers to mean somewhat different things, which
> contributes to the confusion at the popular level. I would say (e.g.) that
> "Darwinism" is the belief that there is no ultimate purposeful agency behind
> the story of living things--whether or not that story includes "the origin
> of life on earth," a topic that Darwin scrupulously avoided himself, b/c
> there was no scientific evidence bearing on the origin of life at that time.
> (Whether or not there is now such evidence is contested and I scrupulously
> avoid it here.) For many people who don't know much about science, the
> phrase "origin(s) of life" is synonymous with the notion of common descent.
> In Dover, e.g., the school board voted to read this to biology students:
> "The school leaves the discussion of the origins of life to individual
> students and their families." Believe me, they didn't mean simply any
> reference to the chemical origin of life--they meant to forbid any teaching
> about common descent.
>
I get the impression that most creationists mean "Darwinism" when they say evolution.
Bill Hamilton
William E. Hamilton, Jr., Ph.D.
248.652.4148 (home) 248.821.8156 (mobile)
"...If God is for us, who is against us?" Rom 8:31
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Received on Tue Jan 30 14:26:28 2007
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.8 : Tue Jan 30 2007 - 14:26:28 EST