Re: [asa] What are the "strengths and weaknesses " of evolution?

>>> "John Burgeson (ASA member)" <hossradbourne@gmail.com> 2/4/2009 10:03 AM
>>> asks:

What are the "strengths and weaknesses " of evolution? I'm not sure
waht I, if I were a teacher, would do differently if the conservatives
won here. Or how the textbooks would be changed.Why is this not a
"tempest in a teapot?"

Ted replies:
Well, Burgy, obviously it depends on what one thinks of a type of reasoning
that is essentially inductive, not deductive, and incapable of yielding
absolute certainty. Furthermore, add the fact that we didn't witness the
history of life on earth ourselves, and all sorts of questions are going to
be raised: did this or that *actually* take place? how can we *know*? is
natural selection really capable of doing all that is claimed?

Let me suggest that, in order to see the kinds of objections that might be
raised against Darwin's theory, it would be helpful to start by reading the
lengthy but insightful review by the Scottish engineer Fleeming Jenkin
(spelling is correct here on both parts of his name, which is often
misspelled). Darwin felt the force of this particular review and made some
changes to his theory b/c of it. Some of Jenkin's objections are still
voiced today.

http://www.victorianweb.org/science/science_texts/jenkins.html

Happy reading.

Ted

To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@calvin.edu with
"unsubscribe asa" (no quotes) as the body of the message.
Received on Wed Feb 4 10:38:39 2009