Re: [asa] SC Morris piece "Darwin was right. Up to a point."

Bernie,

"I thought that day had already arrived... "

Nah. A scientist commenting on my blog nicely summarizes the conventional
views:

"To what is shaping evolution though you ask, three things are typically
considered: (1) Random mutation; (2) Non-random selection (although the
contingencies influencing what heritable traits are selected for are so
convoluted as to appear quite random); and (3) the opposing forces of gene
flow and gene drift between populations (i.e. reproductive isolation or
interbreeding).
That's about it. Sophisticated? No. Convoluted by the interaction of
countless elements? Yes."

Mike

----- Original Message -----
From: "Dehler, Bernie" <bernie.dehler@intel.com>
To: <asa@lists.calvin.edu>
Sent: Thursday, August 20, 2009 9:50 PM
Subject: RE: [asa] SC Morris piece "Darwin was right. Up to a point."

> Mike said:
> " Some time in the future, another leading scientist will write something
> like this: "But, as it turns out, we exist because evolution has been much
> more elaborate and sophisticated than anything we students had ever
> considered." And that day is getting closer."
>
> I thought that day had already arrived... It is likely impossible to
> determine every single evolutionary mechanism, although some big-picture
> ones can be captured- such as 'natural selection.' Exactly how 'natural
> selection' works in different lifeforms is quite different, from trees to
> bears... and some of it is driven by 'intelligence' ('intelligent design')
> from the lifeforms themselves; such as bears killing off weaker
> competitors, and humans cloning other animals and doing gene therapy...
> evolution affected by the brain...
>
> ...Bernie
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu] On
> Behalf Of Nucacids
> Sent: Thursday, August 20, 2009 5:55 PM
> To: Austerberry, Charles; asa@lists.calvin.edu
> Subject: Re: [asa] SC Morris piece "Darwin was right. Up to a point."
>
> Conway Morris writes:
>
>
>
> "Indeed it is now legitimate to talk of a logic to biology, not a term you
> will hear on the lips of many neo-Darwinians. Nevertheless, evolution is
> evidently following more fundamental rules. Scientific certainly, but ones
> that transcend Darwinism. What! Darwinism not a total explanation? Why
> should it be? It is after all only a mechanism, but if evolution is
> predictive, indeed possesses a logic, then evidently it is being governed
> by
> deeper principles. Come to think about it so are all sciences; why should
> Darwinism be any exception?"
>
>
>
> The non-teleological view of evolution is that it is not really a
> biological
> process itself, but instead is the consequence of many smaller biological
> processes. Evolution is something that just happens and its mechanisms are
> brute givens. But a teleological view of evolution likens it to a biotic
> process, roughly analogous to ontogeny. There is a form and logic to
> evolution. One might even say that evolution is a function or a program.
>
>
>
> So is evolution really nothing more than the by-product of messy molecular
> interactions? Or is it far more sophisticated, itself being somehow
> shaped
> by design? What I can say is this. Over a decade ago, biologist Bruce
> Alberts had this to say about the cell and its contents: "But, as it turns
> out, we can walk and we can talk because the chemistry that makes life
> possible is much more elaborate and sophisticated than anything we
> students
> had ever considered." Some time in the future, another leading scientist
> will write something like this: "But, as it turns out, we exist because
> evolution has been much more elaborate and sophisticated than anything we
> students had ever considered." And that day is getting closer.
>
>
>
> Mike
>
>
>
>
>>
>> The BioLogos blog (Science and the Sacred) on BeliefNet recently
>> highlighted
>> this article by Simon Conway Morris from last February that I had missed:
>>
>> http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/2009/feb/12/simon-conway-morris-darwin
>>
>
>
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Received on Fri Aug 21 10:56:05 2009