Evolution (Introduction)

by xeno6696 , Sonoran Desert, Friday, July 24, 2009, 00:09 (5397 days ago) @ David Turell

I wish to give a further expression of my thinking about Darwin and persons' responses to his writing and his theory:
> 
> I don't think my writing is that obtuse. I am arguing methodology of evolution, but not denying an evolutionary process existed and exists. What I am encountering, is a rigid fixation of thought on Darwin, so strong, that if in a discussion of evolution it is stated that change may not be accomplished by tiny modifications only, Darwin and evolution have been denied as if they are Siamese twins. It is as if Darwin invented evolution, and described the single (only) method for evolution, so if changed in any conceptual way, it cannot exist without him. I have brought up the issue of large jumps or changes. The folks who do research in evolution even have a term for large sudden changes. It is 'saltation'. Why the term if sudden large changes never happen? Did Darwin write inerrant gospel? Are the persons who think in this way simply Darwinian acolytes who can accept no thoughtful discussion of him or his theory? - From my time spent in usenet, I would be forced to say yes. At least among the masses. There's a "fundamental atheism" inspired by Sam Harris and Dawkins that is helping to spawn a religious analog, if religion is taken by its root words "relig aire." (To fashion together.) But I will add that at least in the U.S. it is directly fed by fundamentalist Christians who as you are aware of are pretty politically powerful in the U.S. Most of the debate isn't scientific at all and is purely political--on both ends. (More "Denying Evolution" again.) This is why the answer to your question above is actually "yes." This is also why Design has been given such an incredibly bad name, from a valid philosophical position, to a pseudoscience. It is not however, why I don't favor it. That's more from what I've identified as my own extreme skepticism.

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\"Why is it, Master, that ascetics fight with ascetics?\"

\"It is, brahmin, because of attachment to views, adherence to views, fixation on views, addiction to views, obsession with views, holding firmly to views that ascetics fight with ascetics.\"