The Sermon Part 2 (Agnosticism)

by David Turell , Sunday, August 03, 2008, 17:43 (5954 days ago) @ George Jelliss

Here is Pigliucci's own account:
> 
> http://rationallyspeaking.blogspot.com/2008/07/notes-from-altenberg-part-i.htm
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> I'm afraid David Turell's hope for some sort of earth-shattering Kuhnian Paradigm Change away from natural selection is unlikely to be fulfilled. But apparently the full papers aren't being published until 2009. However the summaries given here by Pigliucci don't support DT's contentious statements. - I've been lazy, not having hunted for any description of Altenberg, so I appreciate George finding a good website blog that describes in brief some of the discussion, and I've added it to my favorites list on Explorer. I have read all three entries. As usual George and I disagree on the import of the scientific discussions. It is clear to me that the modern systhesis, taking into account all of the mechanisms of change and modification and incorportation of the DNA/RNA discoveries, are causing Neo-Darwinism to move away from natural selection as primary. It becomes one of many mechanisms, and evolution is seen as highly complex, not just random mutation and natural selection, the rather simplistic view that grew out of Darwin's original proposals. As Kuhn points out, changes in scientific paradigms take years to develop and are resisted by scientists until they are forced to accept the change by the volume of contrary evidence. I noted that the ulcer-therapy change took 20 years. The Altenberg conference notes are exactly what I expected.