In a message dated 7/1/2000 9:37:25 AM, Dawsonzhu@aol.com writes:
<< The point is that although the assertions of individual scientists
may claim that "evolution is a purposeless process" & co.(TM,R,C),
few of them really have the basis to make that claim. They are
scholars of a narrow scientific discipline, but that does not automatically
grant them scholarship of other disciplines they have earned no credentials
in. >>
Wayne,
I agree with you in part. But that does not stop them from making their
proclamations; nor does it stop many people from believing them.
This thread started with Wendee, who teaches college biology, claiming that
she didn't see that scientists' current understanding of Darwinian evolution
(ie. the
synthetic theory or neo-Darwinian theory) "claims" that (1) it is undirected.
I provided a bunch of quotations to the contrary. Whether the person making
the quotations are qualified to do so or not, the fact is that many
evolutionists have published statements that Darwinian evolution is
directionless and purposeless.
This claim, however, not just a philosphically-based claim. It is also a
scientifically justifiable one. If natural selection is demonstrated
empirically only to enhance immediate adaptation to the environment, then it
is a necessary inference that it has no long range direction as to where this
immediate adaptation will lead. This is a scientific inference, not just a
philosophical or theological one.
I think it is inescapable that the current scientific understanding of
Darwinian evolution is that it is directionless, purposeless, and devoid of
long range goals. This is an inference from empirical data on natural
selection, supported by prior philosophical commitments, amplified into
general principle.
One good place to challenge this understanding is in the highschool and
college biology classroom. Wendee is in an excellent position to point out
where the directionless, purposeless concept originated, and that when
scientists make such statements beyond what science can demonstrate, that
have departed the discipline of science and entered the domain of philosophy
and theology, where they are no more competent to speak than the average man
on the street.
Best wishes,
Bob
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