Re: Fossil Man again

Steve Clark (ssclark@facstaff.wisc.edu)
Fri, 15 Sep 1995 18:30:23 -0500

I wrote:
><<The rest of Jim's post added more of Wallace's thoughts along this vein.
>However, they offer no more hard evidence for supernatural creation of
>humans than Darwin offered for natural selection. Therefore, I contend that
>they both had their favorite world-views (or biases, if you prefer), and to
>raise Wallace's opinion over Darwin's as an argument against bias is
>misleading.>>
>
>Did you read the second half of my post?

Yeah, I read it, but it did not relate to your quotes from Wallace to
counter Darwin.

First, I tell the reader the
>"evidence" discussion makes up the bulk of the book:
>
><<The better part of the book deals with the evidences of early sophistication
>and spiritual awareness for modern man>>

I didn't state my point clearly, perhaps. The point is that when a similar
discussion has an evolution bent, it is immediately labeled as having a
naturalistic bias, and thus dismissed.

As I pointed out earlier, you said, in response to Glenn:

>There is no naturalistic explanation for the sudden leap in modern man...

>Which leaves us an option Glenn fails to consider, and one Goodman proposes:
>the non-naturalistic explanation [Goodman prefers the term "interventionism"].
>Why does Glenn exclude this option? Not because the data compels him, but
>because his prevailing bias is Naturalism.

The lack of an acceptable naturalistic mechanism for the appearance of
humans, does not automatically require one to invoke a supernatural
explanation. This is a bias as large as what you accuse Glenn of having.

Steve
____________________________________________________________________________
Steven S. Clark, Ph.D. Phone: (608) 263-9137
Associate Professor FAX: (608) 263-4226
Dept. of Human Oncology and email: ssclark@facstaff.wisc.edu
UW Comprehensive Cancer Ctr
University of Wisconsin
Madison, WI 53792

"...a university is a collection of disparate academic entrepreneurs united
only by a common grievance over parking." Clark Kerr, former Chancellor
of the Univ. of California
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