>Also, as to "No single stage" looking "particularly difficult",
>Eiseley's point was that seemingly retrograde steps had to occur
>before the brain expanded, eg. "Childhood had to be lengthened...We
>lost our hairy covering, our jaws and teeth were reduced in size, our
>sex life was postponed, our infancy became among the most helpless of
>any of the animals ..." (Eiseley L., "The Immense Journey", Victor
>Gollancz: London, 1958 p122-123).
>
>I fail to see how becoming "among the most helpless of any of the
>animals" conferred a selective advantage *before* the human brain had
>grown large enough to compensate by enabling higher intelligence. The
>same Blind Watchmaker, who is able to bring the eye to near
>perfection, must have let that one through? :-)
>
Scientists study what yields to the methods they use. Eisely, not a
believer as far as I know, simply admits that he is unable to explain the
confluence of events that made the emergence of man possible. From his
point of view, he knows of no method of studying such a phenomenon to
understand how and why it occurred. Most scientists don't write popular
books as Eisely does. They study what they can study and report it to
scientists who use similar methods. This means they largely ignore what
won't submit to their methods. When you ignore something, it in some sense
becomes less of a problem -- to your own perceptions. I call that the
"other people's fields are solved problems" syndrome. Eisely is unusual in
that he thinks about unsolved problems and writes popular books about them.
Eisely's views are interesting to Christians and others who like to think
about unsolved problems that cross disciplinary boundaries, but they are
not likely to influence the specialists very much.
Bill Hamilton | Vehicle Systems Research
GM R&D Center | Warren, MI 48090-9055
810 986 1474 (voice) | 810 986 3003 (FAX)
hamilton@gmr.com (office) | whamilto@mich.com (home)