>I'd be interested in discussing two recently published books. *Full House:
>The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin* (Harmony >Books, 1996) >by
Stephen Jay Gould
I just finished it about 2 weeks ago. It's only the second book by Gould
that I've read so maybe someone can shed some light on something he said:
"Only two options seem logically available in our attempted denial. We
might, first of all, continue to espouse biblical literalism and insist that
the earth is but a few thousand years old, with humans created by God just a
few days after the inception of planetary time. But such mythology is not
an option for thinking people, who must respect the basic factuality of both
time=92s immensity and evolution=92s veracity." -pg. 19
Does Gould just lump every creationist into the same camp: young earthers?
Is it the easiest way for him to discredit ANY creationist view?
You're right, Terry!! Interesting read for the baseball fans out there.
"Thus, the disappearance of .400 hitting occurred because the bell curve for
batting averages has become skinnier over the years, as extreme values at
both right and left tails of the distribution get trimmed and shaved. To
understand the extinction of .400 hitting, we must ask why variation
(between the best and worst hitters) declined in this particular pattern."
-pg. 106
"=85.as my hypothesis requires in its major contention, variation declines=
so
powerfully through time and becomes so restricted in later years." -pg. 123
How do you think 'the evolutionary process' realized it was time to form the
right side of the bell curve?? :-)
Darrin