I'm Brendan Frost, a health care reporter in Washington, D.C. and history
undergrad.
Let's see--some of my questions may be of the FAQ variety, so off-list
replies from any of you would be fine...
1) there has been a distinction made between micro- and macro-evolution.
I have been thinking of micro- as, for example, the development of
different
types of dog from wild stock. Is this fair or accurate? What is the
definitional
distinction between the two?
2) it occurs to me that the descent from wild stock to Great Danes and
chihuahuas, if "evolution" in any sense, is also a prime example of a
non-metaphysical
"creation by design," in this case, by humans. Is this a fair conclusion,
and if so are there
any analogies to this evolution by design and a metaphysical evolution by
design?
3) evolution is a concept that applies to more than species diversity. For
instance,
language is often said to evolve--I believe Dawkins would call a cultural
trait that
perserveres over time through transmission through descent a "meme." Is
there
an overarching rejection of evolutionism as an idea, which might say in the
example
of language that it was created ex nihilo by God, or are the criticisms
basically directed
toward the biological aspect?
4) what are the historical interactions between the old science of taxonomy
and evolutionary
(or anti-evolutionary) theory? To me, this is my most interesting question.