RE: Fred Hoyle's `Mathematics of Evolution'
Susan B (susan-brassfield@ou.edu)
Tue, 7 Dec 1999 19:58:22 -0600 (CST)Stephen Quotes:
> In the sixteenth century, Copernicus' co-worker, Domenico da
>Novara, held that no system so cumbersome and inaccurate as the
>Ptolemaic had become could possibly be true nature. And Copernicus
>himself wrote in the Preface to the De Revolutionibus that the astronomical
>tradition he inherited had finally created a monster.'
>
>However, so ingrained was the idea that the Earth was the centre of the
>universe that hardly anyone, even those astronomers who were well aware
>of the growing unreality of the whole system, ever bothered to consider an
>alternative theory."
>
>(Denton M.J., "Evolution: A Theory in Crisis", 1985, p349)
There was also the problem that you could be burned at the stake for
considering an alternative theory. Copernicus wisely kept his mouth shut.
His disciple Gallileo didn't. (He foolishly thought evidence mattered).
Gallileo escaped the flames by publicly recanting and spending the rest of
his life locked in his house.
The most Denton or Behe have to look forward to is refutation. I have a
feeling either of them would prefer the stake.
Susan
--------
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