Re: Marxism and Darwinism

From: Brian D Harper (bharper@postbox.acs.ohio-state.edu)
Date: Mon Mar 13 2000 - 17:46:31 EST

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    At 11:56 AM 3/12/00 -0500, you wrote:

    Brian:
    >In my experience, this impression is promoted by two extreme groups.One is a
    >very narrow set of neo-Darwinists that are sometimes referred to as
    >ultra-Darwinians (Eldredge) and Darwinian Fundamentalists (Gould).This group is not
    >representative of either evolutionists in general or even ofneo-Darwinians. Trying to
    >promote them as such is equivalent to those evolutionists who try topaint all opponents
    >of neo-Darwinism as YEC's.

    >The second group that promotes the impression you mention above are
    >extremists on the other side of the fence. Certain creationists whotry to convince
    >the general public that the "orthodox" scientific view isthat of the ultra-Darwinians. It is
    >very convenient for them
    >if the public views them as somehow oppressed by "theelite", the high
    >priests of science.

    Hi Brian,

    Hello Bertvan. Thanks for your comments. Thanks also to Steve andRichard
    for their inputs. From these three responses it is obvious I didn'tcommunicate
    my point very well. Let me try again. The "impression" that Irefer to above is
    the same one that you mentioned in your post, i.e.

    Impression = "...everyone who is skeptical of neo Darwinismis pursuing na•ve,
                    impractical, theologically impoverished (whatever that means) ideas."

    My point was not whether ultra-Darwinism is itself a typical view amongevolutionary
    biologists but whether neo-Darwinists or evolutionary biologists orbiologists in general
    promote the "impression" above.

    Richard suggested I conduct a poll. Within the context of what I wrote,the poll
    should ask:

    Do you believe that everyone who is skeptical of neo Darwinism ispursuing na•ve,
    impractical,  theologically impoverished (whatever that means)ideas.

    The point is that there are many highly respected researchers who are not
    neo-Darwinists, Brian Goodwin for example.

    The point is that when ID is rejected by the majority of biologists it isnot because
    ".... everyone who is skeptical of neo Darwinism is pursuing na•ve,impractical, 
    theologically impoverished (whatever that means) ideas."

    I suspect - hope - you are right. However the ultra Darwinists have
    succeeded in convincing the public their interpretation of evolution is"the
    orthodox view".  I can understand why scientists wouldn't wantto waste their
    time arguing on these discussion boards.     But whydidn't some "reasonable"
    biologists speak up in support of the Kansas school board, which didnothing
    more than suggest that "random mutation and natural selection"not be taught
    as the known mechanism behind macro evolution?  You once said that
    materialism is dead.  Who are the biologists informing the publicthat
    materialism is not an essential part of biology?  The only ones I'veheard
    are those active in the ID movement.  Is the ID movement accepted asa
    legitimate by most biologists?   I believe academic freedom ispretty healthy
    at the moment.  I wish a few biologists would try to convince methat is also
    true in biology.

    Perhaps academic freedom is also healthy in biology. Perhaps ID has beenrejected
    on its merits rather than on a perpetuation of the"impression". Have you considered
    this possibility?


    BrianHarper                |  "If you don't understand
    AssociateProfessor         |   something and want to
    AppliedMechanics           |   sound profound, use the
    The Ohio State University    |   word'entropy'"
                                |   -- Morrowitz

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