Richard Wein wrote:
>I just read the following post in talk.origins, and couldn't resist
>re-posting it here.
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The point, I presume, is that the world is overloaded with crank theories
about evolution. This is not the case at all. There are some competing
theories out there, but most are 19th Century ideas, and many of these
boil down to ancient philosophical controversies about God and chance
and determinism etc.
I've mentioned before that radical speculation is welcome in other fields
such as cosmology and particle physics, but is most unwelcome in
evolutionary theory. This of course is because biology is closer to home.
Innovation in biology is perversion, as JBS Haldane observed. Even in
science fiction, great liberties may be taken with physics, but evolutionary
mechanisms are touchier; no sci-fi author wants to be thought of as not
being with the program of mainstream evolutionary theory.
Somewhere there must be a web site listing all the latest crank theories
about evolution that are pouring in. Perhaps Richard has run across a URL
in talk.origins.
I guess when one's mind is made up, even one differing idea is one too many.
--Cliff Lundberg ~ San Francisco ~ 415-648-0208 ~ cliff@cab.com
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