Hi David,
I appreciated you thoughtful piece about the problem of definitions, but
don't know what might be done about it, since no one seems to be in charge of
definitions. I doubt any effort to establish definitions would be applauded
by everyone. Critics of "evolution" (whatever that is) often complain that
when they criticize Darwinism (random mutation and natural selection plus
drift) their opponents counter by declaring "evolution" isn't merely RM&NS,
but most of us have been unable to find out exactly what that "something
else" is. Most proponents of ID accept some form of common descent, but the
defenders of orthodoxy appear to become equally indignant about ID,
Lamarckism, or any other mechanism other than RM&NS. In view of all that, I
suspect there are real differences of opinion between those who argue on both
sides of the evolution question, and it is this difference which arouses the
passion. That difference would appear to be the existence or non-existence
of teleology in nature. Since the evidence for the existence or
non-existence of teleology in nature us available to all of us, scientist or
non-scientist, I argue that everyone is entitled to their own judgement on
the matter. RM&NS seems to specifically exclude teleology, and in my
judgement, should not be imposed upon anyone as " scientific truth". Any
"theory of evolution" should allow the possibility of both the existence or
the non-existence of teleology. ID allows the possibility of teleology, but
as an agnostic I can accept evidence of design without worrying about the
origin of that design. (Just as I can accept the existence of the universe,
matter, the "laws of nature, life, consciousness, morality, or anything else,
without worrying about their origin.) Most of the passionate objection to
ID voiced by the defenders of orthodoxy appears to be indignation that ID
might imply the possibility of a designer.
Bertvan
http://members.aol.com/bertvan
P.S. If you are going to voice any dissent from orthodoxy, David, you have to
be tough to withstand counter attacks. Hope you stay with us.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sat Jul 15 2000 - 12:42:20 EDT