Darwinism

[Saffron]

Does anyone here know any Darwinists? I had a philosophy teacher who was a Darwinist. He was strange, to say the least.

[Blackjack]

Why was he so strange?

There seems to be some difference in opinion over what it means to be Darwinist. For some, it is just another word for atheism and the belief that life evolved on its own through Natural Selection. I've known lots of those. Other people take it a bit further and think of Natural Selection as a cosmic principle, the driving force behind everything in which reality is constantly changing and improving upon itself through the gradual, systematic elimination of anything unfit. Social Darwinism is a branch of this. My father didn't go around calling himself a Darwinist but he definitely subscribed to that school of thought. And he was very strange too.

[Tombstone]

Originally Posted by Saffron

Does anyone here know any Darwinists? I had a philosophy teacher who was a Darwinist. He was strange, to say the least.

My "genetics" prof was very strange and very brilliant. She had a very unique view on everything. Surprisingly, she was contemporary in her thinking and could talk for hours about how Darwinism and classical Creation Theory fit together nicely.

She did not, however, look anything like this:

http://www.digitalfog.com/index.php/...-got-it-wrong/

[chonsigirl]

Oh, that is a funny pic, Tombstone. My most interesting prof who taught Darwinism and creationism as valid theories was an ex-priest, who became a college professor. In the 1970s the universities did teach these two side by side, and test questions accepted answers that related to either of the two.

[Explorer the eighth]

Darwin himself wasn't the most extreme of the evolutionists, by any means. Darwin wrote a theory, a hypothesis, which later became transformed into a dogma by other people. It was others who took that belief further and into a religion, called evolution, that it has become today.

The fossil record shows sudden, not gradual, changes from one era to another with sudden mass extinctions and the sudden appearance of large numbers of new species.

So, the fossil records show:

1. The absence of gradual evolutionary changes.

2. Only very small numbers, if any, of any "intermediate" species.

3. Sudden appearances of brand new, fully formed species.

[Blackjack]

Yes, there are some problems with Darwin's theory but you know what happened to the little girl who pointed out that the emperor wasn't wearing any clothes, don't you?

[gmc]

What on earth are you talking about. Darwin put forward a theory as to how things might have developed on earth. He hesitated a long time about publishing it as he was a deeply religious person and it went against the teaching of the bible that the earth was made in seven days as a christian he had duficulty with it hinmself. He knew it would upset many but ultimately as a scientist he couldn't ignore the eveidence he was seeing.

Darwinism

• noun the theory of the evolution of species by natural selection, advanced by the English natural historian Charles Darwin (1809-82).

— DERIVATIVES Darwinian noun & adjective Darwinist noun & adjective.

It's not a philosophy it's a scientific theory and as such is open to examination and alteration as scientific methods progress. It was never put forward as being the end final explanation of the way the earth was made. That's what scientist do, put forward ideas backed up by empirucal evidence and it is open to anyone to question both the scientific data and the conclusions drawn.

It's religon that turns it in to a question of right theory and wrong theory and the religious that can't handle the somple fact that not all believe as they do.

Just for the record I find aetheism as irrational as religious belief and have little tome for bigots of ither camp.