EvC Forum: Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution.

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Topic: Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution.

Percy

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Message 30 of 1311 (807317)
05-02-2017 8:42 AM

Here's a link to Theodosius Dobzhansky's 1973 article Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution.

Dobzhansky was engaging in hyperbole - he wasn't being literal. Dobzhansky's article includes a number of examples in biology that only make sense in light of evolution, but while much in biology requires evolution to make sense, much does not. Biology is a huge field.

--Percy

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	Message 31 by Taq, posted 05-02-2017 11:09 AM		Percy has seen this message but not replied

Percy

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Message 94 of 1311 (807865)
05-06-2017 8:47 AM

Reply to: Message 91 by CRR
05-06-2017 8:16 AM

Re: What mechanism stops evolutionary change?

CRR writes:

Recent research by GCF and partners has shown that there are four distinct species of giraffe in Africa.
...
They are all descended from the kinds on Noah's Ark.

Does this mean that you believe there was one original giraffe kind on the ark, and that the four species we see today are descended from that one original kind? If so, doesn't this mean you're advocating some kind of accelerated evolution?

--Percy

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	Message 146 by Dredge, posted 05-09-2017 2:08 AM		Percy has replied

Percy

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Message 155 of 1311 (808209)
05-09-2017 7:48 AM

Reply to: Message 146 by Dredge
05-09-2017 2:08 AM

Re: What mechanism stops evolutionary change?

Dredge writes:

For example, if there was one kind of giraffe on the ark and there are four species today, so what? God wanted four species to exist, so after the Flood he waved his magic wand and four species eventually emerged from one kind. If he wanted twenty species of giraffe, then twenty would have eventually emerged from one kind. What's the problem?

There wouldn't be a problem if you understood you're doing religion and not science.

--Percy

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	Message 146 by Dredge, posted 05-09-2017 2:08 AM		Dredge has not replied

Percy

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Message 1114 of 1311 (816036)
07-28-2017 8:45 AM

Reply to: Message 1110 by Dredge
07-28-2017 3:37 AM

Dredge writes:

Michael Ruse, professor of philosophy and zoology at the University of Guelph, Canada (National Post, May 13, 2000, pp. B1,B3,B7):

"Evolution is promoted by its practitioners as more than mere science. Evolution is promulgated as an ideology, a secular religiona full-fledged alternative to Christianity, with meaning and morality. Evolution is a religion. This was true of evolution in the beginning, and it is true of evolution still today. Evolution therefore came into being as a kind of secular ideology, an explicit substitute for Christianity."

Except that Michael Ruse objects to being quote-mined like this. In Is Darwinism a Religion he states:

quote:
I think this paragraph, the introduction to a book review (for which I was never paid) in a Canadian newspaper some 10 or so years ago, has received more attention and more repetition (especially on the Internet) than anything else I have ever written...No matter that I qualified it then and have qualified it before and ever since. Ruse recants! Evolution is a religion! Read all about it! Or more accurately, don’t read all about it, because then you might find that that is not quite all that I had to say.
...
So the answer to the question Is Darwinism a religion? is varied, interesting and insightful. But I bet a million dollars that for the next 10 years it will be the first paragraph and only the first paragraph of this piece that will be quoted and requoted by those who are more interested in using my words for their own ends rather than for understanding what I am really trying to say.

The full book review from which you took your quote can be found here: HOW EVOLUTION BECAME A RELIGION - Creationists correct?: Darwinians wrongly mix science with morality, politics. He's not saying what you think he's saying.

--Percy

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	Message 1110 by Dredge, posted 07-28-2017 3:37 AM		Dredge has replied

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	Message 1179 by Dredge, posted 08-03-2017 2:15 AM	Percy has seen this message but not replied
	Message 1217 by CRR, posted 08-04-2017 8:55 AM	Percy has replied

Percy

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Posts: 22480

From: New Hampshire

Joined: 12-23-2000

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Message 1245 of 1311 (816479)
08-05-2017 7:47 AM

Reply to: Message 1217 by CRR
08-04-2017 8:55 AM

CRR writes:

The quote is fair.

Sure it is. That's why Ruse said creationists are "more interested in using my words for their own ends rather than for understanding what I am really trying to say."

Ruse's criticisms of Dawkins and Gould were used as examples of one end of the spectrum while weaving a complex story, which is why Ruse described the question as "varied, interesting and insightful."

--Percy

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	Message 1217 by CRR, posted 08-04-2017 8:55 AM		CRR has not replied

Percy

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From: New Hampshire

Joined: 12-23-2000

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Message 1309 of 1311 (816615)
08-08-2017 7:28 AM

As I said in Message 30:

Percy writes:

--Percy

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