Bolder-dash writes:
What if the modern model of evolutionary theory completely lost the random mutation aspect at its core or the selfish gene? ... Every atheist on the planet needs that core intact or there is nothing left to hang onto.
This particular atheist isn't hanging onto anything--the TOE could be falsified today, and that would have no impact on my atheism.
Atheism flourished long before Darwin shared his insights. I became an atheist as a boy confronted with the moral horror show and just-so stories that comprised the religions I encountered, long before I learned about evolution.
Your faux astonishment that WK says the modern synthesis does not claim to explain the entire history of evolution shows clearly who "hangs on" to a collapsing intellectual position. WK's statement is appropriate for any scientific theory: we cannot know everything, and it is important to keep a firm grip on that tentativity.
Scientists are professionally and philosophically prepared to abandon or refine falsified hypotheses as new data dictates: that is part of the very definition of science. IC critics of evolution look for evidential ammo in data from scientists as well, because the IC camp can produce no data of its own.
You, on the other hand, appear to have no tentativity at all, merely certainties. Apparently, you live in a world of faith rather than a world of evidence. To you, refining a theory with new data and observations reveals its weakness; accusing others of dishonesty while mischaracterizing their position displays your position's strength.
I assure you that atheists around the world tonight sleep snug in their beds with nary a thought given to the state of the modern synthesis. Should the TOE be falsified, atheists (we really
aren't the cling-to-old-ideas type) wouldn't start pouring into churches or collapsing in cognitive dissonant fugue.
We'd be looking at new data and theories, calmly and tentatively, depending on interest level. Amazingly, many atheists don't give any more thought to evolution than they do to calculus or physics; evolution didn't make them atheists, and a collapse of the modern synthesis wouldn't make them creationists. Most atheists who are interested would be fascinated, however, because the falsification of a major scientific theory moves us closer to a clear understanding of the world.
But it appears that, no matter what, you would still be the screamer on the soapbox, clinging to his certainties and accusations, waiting for scientists to discover something else you can misinterpret or mischaracterize.
Dost thou prate, rogue?
-Cassio
Real things always push back.
-William James