FW: evolution

[Curtis Clark]

At 11:24 AM 9/9/99 -0600, Mary Barkworth wrote:
>In an opinion to be published in Environmental
>Microbiology later this month, Doug  Caldwell dismisses
>conventional evolutionary theory as a politically
>motivated form of superstition or mythology.

and then

>Caldwell's proliferation theory, first published in 1997
>with three co-authors,  states that a universal
>information system or life force resides within  all
>physical, chemical, and biological  objects.

and then it all becomes clear:

>Caldwell was the lead speaker at a meeting of the Gaia
>Society held at Oxford University  in April .

This is not science; it's animism, and animism is religion (I should know;
I'm an animist). He may well be right (which would be a disappointment,
because then I'd need a different outlet for my mystical leanings :-), but
IMO based on the currently available evidence, his views are even less
scientific than he accuses Darwin of being. And his approach is puffery. He
is not challenging the central fact of evolution: all organisms on earth
are kin. He is only disputing mechanisms. As we have been reminded by John
Grehan, evolutionists still don't agree on mechanisms.

As religion, the Gaia hypothesis is good stuff, and as an animist, I like
it a lot. But, again IMO, by trying to pass it off as science, its
proponents come across as nutcakes.


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Curtis Clark                  http://www.csupomona.edu/~jcclark/
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