Evolution quotes 15 Apr 2010 Natural Selection is not Evolution. Yet, ever since the the two words have been in common use, the theory of Natural Selection has been employed as a convenient abbreviation for the theory of Evolution by means of Natural Selection, put forward by Darwin and Wallace. [Ronald Aylmer Fisher, The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection, 1930: 1] Evolution History Quotes EvolutionHistoryQuotes
Ethics and Moral Philosophy God is dead, so be good for goodness sake 27 Apr 2010 Michael Ruse addresses the question of whether or not the lack of a God means atheists should rape and pillage. His answer and mine is no, we do things because we are humans and humans follow moral standards. Actually, I would take that a bit further and say, we are… Read More
Biology What is systematics and what is taxonomy? 5 Feb 201123 Jul 2023 Over the past few years there have been increasing numbers of calls for governments to properly fund systematics and taxonomy (and a number of largely molecular-focused biologists insisting they can do the requisite tasks with magic molecule detectors, so don’t fund old-school, fund new-fangled-tech). But I think that there is… Read More
General Science Only government approved labs can do experiments, see? 13 Aug 2008 A retired chemist has had his home lab confiscated in Maryland because a government official was scared of it. Sayeth Robert Thompson: Pamela Wilderman, the code enforcement officer for Marlboro, stated, “I think Mr. Deeb has crossed a line somewhere. This is not what we would consider to be a… Read More
Also, isn’t it about time we dispense with the ‘natural’ part and just leave it as ‘selection’? There’s no fundamental difference between ‘natural’ and ‘artificial’ selection anyway, as humans are nowadays well accepted [by reasonable people] to be as much part of nature as anything else. There’s only one selection, the ‘natural’ is rather superfluous IMO… Added to the equation of selection with evolution is also the utter neglect of non-selective processes and a rather horrible teaching thereof at lower levels (drift is generally taught as this unimportant thing that happens only in remote endangered species populations or something…), and get the epic facepalm that is the inability even of some professional biologists to grasp evolution properly…
Whether or not it is of significance for our understanding of organic evolution, there is a reasonably clear distinction between artificial and natural selection. In cases of the former there is an effective intention to influence the relative frequencies of different types in a population. In cases of the latter, intentions do not play such a role.
Yeah, but what did this Fisher guy know, eh? I mean, he wasn’t even a biologist – he was a bloody mathematician! and a theologian. Just like Dembski. They both even invented concepts of information (hm, actually Fisher was a bit of a waster, only inventing one).
Putting Darwin on a pedestal and proclaiming him to be the saviour of biology certainly didn’t help in getting this across to the public at large..