Evolution quotes 28 Apr 2010 We can allow satellites, planets, suns, universe, nay whole systems of universe of man to be governed by laws, but the smallest insect, we wish to be created at once by special act, provided with its instincts its place in nature, its range, its — &c &c: — must be a special act, or result of laws, yet we placidly believe the Astronomer, when he tells us satellites &c &c The Savage admires not a steam engine, but a piece of coloured glass & admires is lost in astonishment at the artificer. — Our faculties are more fitted to recognize the wonderful structure of a beetle than a Universe. [Charles Darwin, Notebook N, p36, 1838-9] Evolution Quotes EvolutionQuotes
Cognition Congenital belief 6 Aug 20126 Aug 2012 One had only to look at him, from the slant of his bald forehead and the curve of his beautiful fair moustache to the long patent-leather feet at the other end of his lean and elegant person, to feel that the knowledge of “form” must be congenital in any one… Read More
Evolution Traditions in academe 18 Dec 2007 PZ Murghl has challenged me to explain why there are theology departments in universities. Of course, most universities lack theology departments, and some, like the Princeton Theological Seminary, have been hived off their home institution. Back when I actually did theology, at Ridley College at the University of Melbourne, the… Read More
Evolution New paper by Wilkins 6 Aug 2008 Wilkins, J.S. (2008). The adaptive landscape of science. Biology & Philosophy. DOI: 10.1007/s10539-008-9125-y This is a paper returning to my roots – the evolutionary view of scientific theory change. My first paper, back in the Jurassic, was a rough and ready attempt to make sense of David Hull’s view of… Read More
It interests me that creationists stay interested in the structure of individual living things, while ignoring all of the discoveries of the structures of relationships among living things: ecology, biogeography, taxonomy, and so on. Has anybody ever appealed to the “design” of the fossil record as evidence of a “designer”? Or the “design” of homologies?
The beetle was subject to an act of divine retribution that changed it’s anatomy as a result of it’s low moral’s. A special act that took away it’s eyes and left it blind. It gave away Jesus’s location to Roman troops shortly before the crucifixtion and from that day and for evermore until the end of Eternity it is blind and “has no eyes of any description. That wis his punishment fir tellin on Jesus.”
That story is the product of a classicaly educated mind rather than a savage one I think; the intent is in maintianing control and shaping narrative and the structure of society in a particular path rather than due to some burning interest in the structure of individual living things.