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
Evolution Ruse on Hull: a memoir 13 Aug 2010 The following memoir of David Hull is from Michael Ruse, who has graciously given permission to post it on this blog: DAVID HULL (1935–2010) I first met David Hull in the fall of 1968, at the first meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association, being held in Pittsburgh. He was… Read More
Evolution A letter to a high school student 14 Dec 2007 It’s a dangerous thing to let philosophers talk to high school students, in the main, for we tend to drown our audience in terminology and deep concepts (many of which turn out to be not so deep), but I do try to communicate clearly when it is needed. My kids… Read More
Evolution Knit Darwin’s tree 27 Sep 200818 Sep 2017 If any of my readers are good knitters, check this out: The pattern, not the girl. Preverts! Hat tip: Colin Purrington 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.