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
Epistemology Notes on novelty 5: Evolutionary radiations and individuation 31 Dec 201115 Jan 2012 Notes on Novelty series: 1. Introduction 2. Historical considerations – before and after evolution 3: The meaning of evolutionary novelty 4: Examples – the beetle’s horns and the turtle’s shell 5: Evolutionary radiations and individuation 6: Levels of description 7: Surprise! 8: Conclusion – Post evo-devo Sometime around 1900, Henry Fairfield Osborn (the Ernst Mayr of… Read More
Evolution What sorts of people 14 May 2008 In Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Act V scene 1, Miranda says O, wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, That has such people in’t! The third line gave Aldous Huxley the title of his future dystopia, Brave New World. Somewhere between Miranda’s… Read More
Ecology and Biodiversity Carnival of Evolution 47: All the Evolution News that’s Fit to Blog 1 May 201221 Jun 2018 Welcome to the 47th edition of the Carnival of Evolution. We have had our science reporters out in force hunting down the best of the blogosphere on evolution and related subjects, and here they are for your delectation and delight and other d-words. First some links I encountered in my… 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.