Dawkins Defends Darwin
A hundred and fifty years after the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species, evolution is still a hotly-debated topic in America. This fall, biologist and bestselling author Richard Dawkins offers evidence that evolution is true in his new book, The Greatest Show on Earth.
According to Dawkins, Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection is accepted by all reputable scientists, yet a staggering 40% of the American population do not believe it. Instead, these "history deniers," as Dawkins styles them, believe God created all life on Earth a mere 10,000 years ago.
In his previous books, which include The Blind Watchmaker, Unweaving the Rainbow, and the blockbuster The God Delusion, Dawkins based his arguments on the premise that evolution is true. Now in his new book, he goes head-to-head with Creationists, offering evidence that Darwin was right. Writing with his trademark eloquence and wit, Dawkins argues that evolution is a fact that is beyond doubt.
In answer to those who fear that the theory of evolution strips life of meaning, Dawkins offers the following rebuttal: "Evolution,” he writes, “ is an inescapable fact, and we should celebrate its astonishing power, simplicity and beauty."
To celebrate the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin's Origin of Species and to promote his exciting new book on evolution, Richard Dawkins will make three appearances in New York City: Oct 18th at Kaufmann Concert Hall, Oct 19th at The New York Academy of Sciences, and Oct 21st at Barnes & Noble Tribeca.
For more information and to read the first chapter of The Greatest Show on Earth, go to www.richarddawkins.net.
- 10-16-09
- Sue Dougherty's blog
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The Theory of Fact
On a somewhat more scholarly note ... there is a very detailed book ... called "Forbidden Archeology" , written by two scholars.
An 800 page book that goes back over 100 years ... fact after fact after "historical" fact, of all the major premises in the history of this theory
... how there has been "constant" evidence found counter to the Darwinian theory since it's inception.... covering all original debates.of prominent archaeologists associated with the conflicting finds.
There are no alternative view points presented ...just direct historical evidence of "sweeping under the rug" virtually countless contradictory "digs" and/or "finds"
All in the scholarly language of the field of archeology itself . ... Virtually no opinions presented.
In any event the cover up is obvious. Just self-motivated scientists trying to make a name for themselves for the most part ... however innocent.
A great read for anyone who really wants to study the history of this so-called theory in all of it's speculation.and or evidential analysis.
Again this book is "nothing but historical fact" ... which for many of us will be an eye opener at the very least.... although a boring and tedious read ... a great referential resource for all actually concerned with the evidence.
Richard Dawkins is to the actual field of Archeology .. like Dr Phil is to brain surgery ... a fair witted social perspective ... capitalizing mostly on innuendo, and some of the relative stupidity of "mostly" Christian Fundamentalism ... which springs from the same Dark Ages as Modern Science.
All of the older Spiritual Paths/Religions go way beyond the 10,000 year old history of creation window.
There are archaeological finds showing clear evidence as to why this is so in this above mentioned book.
When the whole History of this theory is shown, along with decades and decades of contradictory evidence one can clearly make up their own mind in a much more informative way.
Most "atheism" is really only due to bad, or low quality "theism" ... and one cannot really blame atheists, agnostics, existentialists for becoming polarized by third rate fundamentalism.
Still the science of factual evolutionary theory is far from conclusive ... again with many historical cover-ups ... {as many as the church ...lol}... by the scientific community ... which are documented ... objectively in this long and deep book.
For those who wish to look beyond opinion, and form their own sense of actual understanding rather than just riding the bandwagon of virtual ideology.
Not to disprove ... but to show not only lack of present proof, but genuine deception at different stages of this theories historical promotion.
For the Educationally motivated only.
I would beg all those out there looking for more advanced theories to be patient ... the fields of Quantum mechanics will soon be confirming that creation is eternal ... it does not have beginning or end
... just like every Mystic surely knows, one cannot separate the "known" universe from the potentially unknown fields of quantum unification ... anymore than one can separate feelings from fact {feelings are always factual}
Every fact requires faith from the quantum perspective ...
Faith being nothing more than belief mixed up and evolved with a little "revelation" ...
Revelation being the only "conscious" way to transcend "relativity" .. so hang on ... Science and Spirituality will become reconciled ... the head and tail of the serpent will uncoil ...
The rest of the changes of the age are, to a large degree, dependent on the global humanity to eventually yoke matter to spirit {relativity to quantum field}
Just imagine all of us being wrong to some degree or other at present ... and that in the decades to come we actually unify all of these apparent contradictions and find ourselves on the same page ... a new page ...actually reaching a quantum perspective beyond all of our present opinions {to the degree they are not actually progressing in this direction}
Time to move on
I agree that neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory is much more about controlling people's thinking than it is about science. When I started to read critiques such as Michael Cremo's work I was amazed to see how frail the whole institution was.
To put succinctly what the central problem is as I see it:
Darwinian evolution is natural selection acting upon random genetic mutations. Natural selection means an organism is in some way better suited to survive than other organisms so the others die and it lives on. Random mutations are errors in the copying of genetic material during reproduction.
So we started off with some kind of ultra-simple organism, which over generations accumulated errors in reproduction, which led to new features being developed, which gave the organism a survival advantage, which led to it outlasting other similar organisms that did not randomly develop this feature.
The problems with this mechanism are many but the most fundamental and simplest to grasp is: the changes in body type from single-celled organisms, to more complex organisms, to plants, insects, animals require an increase in useful genetic information. Errors do not add information in a way that would build upon the structure of an organism no matter how many generations are allowed. They generally result in copying and splicing of existing information. With the exception of a few cases where mutations have fostered immunity in viruses for example, they have a detrimental effect and do not lead to survival advantages.
If Adobe created successive versions of Photoshop by copying the source code trillions of times and seeing what new features developed due to copying errors, would you expect it to go from version 1 to Creative Suite 3, adding new types of filters and exporting tools?
Not to mention, of course, that we have no idea for how the entire API (application programming interface), or should I say DNA/RNA, came into existince to begin with.
Beware Evolutionary Theory is PC
I agree with John. Political correctness is endangering freedom and the truth. The PC freaks are out of control.
Evolution, Afghanstan, subprime/economic collpase all have PC BS in common.
Entheogenesis: The Rise of the Cosmic Sapien
http://naturalresonancerevolution.blogspot.com/
The spontaneous spiritual global evolution is well under way and I can assure you that you will not find it in a book. It must be experienced. The mycelial mind communicating to the mycelial webs spiralling to a mycelial cosmos spiralling outwards. Now the safest way is to follow the good doctor's acoustic harmonic theories. A virtual first nations acoustic holographic matriarchal harmonic vibe realigning five major chakra's of the individual and simultaneously the planet for the required global shift toward a positive perspective.
Simple-mindedness in modern academia
John Locke once wrote that it was not worthwhile talking to someone who, throughout his entire life, had confined his thoughts to one narrow point of view. That is how I feel about Richard Dawkins.
While there is substantial, say unequivocal evidence, that various forms on life have occupied Earth for the past four billion years, those observations certainly do not prove that "Darwinian evolution is a fact", as R.D. constantly tries to tell us.
Humans are certainly related to other primates, most closely to the bonobo chimpanzee---that wonderfully promiscuous species---and probably we did share a common ancestor tens or hundreds of millions of years ago, but that still does not prove that "Darwinian evolution is a fact".
The basic premise of Darwin's model is that constant random mutations in the sex cells can occasionally come up with something useful, and natural selection thereby progresses. But if we look in detail at many important genes that differentiate chimps and humsns, say for neural processes, sometimes we see huge concerted changes: say 10 "directed" mutations that change 10 different amino acids within a protein, but no "random" mutations anywhere else in the entire gene!
Thus there was indeed some kind of advance in going neurally from chimp to human, but it certainly did not happen by Darwin's proposed model. We are not comparing it here to the Book of Genesis, but testing it for falsifiablity, just like any other theory in modern sciene. And no matter how you look at it, when studied on a molecular level (not by fossils), it does not seem anywhere close to what is factually observed.
OUCH!
Go Primal
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/091018/national/eu_britain_undiplomat...