From: Technotranscendence (neptune@mars.superlink.net)
Date: Sun Jan 14 2001 - 01:22:57 MST
On Saturday, January 13, 2001 7:32 PM Damien Broderick
d.broderick@english.unimelb.edu.au wrote:
> But then, hey, what's the opinion of the Nobel-laureate co-untangler of
DNA
> structure and code compared with those mighty unheralded geniuses who
> shatter the myths of Darwinism?
Don't argue from authority! Evolution is a fact -- inferred from lots of
corraborating lines of evidence. No need to invoke prize winning statuses
or other achievments -- not that this is ever good. In fact, it might prove
very harmful as your critics will latch on to that and look at it as a
battle over authorities and citing the sacred texts -- be they the Bible or
some out of context quotes of some scientist with a few drinks in him or
her.
There is also a grand confusion for most people between evolution and
evolutionary theories. Evolution is the "what happened" of natural history
while evolutionary theories are attempts to explain what happened.
Particular theories might be wrong -- and some are -- but the facts are
still there. (I'm no claiming Damien mucks this distinction; just riding my
hobby horse.:)
Cheers!
Daniel Ust
http://uweb.superlink.net/neptune/
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