Eventual Selection
March 3rd 2007 01:11
Time exists, says the sage, so that everything doesn't happen at once. Space exists so that everything doesn't happen to you. Certainly without a time dimension the universe would become pretty boring. Luckily we have things happen, and then other things, and then still more other things. Things can change.
Charles Darwin, noted naturalist and lifelong fan of Charlie Brown's dog, was one of the first to consider the how and why of things changing. He noted on isolated island populations how variations of a given species had adapted to different conditions. Being a responsible scholar, he wrote a book on his ideas about how species change over time.
Christians of the day were quick to take this as a personal attack. The Bible (or at least, the translations of the various books that had been selected over others for inclusion, a century or so after Jesus was nailed up) said God simply made the various plants and animals (This was before legislation prohibiting almost all forms of genetic alterations). And of course, everything in the Bible is literally true- even the parts that contradict each other.
An amazing number of people were personally offended by the fact that our species was slowly and haltingly evolving upward, gradually improving itself every generation. Again, the Bible never mentions changes in species (Or radio waves or Japan or algebra), and so no such thing can possibly exist.
The zealots raced to protect their fragile faith from the mean ol' facts. Laws were passed requiring the teaching of the "God waved His magic wand" theory. Even after the Scopes trial (And the numerous wise-asses who calculated how big Noah's ark would have had to be to hold two of every known land animal) many states still required the Biblical version to be taught.
Truth will out, however, and evolution became accepted enough to find its way to public school curriculums. This is when Creationism took one of it's greatest evolutionary changes. To adapt to the changing political and educational environment, Creationism evolved the adjective "scientific," in order to allow the faithful to demand that it be taught in science classes. More than a few school boards fell for the ruse.
Of course, even politicians can (over the span of decades) come to realize that calling something "scientific" doesn't magically make it so. Creationism began being pushed back out of the biology classes, which necessitated a whole new evolutionary jump. Creationism evolved the ability to alter its form to look like a secular, non-religious-belief-masquera ding-as-science theory called "Intelligent Design."
Intelligent Design argues that the world and its various organisms are so well suited to each other that it couldn't happen by chance; there must be some Designer (Not a god- oh no, nothing as spooky or spiritual as that) who created everything to be just so. Intelligent Design then promptly contradicts itself by insisting that said Designer need not have a Designer for Himself; that such a wondrous entity can generate spontaneously without requiring anyone to Design Him.
Now before anyone starts, I am not trying to convince any Creationists that evolution happens. Anytime someone insists that their genetic line is not evolving, I always take them at their word.
Charles Darwin, noted naturalist and lifelong fan of Charlie Brown's dog, was one of the first to consider the how and why of things changing. He noted on isolated island populations how variations of a given species had adapted to different conditions. Being a responsible scholar, he wrote a book on his ideas about how species change over time.
Christians of the day were quick to take this as a personal attack. The Bible (or at least, the translations of the various books that had been selected over others for inclusion, a century or so after Jesus was nailed up) said God simply made the various plants and animals (This was before legislation prohibiting almost all forms of genetic alterations). And of course, everything in the Bible is literally true- even the parts that contradict each other.
An amazing number of people were personally offended by the fact that our species was slowly and haltingly evolving upward, gradually improving itself every generation. Again, the Bible never mentions changes in species (Or radio waves or Japan or algebra), and so no such thing can possibly exist.
The zealots raced to protect their fragile faith from the mean ol' facts. Laws were passed requiring the teaching of the "God waved His magic wand" theory. Even after the Scopes trial (And the numerous wise-asses who calculated how big Noah's ark would have had to be to hold two of every known land animal) many states still required the Biblical version to be taught.
Truth will out, however, and evolution became accepted enough to find its way to public school curriculums. This is when Creationism took one of it's greatest evolutionary changes. To adapt to the changing political and educational environment, Creationism evolved the adjective "scientific," in order to allow the faithful to demand that it be taught in science classes. More than a few school boards fell for the ruse.
Of course, even politicians can (over the span of decades) come to realize that calling something "scientific" doesn't magically make it so. Creationism began being pushed back out of the biology classes, which necessitated a whole new evolutionary jump. Creationism evolved the ability to alter its form to look like a secular, non-religious-belief-masquera ding-as-science theory called "Intelligent Design."
Intelligent Design argues that the world and its various organisms are so well suited to each other that it couldn't happen by chance; there must be some Designer (Not a god- oh no, nothing as spooky or spiritual as that) who created everything to be just so. Intelligent Design then promptly contradicts itself by insisting that said Designer need not have a Designer for Himself; that such a wondrous entity can generate spontaneously without requiring anyone to Design Him.
Now before anyone starts, I am not trying to convince any Creationists that evolution happens. Anytime someone insists that their genetic line is not evolving, I always take them at their word.
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Comment by Timothy Powell
subjective determinist
Bad men
meditations while in genetics lectures