I'm thankful for ...
Michael Schermer, who wrote recently:
But there are a few myths that have to be debunked. The most common one is that this is all an accident, that evolution is random. It isn’t. Richard Dawkins’s definition of evolution is a useful one, and I have it in the book: random mutations plus nonrandom cumulative selection. It’s that “nonrandom cumulative selection” part — that’s where the action is for evolution. Random mutations are just the jumbling up of genes between sexual gametes. That’s not particularly interesting, that’s just a mechanical process. But the natural selection part occurs with that cumulative selection — that’s where there’s a certain amount of directionality to evolution. If it was random, the creationists are right, we wouldn’t be here. But it’s not random, and no one ever said it was. It’s just one of those urban legends that gets passed along by word of mouth.
Related to that is the myth that we came from monkeys or great apes. We didn’t come from monkeys or great apes. The great apes, monkeys and humans all came from a common ancestor millions of years ago. It’s that “ladder of progress” concept that goes from bacteria at the bottom to us at the top, and it’s completely wrong. It’s so wrong it’s not even wrong. That’s one of the things that [Stephen Jay] Gould devoted his life to explaining. It’s a richly branching bush, not a ladder. I think if we can just get the general public to understand those two things it would reduce the number of questions I get in question-and-answer sessions by half. Pretty much every talk I ever give includes those two questions.
and Richard Dawkins, who wrote recently:
I think people are fed up to the gills with the near universal expectation that religious faith must be respected. Let us, by all means, respect what people say when it is well thought-out and makes sense. Let us not respect it just because it shelters behind a citadel of ‘faith’. Faith is nothing. Faith is empty. Beliefs that are worth respecting are beliefs that are defended with evidence and reason.
and Christopher Hitchens, who wrote recently, on accompanying children trick or treating:
Wearing my SpongeBob suit under some protest, I pace the well-policed streets in company with hordes of essentially bored children. Worse still, this means that tomorrow the stores will switch themes from witchcraft and start playing 'Jingle Bell Rock'. To me, one version of the supernatural is just as null as the other.
But there are a few myths that have to be debunked. The most common one is that this is all an accident, that evolution is random. It isn’t. Richard Dawkins’s definition of evolution is a useful one, and I have it in the book: random mutations plus nonrandom cumulative selection. It’s that “nonrandom cumulative selection” part — that’s where the action is for evolution. Random mutations are just the jumbling up of genes between sexual gametes. That’s not particularly interesting, that’s just a mechanical process. But the natural selection part occurs with that cumulative selection — that’s where there’s a certain amount of directionality to evolution. If it was random, the creationists are right, we wouldn’t be here. But it’s not random, and no one ever said it was. It’s just one of those urban legends that gets passed along by word of mouth.
Related to that is the myth that we came from monkeys or great apes. We didn’t come from monkeys or great apes. The great apes, monkeys and humans all came from a common ancestor millions of years ago. It’s that “ladder of progress” concept that goes from bacteria at the bottom to us at the top, and it’s completely wrong. It’s so wrong it’s not even wrong. That’s one of the things that [Stephen Jay] Gould devoted his life to explaining. It’s a richly branching bush, not a ladder. I think if we can just get the general public to understand those two things it would reduce the number of questions I get in question-and-answer sessions by half. Pretty much every talk I ever give includes those two questions.
and Richard Dawkins, who wrote recently:
I think people are fed up to the gills with the near universal expectation that religious faith must be respected. Let us, by all means, respect what people say when it is well thought-out and makes sense. Let us not respect it just because it shelters behind a citadel of ‘faith’. Faith is nothing. Faith is empty. Beliefs that are worth respecting are beliefs that are defended with evidence and reason.
and Christopher Hitchens, who wrote recently, on accompanying children trick or treating:
Wearing my SpongeBob suit under some protest, I pace the well-policed streets in company with hordes of essentially bored children. Worse still, this means that tomorrow the stores will switch themes from witchcraft and start playing 'Jingle Bell Rock'. To me, one version of the supernatural is just as null as the other.
posted by Bob at 10:29 AM
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