VenDexter
02 Dec 2009, 05:34 PM
My brother, who is incredibly intelligent, but also happens to be a Christian apologist, posted a comment by Dr. Stanley Salthe this morning:
Darwinian evolutionary theory was my field of specialization in biology. Among other things, I wrote a textbook on the subject thirty years ago. Meanwhile, however I have become an apostate from Darwinian theory and have described it as part of modernism’s origination myth. Consequently, I certainly agree that biology students at least should have the opportunity to learn about the flaws and limits of Darwin’s theory while they are learning about the theory’s strongest claims.
In response, I posted this quote from the NY Times with my own comments in brackets:
Dr. Salthe, who describes himself as an atheist, said that when he signed the petition he had no idea what the Discovery Institute was. Rather, he said, "I signed it in irritation."
[Irritation?! He signed a document out of irritation?]
He said evolutionary biologists were unfairly suppressing any competing ideas. "They deserve to be prodded, as it were," Dr. Salthe said. "It was my way of thumbing my nose at them."
[Which is not factually true. He has had several papers published in peer reviewed journals regarding his ideas of self organization in heirarchecal systems. Add to this that a search on evolutionary self-organization reveals many articles and papers in peer reviewed journals. Where does he get that any ideas are being supressed?]
Dr. Salthe said he did not find intelligent design to be a compelling theory, either. "From my point of view," he said, "it's a plague on both your houses."
[But nevertheless Dr. Salthe, you signed a document while throwing a temper-tantrum like a small child because you feel as though you're being picked on somehow by all those mean 'ole evolutionary biologists. Now you have to put up with the fallout from your irrational behavior and the misuse and abuse of such.]
So, some of you folks with advanced knowledge in biology know what the hell is going on with this guy? From what I could gather he proposes that natural selection doesn't account for self-organizational explanations.
Exactly what is it that Salthe is so pissed about with evolutionary biologists? I can't find any explanations for this and there is very little discussion about him that I can find.
He signed the DI's petition against "Darwinism" and, of course, they trot him out at every opportunity to show how there is some kind of huge rift among scientists about evolution, blah, blah, fucking blah.
Darwinian evolutionary theory was my field of specialization in biology. Among other things, I wrote a textbook on the subject thirty years ago. Meanwhile, however I have become an apostate from Darwinian theory and have described it as part of modernism’s origination myth. Consequently, I certainly agree that biology students at least should have the opportunity to learn about the flaws and limits of Darwin’s theory while they are learning about the theory’s strongest claims.
In response, I posted this quote from the NY Times with my own comments in brackets:
Dr. Salthe, who describes himself as an atheist, said that when he signed the petition he had no idea what the Discovery Institute was. Rather, he said, "I signed it in irritation."
[Irritation?! He signed a document out of irritation?]
He said evolutionary biologists were unfairly suppressing any competing ideas. "They deserve to be prodded, as it were," Dr. Salthe said. "It was my way of thumbing my nose at them."
[Which is not factually true. He has had several papers published in peer reviewed journals regarding his ideas of self organization in heirarchecal systems. Add to this that a search on evolutionary self-organization reveals many articles and papers in peer reviewed journals. Where does he get that any ideas are being supressed?]
Dr. Salthe said he did not find intelligent design to be a compelling theory, either. "From my point of view," he said, "it's a plague on both your houses."
[But nevertheless Dr. Salthe, you signed a document while throwing a temper-tantrum like a small child because you feel as though you're being picked on somehow by all those mean 'ole evolutionary biologists. Now you have to put up with the fallout from your irrational behavior and the misuse and abuse of such.]
So, some of you folks with advanced knowledge in biology know what the hell is going on with this guy? From what I could gather he proposes that natural selection doesn't account for self-organizational explanations.
Exactly what is it that Salthe is so pissed about with evolutionary biologists? I can't find any explanations for this and there is very little discussion about him that I can find.
He signed the DI's petition against "Darwinism" and, of course, they trot him out at every opportunity to show how there is some kind of huge rift among scientists about evolution, blah, blah, fucking blah.