Pitt anthropologist thinks Darwin’s theory needs to evolve on some points
Monday, May 29, 2006
By Mark Roth
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Source: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06149/694046-85.stm
Darwin was wrong, and his modern-day adherents perpetuate his mistakes.
That sounds like the opening salvo of an advocate for Intelligent Design or some other religiously driven critique of the theory of evolution.
But it actually summarizes the ideas of Jeffrey Schwartz, a noted anthropologist at the University of Pittsburgh and one of a growing group of critics of standard Darwinian theory.
Most of the recent publicity Dr. Schwartz has received has focused on his role in creating life-sized replicas of George Washington for display at Mount Vernon.
Much of his career, though, has been devoted to human evolution and the history of Charles Darwin’s ideas.
In criticizing Darwin, Dr. Schwartz does not dispute his theory that humans, animals and plants evolved from other species. In fact, one of his books, “The Red Ape,” argues that orangutans, not chimpanzees, are the closest evolutionary relatives of human beings.
He does take issue with two key parts of traditional Darwinian thinking, though — gradualism and adaptation.
Gradualism holds that new species evolve from their ancestors through tiny, incremental changes. Adaptation says those changes come in response to shifting conditions in the environment. [This is all the opening ID needs. –WmAD] Read More ›