Uncommon Descent Serving The Intelligent Design Community

“Just give me Darwin; you can have the facts … “

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In the beginning was Darwin, and he created Science. Incluyding, to hear devotee Jerry Coyne tell it, he created biogeogaphy. This naturally irritates science historian Michael Flannery, who knows the facts:

It should be stated at the outset that what Coyne really means by “evolution” in his title is Darwinism. That cleared up, Coyne predictably goes to the man himself: “he [Darwin] realized that evolution was necessary to explain not just the origins and forms of plants and animals but also their distribution across the globe. These distributions raise a lot of questions . . . .” (p. 95) Darwin, he goes on to say, pondered these questions and devoted two chapters to the subject in Origin (chapters XI and XII to be precise). “These chapters are often considered the founding document of the field of biogeography–the study of the distribution of species on Earth. . . . The biogeographical evidence for evolution is now so powerful that I have never seen a creationist book, article, or lecture that has tried to refute it. Creationists simply pretend that the evidence doesn’t exist.” (p. 95)

Really? Everything about this argument is erroneous. First of all, Darwin did do some preliminary work in biogeography but his work was suggestive, tentative, and incomplete. Coyne barely references the co-discoverer of natural selection and acknowledged founder of modern biogeography Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1910), for whom the prestigious biennial award bestowed by the International Biogeography Society (IBS) is named. – “The Coyne of the ” of the Realm”Evolution News & Views June 16, 2011)

Comments
"Why would Creationists want to refute it? Simply another example of an attempt to shift the burden of proof." That is, after all, how Saint Chuckie taught his disciples to think and "argue".Ilion
June 19, 2011
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Why would Creationists want to refute it? Simply another example of an attempt to shift the burden of proof. Esp. since the biogeography argument seems to have it's foundation in ... on the theory of special creation I can see no reason why a Creator would ... That's not science.Mung
June 18, 2011
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