Uncommon Descent Serving The Intelligent Design Community

Now and then people sidle up to me to confide…

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… how they came to doubt Darwinism. As if doubting Darwinism were yet illegal …

Well, I tell them, stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage.

If doubt is a problem for you now, you are your own prison.

And just think what you saved the Darwinian State by not doubting openly.

Comments
Okay, let's drop the poetry and be blunt. Darwinism was a necessary evil. Not just because God allowed it, but because it provided a framework, a solution to the buzzing confusion of biology and gave it a purpose. I know, I know, an oxymoron, but Darwinism shaped biology, just as Enlightenment philosophy shaped science and the West. St Paul said we need a babysitter until we come of age, and Darwin was the babysitter. Why? Because there are far scarier forms of biology than Darwin. Take a look at the Phoenicians and their Tophet. Look at Papua New Guinea and their kuru. Look at Goliath and the Philistines. Biology is downright dangerous. Darwin helped us get through the dangers with only our faith in shreds. It might have been our brains... Cages contain us, as they should, until we can contain ourselves.Robert Sheldon
April 13, 2011
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Yes, but Robert Sheldon at 5, the Platonic idea of Althea was so much more valuable for poor Richard than the tiresome girl herself was that - I like to hope that later in life - he was glad.News
April 12, 2011
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Althea dumped poor Richard, you know. Those stone walls were a far better home than the freedom that watched Althea flee. Perhaps, dear Denyse, we need our cage to protect ourselves, like the dented shark cage I saw in the Chattanooga aquarium yesterday. Cages aren't all bad, you know, if they bind my prone to wander heart. Donne and Herbert may have scooped Lovelace...Robert Sheldon
April 10, 2011
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Max Planck said that science progresses one funeral at a time. The current intransigent generation must pass from the scene before the obvious can be institutionally acknowledged. So the answer is probably on the scale of at least a quarter century.Matteo
April 9, 2011
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Go here for response.O'Leary
April 9, 2011
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@JR, I'd say decades. Someone once said new scientific theories can't come along till the old guard dies out. ... That sounds tragically morbid. :-( Eh... Given how old the super darwin guys are though (Dawkins & Friends!) I'd say we've got a few decades before we get a newer theory of Evolution to replace it completely... hopefully one that's not so wacky. Then a couple months for the media to transition. That's my prediction anyway ;-) - SonfaroSonfaro
April 9, 2011
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O'Leary, As you've obviously got your finger on the pulse of the lay of the land and people trust and know you sufficiently well to confide in you such thoughts I wonder if you'd care to proffer a guess as to the time-line for the fall of Darwinism, based on the relative frequency of such encounters with Darwin-doubters?? Months? Years? Decades? Or perhaps even days? JemimaRacktouey
April 9, 2011
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