In Public Evolution Summit, Suzan Mazur quotes John Landon at Darwinana.com on the decades-long Darwin debate, now erupting at the Royal Society. One might have expected, given the name of the site, that Landon felt himself in somewhat the same position as the turkey who discovers the true meaning of Thanksgiving…
But it is encouraging to hear him say,
Watching the Darwin debate go on and on unreasonably with no resolution from scientific or academic bodies allowing the religious right to dominate critique is a strange experience. I am impressed by the inability of most of the public to think clearly on the subject, the failure of the biological community to handle even the most elementary discussion of the problems, the rote repetition of darwinian cliches, the virulent and prejudiced regime of domination by such as the Dawkins cult, etc…
He believes that “science culture as a whole has failed disastrously on a key issue.” (pp. 12–13)
Crikey! Someone bugged our lunchroom!
No but seriously, when even the people who tend Darwin’s legacy are saying these things, evolutionary biology cannot just maintain the status quo with some slight modifications. That amounts to quiet decline in any field and science is not immune.
As for the Dawkins cult, it’s been a source of fun and not much else for a long time. It’s hard to see how that helps any field.
See also: Denis Noble: Why talk about replacement of Darwinian evolution theory, not extension? View from here: The new approach is not exclusive or totalistic. It does not behave, as Darwinism does, as a metaphysic. Among many assemblies of evidence, some will naturally prevail, as more persuasive than others. But for once, evidence exists to understand living things better rather than to understand Darwin better.
and
Dawkins is “kaput”? Due to a wee hours row in an elevator at a Skeptics convention? Look, the idiot has been good business for us at UD over the years. Try to understand, we had to pull him out of the fire somehow. 😉
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