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Stories that mattered in 2016 – 1: Royal Society Conference

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Image result for Happy New Year graphic public domain Not what we consider most interesting, not what got us the most hits, but stories that seem to signal a growing trend:

1. The Royal Society’s almost aborted efforts to free evolution studies from the stranglehold of Darwinism have been hope in the midst of stagnation. It is safer to be a non-Darwinian now that many are rethinking evolution. Also, much more interesting, as a recent books list shows.

Note: The issue isn’t really whether Darwinism (or neo-Darwinism or whatever) will be disconfirmed. It has long functioned as a religion, or if you like, a metaphysic, as Darwinist historian Michael Ruse has often pointed out:

Evolution after Darwin had set itself up to be something more than science. It was a popular science, the science of the marketplace and the museum, and it was a religion—whether this be purely secular or blended in with a form of liberal Christianity.

*For an informative account of the role of museums in the spread of evolution as a religion, see Michael Ruse, The Evolution Wars: A Guide to the Debates (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2000), pp. 103–05. For his own ambivalent view, see pp. 113–14.

A religion or metaphysic cannot be disconfirmed. One just moves on from it because other approaches to knowledge prove more fruitful and interesting.

See also: See also: “Junk” RNA helps regulate metabolism

and

Nothing says “Darwin snob” like indifference to the mess that the entire concept of speciation is in Follow UD News at Twitter!

Comments
1. The Royal Society’s almost aborted efforts to free evolution studies from the stranglehold of Darwinism have been hope in the midst of stagnation. It is safer to be a non-Darwinian now that many are rethinking evolution. Also, much more interesting, as a recent books list shows.
It seems to be impossible to dislodge the belief that the current theory of evolution has not moved beyond Darwin's original formulation. As far as I could tell, there was nothing that was brought to the table at the Royal Society that was not already known. Attacking Darwinism in biology is akin to attacking "Newtonism" in physics. It is beating a strawman and suggests that the critics either do not understand the current state of play in the field or are deliberately misrepresenting it in pursuit of some ideological agenda.
Note: The issue isn’t really whether Darwinism (or neo-Darwinism or whatever) will be disconfirmed. It has long functioned as a religion,..,
"To the man who has a hammer, everything looks like a nail". To the believer, any different view must be just another religion.
A religion or metaphysic cannot be disconfirmed.
I assume this applies to Christianity?
One just moves on from it because other approaches to knowledge prove more fruitful and interesting.
More true of science than religion, I would say. Science has moved beyond Newtonian mechanics or the theory of the aether, for example. Christianity does not seem to have moved beyond the doctrine of Original Sin or a triune deity.Seversky
January 2, 2017
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