Change Without Announcing It

evolution

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Chuck Norris

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Charles Darwin

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is (insofar as by evolution we mean natural selection) is not a testable scientific theory, but rather a metaphysical research program.

Sir Karl Popper has stated, evolution is not a testable scientific theory but a metaphysical research program. [Popper, 1976, p. 168]

is a battle among genes, each seeking to make more copies of itself. Bodies are merely the places where genes aggregate for a time.

For Dawkins, evolution is a battle among genes, each seeking to make more copies of itself. Bodies are merely the places where genes aggregate for a time (Stephen J. Gould)

is a blind giant who rolls a snowball composed of flakes of circumstance down a hill... there is no planning to the resultant moster ball, only a law: The ball once started, all the circumstances that happened to lie in its path would help to build it, in spite of themselves.

Evolution is a blind giant who rolls a snowball down a hill. The ball is made of flakes-circumstances. They contribute to the mass without knowing it. They adhere without intention, and without foreseeing what is to result. When they see the result they marvel at the monster ball and wonder how the contriving of it came to be originally thought out and planned. Whereas there was no such planning, there was only a law: the ball once started, all the circumstances that happened to lie in its path would help to build it, in spite of themselves. Mark Twain

is a change from a state of relatively indefinite, incoherent homogeneity to a definite coherent heterogeneity.

evolution is a change from a state of relatively indefinite, incoherent homogeneity to a definite coherent heterogeneity.' (net)

is a feedback mechanism exactly like that of the centrifugal governor of the steam engine, which checks and corrects any irregularities almost before they become evident.

The action of this principle is exactly like that of the centrifugal governor of the steam engine, which checks and corrects any irregularities almost before they become evident... and in like manner no unbalanced deficiency in the animal kingdom can ever reach any conspicuous magnitude, because it would make itself felt at the very first step, by rendering existence difficult and extinction almost sure soon to follow.[1] (wallace in wikipedia)

is a matter largely concerning environmental pressures on populations, whereas darwin emphasized competition between individuals of the same species.

Darwin emphasised competition between individuals of the same species to survive and reproduce, whereas Wallace emphasised environmental pressures on varieties and species forcing them to become adapted to their local conditions, leading populations in different locations to diverge.[91][92] ' (wikipedia).

is a metaphysical precommittment rather than a fact because its logic is ultimately tautological... namely, the evolutionist necessarily starts with a prescientific commitment to naturalism (i.e. Explanation without reference to divine causes), which, in turn, constrains one to evolutionary process.

The much-cited critic of evolution the Berkeley lawyer Phillip Johnson (1991 , 1995), takes a somewhat different tack. He argues that evolution is less a fact in the sense of something empirically established and has status more as a kind of metaphysical precommitment to the study and understanding of organisms. Johnson argues that evolutionist start with a prescientific commitment to naturalism, that is to say, to explanation through unbroken law without reference to nonnatural (for instance divine) causes. But given such a commitment, argues Johnson, evolution follows as an inevitable consequence. If one is a naturalist of some form, then necessarily one is an evolutionist, since presumably the only way in which one can explain organisms is as a consequence of an evolutionary process.

is a mighty doctrine such that nothing can ever remove it from its firm base, nothing dissolve it . . . Except for evolution.

Evolution is the law of policies: Darwin said it, Socrates endorsed it, Cuvier proved it and established it for all time in his paper on The Survival of the Fittest. These are illustrious names, this is a mighty doctrine: nothing can ever remove it from its firm base, nothing dissolve it, but evolution. Mark Twain

evolution, n.Memes

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