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Science Icon Fires Broadside At Creationists
London Times vis The Statesman (India) ^ | 04 July 2004 | Times of London Editorial

Posted on 07/04/2004 5:19:27 PM PDT by PatrickHenry

Professor Ernst Mayr, the scientist renowned as the father of modern biology, will celebrate his 100th birthday tomorrow by leading a scathing attack on creationism.

The evolutionary biologist, who is already acclaimed as one of the most prolific researchers of all time, has no intention of retiring and is shortly to publish new research that dismantles the fashionable creationist doctrine of “intelligent design”.

Although he has reluctantly cut his workload since a serious bout of pneumonia 18 months ago, Prof. Mayr has remained an active scientist at Harvard University throughout his 90s. He has written five books since his 90th birthday and is researching five academic papers. One of these, scheduled to appear later this year, will examine how “intelligent design” — the latest way in which creationists have sought to present a divine origin of the world — was thoroughly refuted by Charles Darwin a century and a half ago.

His work is motivated in part by a sense of exasperation at the re-emergence of creationism in the USA, which he compares unfavourably with the widespread acceptance of evolution that he encountered while growing up in early 20th-century Germany.

The states of Florida, Mississippi, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky and Oklahoma currently omit the word “evolution” from their curriculums. The Alabama state board of education has voted to include disclaimers in textbooks describing evolution as a theory. In Georgia, the word “evolution” was banned from the science curriculum after the state’s schools superintendent described it as a “controversial buzzword”.

Fierce protest, including criticism from Jimmy Carter, the former President, reversed this.

Prof. Mayr, who will celebrate his 100th birthday at his holiday home in New Hampshire with his two daughters, five grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren, was born on 5 July 1905 in Kempten, Germany. He took a PhD in zoology at the University of Berlin, before travelling to New Guinea in 1928 to study its diverse bird life. On his return in 1930 he emigrated to the USA. His most famous work, Systematics and the Origin of Species, was published in 1942 and is regarded still as a canonical work of biology.

It effectively founded the modern discipline by combining Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection with Gregor Mendel’s genetics, showing how the two were compatible. Prof. Mayr redefined what scientists mean by a species, using interbreeding as a guide. If two varieties of duck or vole do not interbreed, they cannot be the same species.

Prof. Mayr has won all three of the awards sometimes termed the “triple crown” of biology — the Balzan Prize, the Crafoord Prize and the International Prize for Biology. Although he formally retired in 1975, he has been active as an Emeritus Professor ever since and has recently written extensively on the philosophy of biology.


TOPICS: Heated Discussion
KEYWORDS: crevolist
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To: qam1
He doesn't count and it doesn't make sense as #1 because that would mean he is the first generation after himself?

Jude is not Adam.

421 posted on 07/06/2004 7:42:50 PM PDT by bondserv (Alignment is critical!)
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To: aculeus
Does not compute.

Leap year, you know... (/sarcasm off)

422 posted on 07/06/2004 7:47:50 PM PDT by XEHRpa
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To: Junior
(the punchline was "I may be crazy, but that doesn't mean I'm stupid"). I find it interesting you substituted a Christian for the loony.

So he is a crazy, but smarter than the PhD., Christian. Loony right is better than dumb wrong. I've been saying that around here for years. :-)

423 posted on 07/06/2004 7:49:28 PM PDT by bondserv (Alignment is critical!)
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To: Virginia-American; bondserv; MacDorcha; betty boop
What, precisely, is the problem?

The long polymers required by life have not been observed to form without life. Not even close.

424 posted on 07/06/2004 7:49:30 PM PDT by AndrewC (I am a Bertrand Russell agnostic, even an atheist.</sarcasm>)
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To: Doctor Stochastic

I wrote - "Intelligence implies a designer."

You responded:
"Then you would not object to a teacher pointing out what a poor job of design it was."

Certainly not, if that teacher can show the correct DNA code of amino acid sequences to correct the proteins that caused this "poor" design. I doubt that many, if any, could do this.


425 posted on 07/06/2004 7:51:38 PM PDT by Sola Veritas (Trying to speak truth - not always with the best grammar or spelling)
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To: Virginia-American
What observations would show that ID or creationism had to be seriously revised?

I suppose photographic evidence that Adam and Eve had belly-buttons would be a start.....

;-o

426 posted on 07/06/2004 8:12:05 PM PDT by longshadow
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To: stands2reason

---
I want to know what the mass of a soul is.
---

Ask me again when you've isolated a magnetic monopole, or determined what is actually "waving" in a matter wave.

Just because a thing can't be measure or detected at present does not mean it does not exist. Both examples above are theoretically possible.


427 posted on 07/06/2004 8:15:02 PM PDT by frgoff
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To: qam1
Anyhow your point is moot because Enoch's supposed prophecy here comes from his Book of Enoch which is not part of the Bible and all Christian denominations (besides the Ethiopian Orthodox) don't recognize it as divinely inspired

Did you know that Jesus is God? Did you know that Jesus created the universe? Did you know that Enoch was raptured before he died? Did you know that Jesus knows Enoch? Did you know Jude was Jesus' half-brother? The spuriousness of the so-called Book of Enoch means nothing to this passage in the New Testament. Jesus could quote Enoch verbatim whether there was a Book of Enoch or not.

John 1:1-4
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 The same was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

John 8:58-59
58 Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.
59 Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.

The Pharisees who took up stones in this passage knew He was claiming Himself as God. The "I am" of John 8:58 is the Greek version of the "I am" of the burning bush, if you were wondering.

Again, six generations after Adam would be the seventh generation. Adam being the first generation.

428 posted on 07/06/2004 8:16:11 PM PDT by bondserv (Alignment is critical!)
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To: AndrewC
The long polymers required by life have not been observed to form without life. Not even close.

You keep repeating this as if you believe it will never happen.

429 posted on 07/06/2004 8:20:36 PM PDT by js1138 (In a minute there is time, for decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse. J Forbes Kerry)
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To: Doctor Stochastic
Then you would not object to a teacher pointing out what a poor job of design it was.

I believe the Bible indicates that a curse has tainted, and continues to taint the Creation. We would need the original design to make your assessment. The presumptuous teacher commits the ASSUME mistake in your scenario.

430 posted on 07/06/2004 8:23:11 PM PDT by bondserv (Alignment is critical!)
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To: MacDorcha
till though, you profess there is no such thing as a closed system. how?

There are no closed systems in our universe. It is a theoretical construct. Kind of like how we use universal Turing machines as the computational model for computer science but we can't build such a device in this universe. It is a theoretical convenience used to simplify models when possible.

One might be able to argue that the universe itself is a closed system, but we don't know enough to make such an assertion either way.

431 posted on 07/06/2004 8:23:26 PM PDT by tortoise (All these moments lost in time, like tears in the rain.)
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To: Skywalk
Saddam sent his sons to kill and maim and torture in his name.

God sent His Son to die for your sins. Big difference. But you can choose whatever path (and eternal fate) you really prefer... just don't blame God for your choice.

N'Kay?

;-/

432 posted on 07/06/2004 8:23:34 PM PDT by Gargantua
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To: Virginia-American
What, precisely, is the problem? Have you or anyone else actually computed the entropy of a world with living things, and one without? How does this value compare with the increase in entropy csused by energy moving through the system?

Notice how, for the hundredth time, the troll avoided the direct questions?


433 posted on 07/06/2004 8:25:05 PM PDT by balrog666 (A public service post.)
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To: Sola Veritas
Intelligence implies a designer.

That doesn't follow. I'll make it simple though: define "intelligence" in strict rigorous terms.

You must be using a definition of "intelligence" I am unfamiliar with that makes the implication obvious.

434 posted on 07/06/2004 8:28:11 PM PDT by tortoise (All these moments lost in time, like tears in the rain.)
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This fits in tightly here.

A PhD. had a flat tire. When he removed the flat he placed the lug nuts in the hub cap. While leveraging the spare into place he bumped the hub cap and spilled the 4 lug nuts down a storm drain. He could not reach the fallen lugs down the deep drain. As the PhD. was sitting with head in hands, trying to come up with contingencies for retrieving the lugs, a Christian happened by. Seeing the sadness of the Prof he questioned him about his dilemma.

Looking at the drain and seeing that there was no manhole cover nearby, the Christian quickly reasoned that the best course of action was to remove a single lug nut from the other three tires to use with the spare. Then drive to an auto-supply store to replace the four missing lugs.


435 posted on 07/06/2004 8:31:06 PM PDT by bondserv (Alignment is critical!)
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To: js1138
You keep repeating this as if you believe it will never happen.

Strange isn't it? But somehow the observation remains the same. I also will state that I believe that heat will never spontaneously flow from cold to hot.

436 posted on 07/06/2004 8:31:39 PM PDT by AndrewC (I am a Bertrand Russell agnostic, even an atheist.</sarcasm>)
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To: Gargantua
To paraphrase whats-his-name:

This so-called god you worship sounds like a complete sack of S^%$. I think Saddam has more mercy and is less needful of praise and adulation than this "god" of yours. Anyone who'd whine about their competition and send people to eternal torment for not giving him enough BJClinton-type-praise or believing in a particular, and quite obvious, 'theory' of nature must be a real looney.


Let us all praise Shiva's Dance of Creation that Made and Re-made the Universe!

437 posted on 07/06/2004 8:32:36 PM PDT by balrog666 (A public service post.)
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To: MacDorcha
over 2/3 the world professes there is one God though. thats the "lasting" aspect i refer to.

Just out of curiosity, where was God during the 15,000 years of human civilization prior to the creation of Judaism? Apprentice to Marduk? Deity graduate school?

438 posted on 07/06/2004 8:34:11 PM PDT by tortoise (All these moments lost in time, like tears in the rain.)
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To: balrog666
This so-called god you worship sounds like a complete sack of S^%$. I think Saddam has more mercy and is less needful of praise and adulation than this "god" of yours. Anyone who'd whine about their competition and send people to eternal torment for not giving him enough BJClinton-type-praise or believing in a particular, and quite obvious, 'theory' of nature must be a real looney.

Hope you didn't talk to your Dad like that when you were a boy. YOUCH! Little trouble with authority there, eh?

439 posted on 07/06/2004 8:36:27 PM PDT by bondserv (Alignment is critical!)
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To: bondserv
Hope you didn't talk to your Dad like that when you were a boy. YOUCH! Little trouble with authority there, eh?

He likes dungeons and dragons games.

440 posted on 07/06/2004 8:39:32 PM PDT by AndrewC (I am a Bertrand Russell agnostic, even an atheist.</sarcasm>)
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