Heir spends family fortune to discredit evolution theory

Cleveland Plain Dealer ^ | 23 December 2002 | Scott Stephens

[Libertarianize the GOP]

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list

[jlogajan]

A fool and his money are soon parted.

[APBaer]

"A fool and his money are soon parted."

And, as this is the Season for party animals:
A fool and his money soon party

[proxy_user]

There's something to this. DNA/RNA is a powerful computing engine, with 4 bit states instead of 2. Surely some advanced mathmetician could create a mathmatical model of how evolution actually works.

[jlogajan]

Surely some advanced mathmetician could create a mathmatical model of how evolution actually works.

It's already been described -- chance mutation, natural selection.

[Cicero]

Newspaper reporters will continue to believe blindly in the General Theory of Evolution long after scientists have consigned it to the dustbin of history. They all visualize themselves starring in the Scopes Trial.

The headline is very misleading. Evidently Ahmanson has given $1.5 million to the Discovery Institute, which for him is pocket change. His donation is dwarfed by foundation and taxpayer money that supports the continued mandatory teaching of evolutionary theory through scientific grants, judicial enforcement, and assiduous activity by the ACLU.

[proxy_user]

That's just my point. DNA/RNA generates mutations through a powerful 'wetware' computing engine, not chance. The mutations are not random, but calculated.

Many people are coming around to the view that random mutations would be much too slow to explain the speed at which evolution occurs.

[PatrickHenry]

Follow the money!

[This ping list for the evolution -- not creationism -- side of evolution threads, and sometimes for other science topics. If you want to be included, or dropped, let me know.]

[Dimensio]

The mutations are not random, but calculated.

I haven't seen any evidence that this is the case.

[Stultis]

So Discovery fellows have followed the lead of an unlikely role model who also drew heat for publishing his findings in a book rather than scientific journals.

"They criticized Charles Darwin for the same thing," Chapman said.

No they didn't.

First off, when Darwin initially published, it was still pretty early on in the professionalization of science, a process that continued throughout the last half of the 19th century and into the next. The standard practice of publishing research in journals rather than books had not been set by that time.

Secondly, however, Darwin DID publish in journals. And contrary to what most probably think, his evolutionary theory was NOT first presented in 1859 in The Origin, but rather in 1858 in joint papers (with independent co-discoverer Alfred Russel Wallace) read before The Linnaean Society of London, one of the more prestigioius learned societies of the time.

[berserker]

Link to the Discovery Institute website

[<1/1,000,000th%]

I haven't received any fund-raising letters yet.

[f.Christian]

"That's the case with the Darwinists in the United States. The majority of the people are skeptical of the theory. And if the theory starts to waver a bit, it could all collapse, as Napoleon's army did in a rout."

"They have... lost(link)---a big one."

"They're like Napoleon's army in Moscow. They have occupied a lot of territory, and they think they've won the war. And yet they are very exposed in a hostile climate with a population that's very much unfriendly."

[Stultis]

"That's the case with the Darwinists in the United States. The majority of the people are skeptical of the theory. And if the theory starts to waver a bit, it could all collapse, as Napoleon's army did in a rout."

Speaking as an evolutionist, this would be great. The collapse of a major organizing theory like evolution could only presage some large and significant improvement in our understanding of nature.

[AnnaZ]

The headline is very misleading. Evidently Ahmanson has given $1.5 million to the Discovery Institute, which for him is pocket change. His donation is dwarfed by foundation and taxpayer money that supports the continued mandatory teaching of evolutionary theory through scientific grants, judicial enforcement, and assiduous activity by the ACLU.

 

Exactly. What pure evolutionists tend to ignore is their pathetic minority status. However they use their "intellectual" arrogance and bigotry to stifle and demean the opposition, just as all good little fascists should.

[VOA]

you probably have never heard of Howard Fieldstead Ahmanson

anyone who has spent more than a week or so in Los Angeles has heard of
The Ahmanson Theater...

[Mr. K]

'Some people believe in the theory that the whole universe was sneezed out by a being called The Great Green Arkleseizure. Those people live in constant fear of what they call the Coming of the Great White Handkerchief...' (Douglas Adams, of course!)

[f.Christian]

only presage some large and significant improvement in our understanding of nature.

True...it is going to happen---soon!