Evolution Is Practically Useless, Admits Darwinist

Creation Evolution Headlines ^ | 08/30/06 | Creation Evolution Headlines

[DannyTN]

Evolution Is Practically Useless, Admits Darwinist    08/30/2006  
Supporters of evolution often tout its many benefits.  They claim it helps research in agriculture, conservation and medicine (e.g., 01/13/2003, 06/25/2003).  A new book by David Mindell, The Evolving World: Evolution in Everyday Life (Harvard, 2006) emphasizes these practical benefits in hopes of making evolution more palatable to a skeptical society.  Jerry Coyne, a staunch evolutionist and anti-creationist, enjoyed the book in his review in Nature,¹ but thought that Mindell went overboard on “Selling Darwin” with appeals to pragmatics:

To some extent these excesses are not Mindell’s fault, for, if truth be told, evolution hasn’t yielded many practical or commercial benefits.  Yes, bacteria evolve drug resistance, and yes, we must take countermeasures, but beyond that there is not much to say.  Evolution cannot help us predict what new vaccines to manufacture because microbes evolve unpredictably.  But hasn’t evolution helped guide animal and plant breeding?  Not very much.  Most improvement in crop plants and animals occurred long before we knew anything about evolution, and came about by people following the genetic principle of ‘like begets like’.  Even now, as its practitioners admit, the field of quantitative genetics has been of little value in helping improve varieties.  Future advances will almost certainly come from transgenics, which is not based on evolution at all.

Coyne further describes how the goods and services advertised by Mindell are irrelevant for potential customers, anyway:

One reason why Mindell might fail to sell Darwin to the critics is that his examples all involve microevolution, which most modern creationists (including advocates of intelligent design) accept.  It is macroevolution – the evolutionary transitions between very different kinds of organism – that creationists claim does not occur.  But in any case, few people actually oppose evolution because of its lack of practical use.... they oppose it because they see it as undercutting moral values.

Coyne fails to offer a salve for that wound.  Instead, to explain why macroevolution has not been observed, he presents an analogy .  For critics out to debunk macroevolution because no one has seen a new species appear, he compares the origin of species with the origin of language: “We haven’t seen one language change into another either, but any reasonable creationist (an oxymoron?) must accept the clear historical evidence for linguistic evolution,” he says, adding a jab for effect. “And we have far more fossil species than we have fossil languages” (but see 04/23/2006).  It seems to escape his notice that language is a tool manipulated by intelligent agents, not random mutations.  In any case, his main point is that evolution shines not because of any hyped commercial value, but because of its explanatory power:

In the end, the true value of evolutionary biology is not practical but explanatory.  It answers, in the most exquisitely simple and parsimonious way, the age-old question: “How did we get here?”  It gives us our family history writ large, connecting us with every other species, living or extinct, on Earth.  It shows how everything from frogs to fleas got here via a few easily grasped biological processes.  And that, after all, is quite an accomplishment.

See also Evolution News analysis of this book review, focusing on Coyne’s stereotyping of creationists.  Compare also our 02/10/2006 and 12/21/2005 stories on marketing Darwinism to the masses.

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¹Jerry Coyne, “Selling Darwin,” Nature 442, 983-984(31 August 2006) | doi:10.1038/442983a; Published online 30 August 2006.

You heard it right here.  We didn’t have to say it.  One of Darwin’s own bulldogs said it for us: evolutionary theory is useless.  Oh, this is rich.  Don’t let anyone tell you that evolution is the key to biology, and without it we would fall behind in science and technology and lose our lead in the world.  He just said that most real progress in biology was done before evolutionary theory arrived, and that modern-day advances owe little or nothing to the Grand Materialist Myth.  Darwin is dead, and except for providing plot lines for storytellers, the theory that took root out of Charlie’s grave bears no fruit (but a lot of poisonous thorns: see 08/27/2006).
    To be sure, many things in science do not have practical value.  Black holes are useless, too, and so is the cosmic microwave background.  It is the Darwin Party itself, however, that has hyped evolution for its value to society.  With this selling point gone, what’s left?  The only thing Coyne believes evolution can advertise now is a substitute theology to answer the big questions.  Instead of an omniscient, omnipotent God, he offers the cult of Tinker Bell and her mutation wand as an explanation for endless forms most beautiful.  Evolution allows us to play connect-the-dot games between frogs and fleas.  It allows us to water down a complex world into simplistic, “easily grasped” generalities.  Such things are priceless, he thinks.  He’s right.  It costs nothing to produce speculation about things that cannot be observed, and nobody should consider such products worth a dime.
    We can get along just fine in life without the Darwin Party catalog.  Thanks to Jerry Coyne for providing inside information on the negative earnings in the Darwin & Co. financial report.  Sell your evolution stock now before the bottom falls out.
Next headline on:  Evolutionary Theory

[Suzy Quzy]

WHERE?

[stultorum]

Are you sure those applications came out of evolutionary theory and not biology or some other hard science?

I invented a cup with the handle on the left for left-handed people. Just recently created a new Sudoko game - putting the final touches to it - called Magic Sudoko and Magic Sudoko Series that I hope will make me a millionaire. All I need is a copyright lawyer before going public with it. Big deal!

[muawiyah]

Look, I really don't need to give anybody anything for them to discount the existence of God all on their own.

People are that way ~ they do stuff ~ I didn't make them do it.

[Suzy Quzy]

Religion is NOT an enemy of Science...straw dog there.....geesh. There is NO science behind evolution!! There is only the hope that God didn't know what he was doing when he created ALL creatures.

[js1138]

Are you sure those applications came out of evolutionary theory and not biology or some other hard science?

Have you stopped beating your wife?

[muawiyah]

Good, just wanted to make sure you knew about the taxpayers.

I spent years and years dealing with a crowd who thought they owned the post office, and, of course, they did. But we wouldn't let them inside anyway.

[PatrickHenry]

Most of the creationism regulars have seen this material (and ignored it) but there may be some who can be reached:

Help for new visitors to the evolution debate
Another service of Darwin Central, the conspiracy that cares.

If you're interested in learning about evolution, visit The List-O-Links.
If you'd like to understand the concept of speciation, visit Micro-evolution, Macro-evolution, and Speciation.
If you're serious about debating this issue, see How to argue against a scientific theory.
If you're permanently stuck on stupid, but determined to post anyway, use the Evolution Troll's Toolkit.

[Ichneumon]

Did you read your source.

Of course.

It points to the handful of disease organisms and their changes as proving the benefit of the entirity of evolutionary theory.

No, it doesn't. Care to make up and post any more nonsense?

We've all been through this business before of trying to deal with the problem of "speciation" in bacteria and viruses.

And you have failed to learn anything from the experience.

It does take us beyond Darwin's book about "The origin of species" you know, 'cause all those changes in the disease bugs don't give us new species ~ just bugs better able to defeat our own immune system ~ not that they are trying to defeat it ~ they just don't want to git'et by our white blood cells.

Yup, as I was saying about your failure to learn anything from the discussion...

Point being that changes in immunology are only by the greatest of stretches described as "evolution in action".

Evolution is the change in genetic information across generations. "Changes in immunology" are very much evolution in action. If you think otherwise, then you're grossly ignorant of the most elementary tenets of evolution.

[Liberal Classic]

Evolutionary theory is foundational to our modern understanding of biology. Anyone who says otherwise is trying to sell you a bill of goods. Like all scientific disciplines, it has applications beyond its immediately related fields. In addition to medicine and agriculture, evolutionary theory has found use in the prospecting for fossil fuels. Drilling for oil is expensive, and involves a degree of risk. The more you understand about the ancient climate at the time the strata was laid down, the better your chance of identifying a possible crude oil reservoir. Modern oil exploration makes heavy use of micropaleontology, or the study of microscopic fossil life, such as algaes and diatoms. Combined with stratigraphy, geologists paint a picture of the ancient climate in order to drill fewer dry holes. In this way, geology and evolutionary theory combine into the applied science of petroleum engineering.

So please, dear reader, don't buy into this science-hating literature. There are plenty of church (and synagogue) going people in the petrochemical industry. They know what evolution is, and how the theory is useful when applied as micropaleontology. It is no more a threat to anyone's faith as is plate tectonic theory. If someone has a problem with evolutionary theory or plate tectonic theory, then that is their problem. It is not a problem with science. I encourage them to deal with it.

[Suzy Quzy]

Don't be stupid....your comment was stupid.

[stultorum]

LOLO!

I like to run my home like a ship with me as the captain. That's why I never married an admiral.

[Chode]

then why hasn't the cockroach evolved into something else then???

oh, wait it did... democRATS!!!

[MineralMan]

"I haven't had an influenza vaccination in over 15 years."

OK. I've had one every year it has been available. I guess I don't see the relevance of either statement.

[Ichneumon]

.....geesh. There is NO science behind evolution!!

Ah, you haven't bothered to read the posts already directed to you which demonstrate the laughable ignorance of your claims, I see.

Oh well, a closed mind gathers no thought. Read my tagline, Suzy. I just wish you'd stop giving the liberals proof of their stereotypes about how unschooled conservatives are. Be ignorant in the privacy of your own home, please, don't shout it from the rooftops and make the rest of us conservatives look bad by association.

[BenLurkin]

Bump!

[muawiyah]

Evolution is every single little change even if there's "no change" only because you are defining it that way.

The problem as I see it is stirring a can of paint would be "evolution" under your definition, and I simply will not accept that.

We need to keep the word "evolution" meaning something other than "change" or we'll have a situation where some jerksilly postal bureaucrat comes up with a new name for the "change of address" form ~ she'll want to call it "address evolution", and then where will we be?

Lost!

[js1138]

There is NO science behind evolution!!

Ah, now there's paragon of creationist thinking. And you want to call attention to stupid posts.

[metmom]

Ping a ding ding to a ding dong dinglebat.

At the risk of getting flamed... FRiends don't let FRiends post drunk. Are you OK?

[Suzy Quzy]

You guys can call me all the names you want but you show me not a CRUMB of evidence ...show me the ACTUAL evolution of something...anything....WAITING!!!

[stultorum]

Whoa!!

Clicked on your The List-O-Links and that's a lot of stuff to learn in one evening. Me think it's gonna take me a whole month to read, study and absorb and retain all that stuff.

Thanks for the hard work you put into it.