Darwinian Fairytales

August 23 2006 | chuck colson

[truthfinder9]

August 23, 2006

A recent New York Times story described an experiment involving two colonies of rats: The first were bred for tameness. The second colony, "bred from exactly the same stock," was wired to be aggressive. The results were described as the "sweetest cartoon animal" and "the most evil super-villain." Whereas the tame rats poked their noses through the cage to be petted, the others "hurl themselves screaming toward their bars."

The researchers' goal in breeding lovable and villainous rats was to understand how human beings domesticated previously wild animals like horses and cattle. They hypothesize that the characteristic that made domestication possible, tameness, is genetic in origin. Breeding tame and aggressive rat colonies is a step toward identifying what they call a "tameness gene," which they presume is "the same in all species of domesticated mammals."

If the article had stopped there, it would have been interesting in a National Geographic sort of way. But they then went on to speculate that humans might possess such a "tameness gene," and that this gene contributed to our "domestication." The theory goes that those with the "tameness gene" "penalized or ostracized individuals who were too aggressive."

Let's set aside the obvious objection that there's no proof that such a gene exists in rats, much less humans. The bigger problem, as one science writer put it, is the idea that human civilization is the product of a hypothetical "nice rat, nasty rat," or in this case, "nice human, nasty human," gene.

This experiment would have come as no surprise to the late philosopher Michael Stove. He would have regarded the idea that we are nothing but the sum of our genes and the dangerous belief that we can fix our race by genetic engineering as yet another one of Darwinism's "unbelievable claims."

Stove's critique of these claims was recently published in a book titled Darwinian Fairytales: Selfish Genes, Errors of Heredity and Other Fables of Evolution. Stove, who called himself a man of "no religion," acknowledged Darwin's "great genius" and admitted that natural selection had great explanatory power when it came to "sponges, snakes and flies."

However, Stove regarded Darwinism as a "ridiculous slander to human beings." Flesh-and-blood people do not act in any ways resembling what the Darwinian dogma says they should. For instance, natural selection dictates that "every organism has as many descendants as it can." Stove asks, "Do you know anyone of whom that's true?"

Likewise, Darwin insisted that natural selection would "rigidly destroy" any variation that would hurt its possessor "in the struggle for life." Stove replied, "start with the letter 'A': Abortion, Alcoholism, or even Altruism." Are any of these "variations" being "rigidly destroyed"?

These are two of the many ways Darwinism gets humans wrong. Yet, as the Times story illustrates, this dismal track record has not stopped Darwinists from slandering humans (whether by reducing our vices and virtues to genetic determinism or by comparing us to laboratory rats).

Copyright (c) 2006 Prison Fellowship

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[starfish923]

Anthropologists and sociologists HAVE figured out that about 6% of every culture/country has incorrigbles, that is, those who will wind up behind bars or in institutions from which they will never escape.

The other 94% are salvagable. Humans have free will and can always change. Whether they do or not depends on .... what? Who knows. Certainly NOT this group of rat experimenters who extrapolate beyond their little study.
I suppose it's irresistable for them.

[ClearCase_guy]

There is undoubtably a lot of good science being done by people researching the Theory of Evolution. But there is also a lot of bad science. The rat experiment cited here is an example. No evidence of such a gene in the rat. No evidence of the gene in a human. But -- what the hey -- let's spin out a tale that civilization comes from the gene.

I wait for the day when Moderate Muslims denounce the crazy Muslims. I know crazy Muslims exist. I hope Moderate Muslims exist.
I wait for the day when Good Scientists denounce Bad Scientists who push their agenda too hard. I know some scientists push their agenda too hard. I hope Good Scientists call them on it.

[eleni121]

There are a few moderate Muslims..they are on their way to becoming Christian or returning to Christianity.

I hold very little hope for those who are faithful to the Darwinist cult.

[pipecorp]

? does this mean Jimmie the Greek was right???

[Former Dodger]

So the "evil rats" are supposed to represent the Islamist bomb-belt murdering loons, right?

[spatso]

I am curious about, on one hand, Stove's acknowledgment of the genius of Darwin while at the same time saying Darwin's theory does not do justice to the human person. Can someone give me the layman's shorthand version of Stove's intended meaning in this matter?