Re: Social Darwinism; was: So Long Judge Moore, We'll Miss You

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Bob LeChevalier <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> [EMAIL PROTECTED] (ambrose searle) wrote:
...
> >Nonsense. Even "Natural Selection" has been around since Empedocles,
> >yet it is not often called "Empedocles' theory of Natural Selection."
> 
> Probably because Empedocles wasn't a scientist, and most people
> (including me) have never heard of him.
> http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/precursors/precursnatsel.html
> http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/ancient.html

and Empedocles' version was nothing much like natural selection - he
supposed that organism parts were floating about, forming combinations,
and that successful combinations survived. He fails to say how the
organism parts survived separately, there is no populational variation,
and once formed, the resulting organisms do not change thereafter.

It is natural selection the same way that ekpyrotic theory in Greek
thought is the Big Bang... that is to say, not at all beyond a vague
analogy or metaphor.
...
-- 
John Wilkins
DARK IN HERE, ISN'T IT?
wilkins.id.au