Re: 1980 Eldredge: "time to reexamine" theory of NS

On Mon, 1 Dec 2003, Tracy Hamilton wrote:
david ford:

> > Eldredge, Niles.  July 1980.  "An Extravagance of Species"
> > _Natural History_, 47-51.  Paragraphs from 48, 50, and 51:
>
> I agree that 1980 was a good time to re-examine the role of natural
> selection.  What do *you* think the outcome was, since this has been
> done?
>
> Please use your own words, as we have seen no evidence of any
> understanding on your part.

Except for a few fervent believers such as Dawkins, those that have
considered the major problems with the theory of natural selection have
concluded that the theory cannot account for the _how_ of how the
biological world developed in the course of the earth's 4.5 billion year
existence, and have concluded that the theory does not find confirmation
in the fossil record, particularly at those locations in the fossil record
where we have particularly good and numerous specimens.  Materialists that
have concluded that the theory of natural selection/ the neo-Darwinian
mechanism cannot account for the biological world believe that a superior
theory of a blindwatchmaking mechanism or cluster of blindwatchmaking
mechanisms will eventually be discovered.