:: Running from the Thought Police ::

:: Thursday, March 17, 2005 ::

My Dear Lord

::This post is part of the Evolution/ID Correspondence Series::

Here's the first paragraph of "fact" in Evolution Cruncher.

Introduction: Stellar evolution is based on the concept that nothing can explode and produce all the stars and worlds. Life evolution is founded on the twin theories of spontaneous generation and Lamarckism (the inheritance of acquired characteristics);—yet, although they remain the basis of biological evolution, both were debunked by scientists over a century ago.

::deep sigh::

Spontaneous generation was an Aristotelian concept that states that small creatures, like flies, arise spontaneously from fluids and icky things. Pasteur disproved this in an experiment involving broth, and it is not credibly cited anywhere. The only reason it is of note is because it was the first attempt to explain where things came from outside of a religious context.

"Lamarckism," or Lamarck's theory of heredity, is based on the idea that adults pass on acquired traits to their offspring. This is false, but is notable for the idea that some sort of information is passed from parent to offspring. Darwin's Origin of Species doesn't use this and instead relies on inborn traits. Darwin doesn't offer an explanation of how these are transmitted - that had to wait for Mendel's work with peas to be rediscovered near the turn of the Twentieth century.

This book looks like it's a case study in Red Herring arguments. It's no surprise that Doug makes so many of this type of argument, considering the reference he's using.

UPDATE: The book also make reference to a fossil known as "Guadeloupe Woman," which, from what I can tell, has no other documentary source than this book and the "Encyclopedia" it comes from.

Oh, and any book that claims that Pasteur's germ theory was proof that "only God could create living creatures" should not be used for reference but instead for tinder.

:: The Squire 1:18 AM :: email this post :: ::
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