Thursday, June 07, 2007

John Derbyshire and Evolution

The new issue of National Review has an article entitled "Evolution and Me," by George Gilder. I haven't picked up a copy of it yet. John Derbyshire comments on it here in what can only be termed an excellent, smack-on-the-money essay. He is not complementary of Gilder's reasoning. He also very succintly points out one of the principle problems in the debate:

It’s a wearying business, arguing with Creationists. Basically, it is a game of Whack-a-Mole. They make an argument, you whack it down. They make a second, you whack it down. They make a third, you whack it down. So they make the first argument again. This is why most biologists just can’t be bothered with Creationism at all, even for the fun of it. It isn’t actually any fun. Creationists just chase you round in circles. It’s boring.

He also notes the elephant in the living room:

George’s own Discovery Institute was established in 1990; the offshoot Center for Science and Culture (at first called the Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture) in 1992. That is an aggregate 30 years. Where is the science? In all those years, not a single paper of scientific standing has come out of (nor even, to the best of my knowledge, been submitted by) the DI or the CSC. I am certainly willing to be corrected here. If the DI or CSC have any papers of scientific standing — published or not — I shall post links to them to NRO for qualified readers to scrutinize.

Please, please, please read the whole thing.

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