G'Day All,
I dare walk where agnostics fear to tread, but the Theory of
Intelligent Design has an interesting History, which is quite a different thing
from whether you have faith in it or not.
The theory was promulgated in early 19th Century Britain, and given an
impressively coherent form, in a series of books called the Bridgewater
Treatises. It was possibly the prominence of these works that led Darwin to
delay publishing "The Origin of Species" until Wallace contacted him. After the
works by Darwin and Wallace appeared, it was TH Huxley and others who
championed and publicised the Theory of Evolution.
Of course, Lyell and the other early 19C geologists were aware that **time**
was necessary for geological features to have developed, but were either
unaware of the biological consequences, or unwilling to explore them.
In a fascinating footnote, after Evolution had been largely accepted, and began
to be misapplied to racial, eugenic and economic aspects, some great
physicicists (Maxwell, Kelvin and others) came out with an argument that there
was insufficient time for evolution to occur. With the great advances in
mathematical physics and the applications to telegraphy and other very
important electromagnetic applications, these men had real scientific
authority. They considered the Sun as a hot ball which, with radiative cooling,
could only have existed for 60-80,000 years. Noone could refute their
reasoning, because radioactivity and atomic reactions were then unknown.
Fortunately, and possibly because of the arcane nature of the mathematics for
most people, the biologists continued in developing their theories. There is a
series of fascinating articles on radiative cooling and time in "Nature" in the
1970s by Clerk Maxwell and others.
Modern evolutionary theory introduces the nature of chance (see Stephen J Gould
and the Burgess Shale) and saltations, sudden jumps in development of species
(see also various volcanic and meteoric impact theories for the great
extinctions).
I only mention some of the History, not comment on Science or Belief, and have
no wish for Flame Wars. Perhaps many of you know these matters and I am
replicating well known facts.
Agnostically, Phil
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Dr Phil Diamond [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tel: (61) 7 3269 0302
66 Cliff Street, Sandgate 4017 AUSTRALIA
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