A Look At Darwin

Started by Symmetric Chaos2 pages

A Look At Darwin

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20091124/hl_time/08599194248300

Frankly I find the article creepy on several different levels.

All that guy does is whine while offering no solutions to perceived problems.

I thought it was interesting how he suggested " ...we also have to examine what is special about human beings, and why they deserve to be treated differently and granted certain rights. " It seems a bit pretentious, and I don't think it's helping him prove his point any. Maybe I've already got Darwinism too exacted in my head ( 😛 ) but doesn't it kind of average up to the same thing? Because the 'stronger' and or 'better minded' continue to thrive, are they not given certain privileges and rights?

Do some people think that Darwin invented evolution?

I think I knew that Finnish kid in a "Six degrees of sepertation" way.

Originally posted by Shakyamunison
Do some people think that Darwin invented evolution?

yes

Originally posted by Cherrywild
I thought it was interesting how he suggested " ...we also have to examine what is special about human beings, and why they deserve to be treated differently and granted certain rights. " It seems a bit pretentious, and I don't think it's helping him prove his point any. Maybe I've already got Darwinism too exacted in my head ( 😛 ) but doesn't it kind of average up to the same thing? Because the 'stronger' and or 'better minded' continue to thrive, are they not given certain privileges and rights?

no

They do better than the things around them. That does not grant rights (which are supposedly innate privileges). You may wish to see "Hume's Guillotine".

I wonder why Darwin occupies this position at the pinnacle of esteem.

Modern biology. By which I mean modern medicine. It isn't as though we're seeing mutation in view of the mainstream consciousness or anything like that...

Originally posted by Shakyamunison
Do some people think that Darwin invented evolution?

No one invented evolution. It was discovered.

I'd say it's more important to mention that not everything Darwin believed about evolution is still relevant to scientists that study it.

Originally posted by Symmetric Chaos
No one invented evolution. It was discovered.

I'd say it's more important to mention that not everything Darwin believed about evolution is still relevant to scientists that study it.

Good. That mean Darwin could have been a nut case, and it has nothing to do with evolution.

Originally posted by Shakyamunison
Good. That mean Darwin could have been a nut case, and it has nothing to do with evolution.

Look at Francis Galton or James Watson

hugely important to the understanding of heredity and genetics, but both pretty blatantly racist

Or Ava Lovelace, the worlds first modder and hacker, was a woman of all things

Darwin wasn't perfect? Go figger.

I find it odd that he claims scientists hold Darwin in the pinnacle of esteem in terms of recognising and referencing previous science when the fact of the matter is that the dominant reason why Darwin keeps being debated is because critics of evolution keep bringing his 250 year old findings up time and time again (usually misunderstood and completely dismissive of any genetics or evolutionary science done since Darwin) in some odd attempt to use 250 year old science as a means to disprove modern scientific theories and research.

Originally posted by jaden101
I find it odd that he claims scientists hold Darwin in the pinnacle of esteem in terms of recognising and referencing previous science when the fact of the matter is that the dominant reason why Darwin keeps being debated is because critics of evolution keep bringing his 250 year old findings up time and time again (usually misunderstood and completely dismissive of any genetics or evolutionary science done since Darwin) in some odd attempt to use 250 year old science as a means to disprove modern scientific theories and research.
That seems like a hundred too much.

Originally posted by Bardock42
That seems like a hundred too much.

You seem like a hundred too gay.

POW right in the kisser.

Or something.

Yes, i'm drunk.

Originally posted by jaden101
You seem like a hundred too gay.

POW right in the kisser.

Or something.

Yes, i'm drunk.

And Scottish.

What a surprise.

Originally posted by Bardock42
And Scottish.

What a surprise.

Name the 1 European nation that drinks more than the Scots?

Originally posted by jaden101
Name the 1 European nation that drinks more than the Scots?

The Vatican?

Luxembourg

Originally posted by inimalist
Or Ava Lovelace, the worlds first modder and hacker, was a woman of all things

Where do you find this strange/unique information? The first computer programmer? No and yes, depends on the definition you use. First hacker? No. Modder? Possibly yes...but it wasn't modding at all. It was improving/adding to a design that wasn't made yet at the request/behest of Babbage (SP?) (So technically not modding at all...in the sense that you mean it.)

And the first programmer would be difficult to pin down. People were writing "useless" algorithms for well more than a thousand years (possibly more). Part of that algorithm writing came "input validation" where the algorithms were checked for weaknesses or errors. Those would truly be the first programmers. (There were mathematicians that wrote many lengthy algorithms that had lots of logic that would be best suited for a programmer.) There were machines that did stuff and were programmable, not doubt. Those were true "computers" and "software."

The real credit goes to an Arab. His name escapes me and I don't feel like looking it up. His name sounds/looks like the TV network Aljazeera...but I remember it being spelled differently. (That sounds like ignorant racism. 🙁 That's not what I mean it to be. )

it was a joke

Originally posted by inimalist
it was a joke
To the topic, yes, it was a joke.

However, the substance of the sentence itself was what I addressed, not the larger point of your post being in jest to another's post.

Unless you mean "it" as the comment about her being the first modder and hacker, then I can see what you mean. I can see that being a joke.Then I would wonder why you referred to it as singular "it" and have to conclude that it does not refer to "modder" and "hacker" but to your post as a whole, which brings me back to the first sentence I typed in this post.