Non-creationist, non-Darwinist, "third way" theories of evolution.
R.I.P. creationism. Stephen Meyer's "Return..."
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- Written by Shaun Johnston Shaun Johnston
- Published: April 9, 2021 April 9, 2021
- Hits: 30 30
Stephen Meyer’s ”The Return of the God Hypothesis” consists of two interwoven narratives. One, occupying the great bulk of the book, is an exhaustive compilation of every aspect of the physical world that today’s science can’t account for. Let’s refer to that as the text. The other consists of brief comments interspersed within the text suggesting that each of these unknowns can be accounted for better in terms of “intelligent design.” Let’s call that the “commentary.” Apply to that the critical reading needed to appreciate the text, and the commentary fall apart. Meyer lays bare for us the barrenness of creationism’s claims. More...
No commentsPhilosophy of evolution--new
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- Written by Shaun Johnston Shaun Johnston
- Published: March 16, 2021 March 16, 2021
- Hits: 66 66
Some things are so fundamental as to defy explanation, such as space, time, and physical matter and processes. I suggest we add to them consciousness and evolution. From this could follow an entirely new natural philosophy. More...
Review of Paul Nurse, "What is Life?"
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- Written by Shaun Johnston Shaun Johnston
- Published: March 14, 2021 March 14, 2021
- Hits: 79 79
I’m including my review of Nurse’s book among my category of “Classic” texts both because his eminence and reputation as a scientist are likely to make his book the standard popular guide to evolution, and because I want to draw attention to it as representative of the greatest scandal of modern science, that natural selection should still be talked about as a scientific theory when it better deserves to be recognized as no more than myth and magic and abandoned along with science’s other obsolete theories. More...
Basing evolution on Stoicism
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- Written by Shaun Johnston Shaun Johnston
- Published: January 30, 2021 January 30, 2021
- Hits: 155 155
Stoic physics posited the existence of a fifth element, in effect a World Spirit, that first created and now maintains the integrity of the natural world. Where skepticism and Epicurean atomism inspired today’s physical sciences, Stoicism was first embraced by biologists, its World Spirit inspiring Deism, widespread throughout the Enlightenment.
The greatest impact of these philosophies on today’s “Grand Narrative”—the meaning we give our own lives--has been through evolutionary theory. Darwinism is an application of atomism—individual living creatures are identical “atoms” distinguished by their association with other atoms, characteristics, that in each generation first get sorted at random into new combinations, those combinations then being selected for how well each supports adaptation to the environment. This sorting and selection (and genetic mutation) are purely physical processes. Success of this theory has served as a powerful endorsement of physical determinism applying universally. In support of it, theories based on Stoicism or Deism are dismissed as “Creationism,” advocacy of Christianity, despite critical differences between the two “deities” involved.
My theory of evolution might qualify as the basis for an updated Stoicism. In it genomes take the place of the Stoic fifth element. I’d welcome help evaluating this proposal. See "Are You Wonderful?"
Review of Metazoa: Animal Life and the Birth of the Mind
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- Written by Shaun Johnston Shaun Johnston
- Published: December 28, 2020 December 28, 2020
- Hits: 249 249
I’ve long wanted an authoritative but readable account of how consciousness is thought about in a biological context, to compare my own thinking to. Peter Godfrey-Smith is a professor in the School of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Sydney. His “Metazoa: Animal Life and the Birth of the Mind” is what I wanted. He is the needed combination of academic philosopher and field worker; he illustrates essays on creatures and their minds ranging from microbes to humans with accounts of scuba diving amongst such creatures. In “Metazoa” I trust I come across all the ideas common in thinking about consciousness in a biological context.
My conclusion: those ideas are absurdly inadequate to the task. If we’re confused about consciousness that’s largely because we lack concepts we need for understanding it. More...
Testing purely physical mechanisms of evolution
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- Written by Shaun Johnston Shaun Johnston
- Published: December 24, 2020 December 24, 2020
- Hits: 204 204
I see the past four centuries as having introduced us to two major scientific revolutions. However, I see the first of these revolutions, involving the physical sciences, having distracted us from exploring the second, involving how we evolved, holding us back from extracting wisdom from it. How might we get access to that wisdom? More..