[Buddha-l] Darwin's 200th centennial

Erik Hoogcarspel jehms at xs4all.nl
Sun Feb 15 10:07:32 MST 2009


Jim Peavler schreef:
> Precursors of Darwin are, I think, non-existent since Darwinism  
> consists of the idea that speciation is caused by natural selection.  
> The idea that living things might "evolve" out of earlier forms can be  
> mildly suggested by lots and lots of precursors, but until they are  
> verified by tons and tons of individual facts (which Darwin provides)  
> don't mean much. Hell, it would be possible to make a case that the  
> very idea of kharma is a precursor of evolution because of the notion  
> of all effects grow out of causes. It is probably easier to defend  
> kharma from the Intelligent Design people than it is to defend  
> evolution because it is not possible to just create something out of  
> nothing.
>
>
> You can be discovered to have presursed damn near anything in either  
> myth or prophecy.
>
>
>   
May I add that a myth is not a scientific theory, so the word 
'precursor'is used in a very lose sense. Myths have no cognitive claims. 
All that can be said is that the myth just symbolises the view that man 
has a zoological as well as a divine nature.
>   
>> On another list, someone just claimed that "Darwin was
>> prescientifically
>> 'preceded' in the Tibetan mythology, where mankind has origin in
>> monkeys."
>>
>> Anybody know about this intriguing bit?
>>
>>     
Erik

Info: www.xs4all.nl/~jehms  
Weblog: http://www.volkskrantblog.nl/pub/blogs/blog.php?uid=2950 
Productie: http://www.olivepress.nl







More information about the buddha-l mailing list