Aaargh! I can't get it from where I am! Would somebody be able to buy me a copy please? Obviously I'll pay for the postage and newspaper and send my address via PM. My home address is in Scotland. I'd really like to read this as evolution isn't something I know much about atm. Perhaps if anyone does get a copy they can post here to confirm so that others don't do the same. Many thanks in advance.
ORIGIN OF SPECIES FREE IN SATURAY'S GUARDIAN
by badboy 13 Replies latest jw friends
-
-
Awakened07
Darwin plagurised the 'evolution' idea from the ancient egyptians and possibly other ancient mythological beliefs who believed that the human race had evolved from plants.
-Way to give rabid creationists reason to say the theory of evolution comes from pagan religions (and therefore Satan)... You make it sound like Darwin read a book on ancient beliefs and decided "Wow - this sounds cool; I think I'll elaborate a bit and put my name on it".
Darwin was not alone in thinking along the lines of evolution. Wallace almost beat him to it, but since Darwin had more research and a more fully formed theory, Wallace agreed that Darwin should publish his work instead. Darwin's work is chock full of examples of artificial selection (mankind breeding plants and animals to keep desired traits and remove unwanted traits) and natural selection (especially perhaps the famous Galapagos finches). Added to that came the fossil record (although spotty at the time). People (naturalists) were beginning to realize that instant creation of each 'kind' did not add up; not only Charles Darwin. Even Darwin's grandfather, Erasmus Darwin, who believed in a creator or First Cause, wrote about evolution in some detail. Charles Darwin came up with the mechanism natural selection though. Several others, like Lamarck, had had differing hypothesis about evolution that have since been abandoned.
So evolution was not like a bolt of lightening from a clear sky suddenly hitting Charles Darwin's head, but at the same time I think it would be very simplistic (and wrong) to say that he plagiarized the idea from ancient religions, who instead of serious scientific judgment as a base for their ideas probably had more of a "point-and-guess" approach. If one really wants to, one can contort and twist the Genesis story to say that it is actually a story of evolution too. I think an equal amount of twisting would be necessary of the other ancient stories (like Norse mythology), to come to the conclusion that Darwin plagiarized them when he came up with his theory of evolution through natural selection.
-
Gill
Awakened - As much as I take and agree with your point, I was not saying that the ancient scientists were not as intelligent or advanced as the scientists we have now and that as over hundreds and hundreds of thousands of years the human race as fallen and risen so have changes occured in how we 'explain' our origins and yet evolution remains a constant even from the distant mythologies that have survived.
I did not mean that evolution is pagan just that the way that the message is carried may be stories as writings do not survive only oral traditions.
-
serotonin_wraith
I got my copy! (2nd shop I went to)
Trivia:
By the way, we are related to plants too.
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=000DA09B-65AF-1C72-9EB7809EC588F2D7&page=2
It took more than two billion years for this earliest form of life to evolve into the first eukaryotic cell. This gave rise to the last common ancestor of plants, fungi and animals, which lived some 1.6 billion years ago.