Darwin Unhinged: The Bugs in Evolution

Larry Moran's take? His Sandwalk blog comes up every time I google anything to do with evolution and, from what I can see, it is just another angry rant similar to Coyne's "Why Evolution is True". It is crammed with pejoratives, character assassinations and assertions of faith.

Yes, he tends to go over the top a bit. But he has good insights into why some arguments are incorerct. He blasts other biologists at least as often as IDers.

I downloaded the list and am looking at it now - pages and pages of scientists who are PhDs and Professors, many of whom are biologists or in related fields (Bio-engineering, Microbiology, Biophysics, etc.).

Oh yes, I'm sure there are some biologists on that list. Anyway, "careful examination of the evidence for Darwinian theory" should definitely be encouraged. And that's what evolutionary biologists do every day. (An interesting question: How many of the biologists on that list understand evolution?)

I mean, really, when this subject comes up in public debate we are assured that no reputable scientist doubts evolution (which is a distortion of what they really mean which is neo-darwinism). Very few - if any - ID proponents doubt evolution but they do doubt the neo-darwinist mechanisms. So labelling them as creationists (as Moran, Coyne and others insist on doing) is a blatant attempt to lump ID with Young Earth Creationism (Moran is also fond of the pejorative term, IDiots).

You can't doubt evolution since we see it happen. But why wouldn't we group YECs and IDers together? Both are talking about some form of intelligence intervening in evolution. Granted, some YECs may try to claim that evolution doesn't happen at all. I agree that various kinds of arguments are made by these folks, some more reasonable than others. Lumping everyone into one overarching category is wrong.

~~ Paul