Why beetles mate with beer bottles: evolution and perception
Joshua McNail
Joshua McNail
Quote:To simplify, Hoffman is saying that evolution doesn’t care whether your brain accurately perceives reality. Evolution only cares if you pass on your DNA by feeding, fleeing, fighting and reproducing. If this means distorting your perceptions, so be it.
Quote:As Hoffman, argues: Natural selection gave the beetle a “hack” to be successful in passing on its DNA: Good mates are dimpled, brown, and shiny—the bigger the better. And this worked for thousands of years. Until it didn’t.
So does evolution actually favor the accurate perception of reality? Hoffman, along with many other evolutionists, say “No.”
But what does this have to do with Richard Dawkins?
Enter Alvin Plantinga...
'Historically, we may regard materialism as a system of dogma set up to combat orthodox dogma...Accordingly we find that, as ancient orthodoxies disintegrate, materialism more and more gives way to scepticism.'
- Bertrand Russell
- Bertrand Russell