unsupported assertion about evolution

Lyle Burkhead (LYBRHED@delphi.com)
Tue, 06 Aug 1996 14:47:17 -0500 (EST)


Nick Nicholas writes,

> My absurd assertion was to get you and James to come up
> from the depth for a real discussion of Darwinian Evolution.

I'm not sure what depth I'm supposed to come up from. Also, I'm not
sure what James has to do with this; my original statement was made to
Eric Watt Forste, and Tim Freeman replied. I don't recall that James
commented on this.

I was using the term "Darwinian" loosely. I am not at all committed to
the idea that Darwin's mechanism of natural selection is the whole
story. To get an argument on that point you should bait Dawkins, not
me.

I certainly agree that this subject is important and worth discussing at
length. But is this the right forum in which to do it? I am less and less
convinced that unstructured e-mail arguments are a productive use of
anybody's time.

I am going to open an on-line university. The curriculum will be quite
different from any existing university. The concept of causality will be
explored from many angles. The origin of species will be one of our
main concerns. The discussion will be structured in such a way as to
avoid pointless semantic arguments, flameouts, and other unpleasant
phenomena of e-mail lists. Stay tuned.

Lyle