The definition of Darwinism is: |
The following terms (pages?) need consolidation to remove redundancy and straighten out essential distinctions: Darwinism, [Darwinian evolution]?, "the" theory of evolution, evolution. --Ed Poor The definition of Darwinism was (until LDC changed it): |
:: Okay, so is Darwinism the theory that speciation is caused only by natural processes such as radiation mutating the genes and NOT by God? This would make his theory just as scientific as a Big Banger saying the universe was created by some force other than God. Both ideas seem a bit philosophical to me, but maybe I'm getting confused by not knowing the meanings of the various words. Anyway, I'm trying not to trash the articles and keeping (most of) my quibbles in the Talk sections. How am I doing? :-) --Ed Poor |
:It wasn't my definition, I just found it there and quoted it here. --Ed Poor :Perhaps a NPOV definition of Darwinism would simply be "the theory of evolution espoused by Darwin." I don't mean anything sinister about it, but if the suffix "-ism" somehow seems derogatory maybe it's not a useful word. Marxism, on the other hand, seems to denote a particular flavor of communist thought. Hmm. --Ed Poor |
The following terms (pages?) need consolidation to remove redundancy and straighten out essential distinctions: Darwinism, [Darwinian evolution]?, "the" theory of evolution, evolution. --Ed Poor
This definition (a) does not say where the variations come from but (b) implies that natural selection *causes* the variations.
I thought that natural selection just determines which variations persist.
So a better definition would be:
--Ed Poor
Evolution occurs through (a) an unknown cause making new species and (b) the weeding out process (natural selection).
My question is the identity of the unknown cause. Is it background radiation, such as cosmic rays, causing random mutation? Could it be God?
Is it any more scientific to say it's not God than that it is God?
Maybe God put gravity on automatic, so to speak. If God exists and God created gravity, He might not be performing a miracle everytime something heavy falls to the ground.
But maybe God created each species of life miraculously. It apparently took millions of years, and He might not have found it boring to tweak His design from time to time and see what came of it.
I think natural selection is an excellent hypothesis and entitled to be called a scientific theory. I'm not sure it's a law like F=MA quite yet.
As I've seen the term used, "Darwinism" most often refers to any Darwinian process, biological or otherwise. I'm removing your definition and placing it here, because I really don't think it reflects actual usage of the word except maybe among creationists, and such a parochial definition of a term used for rhetoric has no place in a general-audience encyclopedia. --LDC