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Commentary Thread: Cerebrum123 & Leonhard regarding Charles Darwin

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  • shunyadragon
    replied
    Originally posted by Teallaura View Post
    Um, so what, SP? If the Muslims had succeeded in conquering Europe there probably wouldn't be a ToE anyway. So? Neither has anything to do with reality (a good thing in the latter case).
    I do not believe this is a valid assumption. Both Christianity and Islam in history before Charles Darwin and Wallace did not believe in evolution.

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  • shunyadragon
    replied
    Wallace and Charles Darwin are credited with first coming up with the science of evolution. eugenics has been with humanity for all of the known history of humanity. The question is; 'What is the relationship between eugenics and the science of evolution today?'

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  • rogue06
    replied
    Originally posted by square_peg View Post
    As I've pointed out before, Alfred Russel Wallace conceived of the theory of evolution independently of Darwin, and would probably be the name most commonly attached to it if he'd more aggressively promoted his findings. And Wallace explicitly condemned eugenics. So in an alternative timeline in which Darwin's ship sank while sailing to the Galapagos, the founder of evolutionary theory would be known for his anti-eugenic stance, and the debate thread wouldn't even exist.
    Probably a much more important question is even if an unquestionable link from eugenics to evolution and Darwin could be established does it in any way invalidate evolution? Does it somehow make evolutionary theory incorrect?

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  • rogue06
    replied
    Originally posted by Darth Executor View Post
    This is false. Just because the creator of a theory doesn't realise its implications doesn't mean those implications don't exist.
    That is true. I'm sure that Mendel never anticipated that his work on genetics would inspire so many of the most notorious eugenicists -- far more so than Darwin did (eugenics was reaching its peak toward the end of a period known as the "Eclipse of Darwinism").

    I'm sure that Pasteur and Koch never foresaw that Germ Theory would be cited by the Nazis as the scientific justification for things like the Holocaust.

    And I doubt that Newton ever predicted that his gravitational theories would be a cornerstone of modern ballistics resulting in millions of future deaths from firearms, artillery, rockets and missiles.

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  • Darth Executor
    replied
    Originally posted by square_peg View Post
    So Cerebrum's complaints about eugenics being intrinsic to the theory are wrong as well as irrelevant.
    This is false. Just because the creator of a theory doesn't realise its implications doesn't mean those implications don't exist.

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  • KingsGambit
    replied
    Originally posted by Teallaura View Post
    If the Muslims had succeeded in conquering Europe there probably wouldn't be a ToE anyway.
    This assumes that all Muslim nations would be as universally hostile to research and progress as those are today. Culturally, most Muslim nations certainly are today but if the religion was more widespread I don't see a reason to definitively think this would be the case universally. Muslims did make a number of important scientific advances earlier in history, so who knows?

    But personally, I'm just glad it's all a moot point; that they did not succeed in conquering Europe.

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  • Teallaura
    replied
    Originally posted by square_peg View Post
    So Cerebrum's complaints about eugenics being intrinsic to the theory are wrong as well as irrelevant.
    Er, no, that doesn't follow. the thread wouldn't exist because it's specific to Darwin and eugenics. That isn't at all the same thing as proving that the ToE doesn't ground the philosophy of eugenics which would be a specious claim.
    Originally posted by SP
    I'm confident that their scientists would've conceived of and discovered it eventually. Logic and science would've eventually revealed it.
    You don't know your history or current events very well. It's surprisingly difficult for science to advance when scientists have very real fears of being killed for their theories. Promoting a theory that calls the existence of God into question (which really ToE doesn't do - it's a fallacy to assume that knowing the mechanics precludes a Mechanic) is a really, really good way to end up very quickly dead in many Muslim nations - hence you don't see any Nobel laureates from Saudi Arabia for their work in evolutionary fields.

    And logic would have done no such thing. ToE is based on observational science - logic doesn't get you raw data. I suspect you are confusing logic with reason here - they aren't always interchangeable. Even so, reason would be on its own - few people wish to commit suicide over bird beaks.

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  • fm93
    replied
    Originally posted by Teallaura View Post
    Um, so what, SP?
    So Cerebrum's complaints about eugenics being intrinsic to the theory are wrong as well as irrelevant.

    If the Muslims had succeeded in conquering Europe there probably wouldn't be a ToE anyway.
    I'm confident that their scientists would've conceived of and discovered it eventually. Logic and science would've eventually revealed it.

    Leave a comment:


  • Teallaura
    replied
    Um, so what, SP? If the Muslims had succeeded in conquering Europe there probably wouldn't be a ToE anyway. So? Neither has anything to do with reality (a good thing in the latter case).

    Leave a comment:


  • fm93
    replied
    As I've pointed out before, Alfred Russel Wallace conceived of the theory of evolution independently of Darwin, and would probably be the name most commonly attached to it if he'd more aggressively promoted his findings. And Wallace explicitly condemned eugenics. So in an alternative timeline in which Darwin's ship sank while sailing to the Galapagos, the founder of evolutionary theory would be known for his anti-eugenic stance, and the debate thread wouldn't even exist.

    Leave a comment:


  • Commentary Thread: Cerebrum123 & Leonhard regarding Charles Darwin

    This is the place for those who want to remark on the posts made in the debate thread between Cerebrum123 and Leonhard regarding Charles Darwin.
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