It's been a while since I posted a link to the Evolutionary Evangelism forum that is sometimes found under the label of "Nobel Intent" at Ars Technica, but here's one that discusses a topic that should be hard: Altruism and Evolution.
Do they do enough handwaving to convince you?
Are they sufficiently openminded and tolerant in the ensuing debate?
Judge for yourself and let me know what you think. :^)
3 comments:
Let's just say that I'm still astounded that Thomas Huxley was able to carry the day vs. Owen when he discussed this very kind of thing, and even more that his book on how Darwinism could be compatible with morality was taken even half seriously.
Whoosh!
Look it up on wikipedia. Evidently Huxley, "Darwin's Bulldog" because of his promotion of evolution, was compelled by public opinion to write tome defending the idea that a random world could be moral. More or less, he was called upon to refute Pascal's (?) thesis that a world without God would quickly fall into immorality, not fearing judgment.
He also debated Richard (?) Owen about the physical marks differentiating men from apes.
What's really interesting; people today debating the same issues tend to ignore the fact that this book and this debate ever occurred, as if these questions were not important.
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