Elliott Sober Quotes About Evolutionary Biology
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"Tiger is a natural kind" and "Tiger is a historical particular" are incompatible with each other, and evolutionary biology provides a reason for favoring the latter over the former.
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This is not to deny that there are versions of theism that do conflict with evolutionary biology. Young Earth Creationism is an example; it claims that God created life on earth within the past 10,000 to 50,000 years. But other types of theism are different.
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I disagree with those who argue that evolutionary biology and the existence of God are incompatible.
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The big picture, I think, is that common ancestry is evidentially prior to natural selection in Darwin's theory and in contemporary evolutionary biology as well.
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I don't endorse deism or interventionist theism. My point is just that evolutionary biology is logically compatible with the former and with some versions of the latter.
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"Methodological naturalism" and "metaphysical naturalism" are terms that often surface in the continuing battle between evolutionary biology and creationism/intelligent design. The methodological thesis says that scientific theories shouldn't postulate supernatural entities; the metaphysical thesis says that no such entities exist. In this debate, God is the supernatural entity at issue; the question isn't whether science gets to talk about mathematical entities if Platonism is correct.
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Related Authors
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Michael Ghiselin Evolutionary Biologist -
Richard Lewontin Evolutionary Biologist -
Ernst Mayr Biologist -
John Maynard Smith Geneticist -
Jerry Fodor Philosopher -
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Michael Ruse Philosopher -
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Bas van Fraassen Philosopher -
Hans Reichenbach Philosopher -
E. O. Wilson Biologist -
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David Sloan Wilson Professor