Darwin

Origin of Species, Descent of Man

• Summary of Darwin's reasoning (write before class)
• Discussion
  • true points?
  • problems?
    • natura non facit saltum (counterexamples?)
  • assumptions?
  • species problem
  • opinions for and against from apostles
  • false dichotomy?
  • intelligent design
  • what is applicable from Genesis?
  • importance to Humanist worldview
  • DNA
• Write reaction to Darwin and discussion

Observed Instances of Speciation includes a discussion of various definitions of "species".

From Wikipedia:

For a theory to qualify as scientific, it is expected to be:

• Consistent (does not lead to conflicting conclusions)
• Parsimonious (sparing in its proposed entities or explanations, see Occam's Razor)
• Useful (describes and explains observed phenomena, and can be used predictively)
• Empirically testable and falsifiable (see Falsifiability)
• Based on multiple observations, often in the form of controlled, repeated experiments
• Correctable and dynamic (modified in the light of observations that do not support it)
• Progressive (refines previous theories)
• Provisional or tentative (is open to experimental checking, and does not assert certainty)

Connected Quotations

"Here let me state to all philosophers of every class upon the earth, when you tell me that Father Adam was made as we make adobes from the earth, you tell me what I deem an idle tale.  When you tell me that the beast of the field were produced in that manner, you are speaking idle words devoid of meaning.  There is no such thing in all the eternities where the Gods dwell.  Mankind are here because they are the offspring of parents who were first brought here from another planet, and power was given them to propagate their species, and they were commanded to multiply and replenish the earth." (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 7:285)

"He [Adam] was the person who brought the animals and the seeds from other planets to this world.... You may read and believe what you please as to what is found written in the Bible. Adam was made from the dust of an earth, but not from the dust of this earth." (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 3:319)

Evolution and Mormonism: A Quest for Understanding

Summary of Official Church Statements on evolution and the origin of man

1909 First Presidency Statement "The Origin of Man"

Louis Agassiz, "Evolution and Permanence of Type"

Charles Darwin, "The Descent of Man", chapter 21 (summary)

• similarities of forms, especially in embryos
• higher intelligence, language
• moral qualities, love, sympathy
• belief in God

Scriptures

Isaiah 55:9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Moses 1:37-38 And the Lord God spake unto Moses, saying: The heavens, they are many, and they cannot be numbered unto man; but they are numbered unto me, for they are mine. And as one earth shall pass away, and the heavens thereof even so shall another come; and there is no end to my works, neither to my words.

2 Peter 3:8 "one day is with the Lord as a thousand years"
Abr 3:4 "one revolution was a day unto the Lord, after his manner of reckoning, it being one thousand years according to the time appointed unto that whereon thou standest."

Summary

Require 1-6, 10, 15

1. Variation under domestication.  Examines the power of (un)natural selection as exercised by man on domesticated species.  (intelligent design?)  Varieties tend to revert to parent form when intercrossed, but become more and more distinct when kept separated.

2. Variation under nature.  How the same principles apply to natural selection, but require much longer time periods. Evidence.

3. Struggle for existence.  How natural selection works.  Large number of offspring always compete to survive.  The fittest pass on their characteristics and advantages.

4. Natural selection, or the survival of the fittest. Specialization a measure of high degree of evolution.

5. Laws of Variation. Non-survival characteristics are free to vary more, and become more important for identification.

6. Difficulties in the theory.  Advises "extreme caution" in believing anything could disprove evolution.

"natura non facit saltum" Nature does not make jumps, meaning great leaps of evolution.

"Natural selection can produce nothing in one species for the exclusive good or injury of another."

7. Miscellaneous objections.  Responses to other writers objections.

8. Instinct.  How instinct may also evolve.  (no attempt to define exactly what it is)

9. Hybridism.  Decreased fertility among hibrids.  No essential distinction between species and varieties. (compare with planting seeds from hybrid tomatoes.)

10. Imperfection of the Geological Record.  A slow progression evolution with fine gradations of intermediate species is not found in the geological records (fossils).  This is because conditions for fossillizing sediments are relatively rare with great gaps between beds, so that is no counter-arguement.  BUT, there does not seem to be enough time since the consolidation of the crust for such various species to have evolved (based on the small amount of organic change since the ice age).

11. On the Geological Succession of Organic Beings.  Evidence from the geologic record for evolution. (boring)

12. Geographical Distribution.  Single or Multiple centers of creation? How identical species can appear in widely separated areas.

13. Geographical Distribution continued.  Explaining how the same species can be distributed on widely separated lands or seas.

14. Mutual Affinities of Organic Beings.  Evidence of descent from a common anscestor from homologous similarities in very different genera.  Embryonic stage more important for determining descent of organisms.

Remember, there is a glossary at the end!