Re: Evolve/Create (posted for J. Lipps)

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Date: Thu, 16 Nov 1995 17:04:01 -0700
To: paleonet-owner@nhm.ac.uk
From: jlipps@ucmp1.Berkeley.EDU (Jere H. Lipps)
Subject: Re: Evolve/Create (posted for D. Way)
Status: O


>>
>>
>If believing in a god will give a person meaning to his or her life why
>shouldn't that belief be pursued.  I am not saying by this to not teach
>evolution, but from after the initial formation of the universe.  At that
>point we do not know what happend and it would be arogant to think that we
>did.  Many people need a god to give what they can't find and to
>teach that away by insisting belief in God is unintelligent is taking your
>knowledge for granted.  I myself do not believe in a god or creation this is
>my personal feeling about the subject and I would not force my view onto
>others.  I would however argue for evolution purely because of the evidence
>of it.  "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence"  - but it surely is
>not evidence of it.  I don't believe I am speaking unintelligently, just
>rationally.
>
>DAVID WAY

David:

You and others on PaleoNet might find the recent book by Daniel C. Dennett,
"Darwin's Dangerous Idea:  Evolution and the meanings of life" (Simon &
Shuster, 1995) to present some philosophically and scientifically
convincing reasons why religeous belief systems fail in explaining the
universe, earth or life, and why natural systems, even with our limited
knowledge of them, will suffice.  Too interesting for me to dilute his
discussion by paraphrasing his great book.  I recommend it highly for
scientists and philosophers but note that it, as he himself points out,
will not convince anyone with a strongly-held religeous or other belief
system that accounts for the universe some other way.  (Sorry, Roy and
others, but I think I am within the bounds of continuing this discussion in
providing useful information to deal with the issue, as you hoped, rather
than cluttering the listserver with no-win belief/emotional arguments).


Jere H. Lipps, Professor and Director
Department of Integrative Biology and
Museum of Paleontology
University of California
Berkeley, California 94720 USA

Voice:  510-642-9006.  Fax:  510-642-1822.
Internet:  jlipps@ucmp1.berkeley.edu