

February 2008 Weather Outlook
Introduction to the Weather Alternative
How Long-Range Forecasts Are Made
When Darwin wrote The Origin of Species, he could offer no good cases of natural selection because no one had looked for them. He drew instead an analogy with the artificial selection that animal and plant breeders use to improve domesticated varieties of animals and plants. By breeding only from the woolliest sheep, the most fertile chickens, and so on, breeders have been spectacularly successful in altering almost every imaginable characteristic of our domesticated animals and plants to the point where most of them differ from their wild ancestors far more than related species differ from them.
The analogy to artificial selection is misleading. Plant and animal breeders employ intelligence and specialized knowledge to select breeding stock and to protect their charges from natural dangers. The point of Darwin's theory, however, was to establish that purposeless natural processes can substitute for intelligent design. That he made that point by citing the accomplishments of intelligent designers proves only that the receptive audience for his theory was highly uncritical.
Darwin on Trial by Phillip E. Johnson
1 comment:
I was too preoccupied with the start of a heavy cold on Saturday the 9th, to think about the astrology of the rapid invasion of heavy cold outside -- but I was certainly impressed. Between late morning and early evening of the 9th here in Minneapolis, the temperature dropped 25 degrees F! And the wind really kicked up behind the storm front, blowing the new snow off the lakes onto nearby streets. Outside the metro area, going anywhere was very risky. A number of main routes were shut down.
I was a bit surprised, since I've long noted the coincidence of cold waves with full moons in the winter. But this was a few days after a new moon eclipse. Maybe the full moon will bring another shot of the arctic.
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