Transcript Darwinian ...Evolution

Excerpts from “Evolution of a Scientist”
Newsweek, November 28, 2005

“He (Darwin) had planned to enter the
ministry, but his discoveries on a fateful
voyage 170 years ago shook his faith and
changed our conception of the origins of life.”
(p 50)

“..his life exemplifies the painful journey from
moral certainty to existential doubt that is the
defining experience of modernity.”
(p 53)
Excerpts from “Evolution of a Scientist”
Newsweek, November 28, 2005

Darwin introduced the notion of evolution:
that the lineage of living things change,
diverge, and go extinct over time, rather
than appear suddenly in immutable form as
Genesis would have it.” (p 54)

“..he suggested ..an undirected, morally
neutral process he called natural selection”
(p 55)
Excerpts from “Evolution of a Scientist”
Newsweek, November 28, 2005

“Evolution is driven by the accumulation
of many … small changes, culminating in
the emergence of an entirely new
species.” (p 55)

“There is grandeur in this view of life
…from so simple a beginning endless
forms most beautiful and most wonderful
have been, and are being, evolved.” (p 58)
Excerpts from “Evolution of a Scientist”
Newsweek, November 28, 2005

“Darwin was troubled by theodicy, the
problem of evil: how could a benevolent
and omnipotent God permit so much
suffering in the world he created?” (p 56)
Excerpts from “Evolution of a Scientist”
Newsweek, November 28, 2005

Darwin’s greater and more radical
achievement was to suggest a plausible
mechanism for evolution. To a world
taught to see the hand of God in every
part of Nature, he suggested a different
creative force altogether, an undirected,
morally neutral process he called natural
selection” (p 55)