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Thank you, Charles, for a beautiful summary.
I, like many others, I'm sure, have been following this discussion
with great interest. My husband and I really appreciated your
personal summary and agree with it... except maybe for the use of the
words "most perfected". Perhaps we would say "best"... but that's
being picky.
Thanks for a clear, soul searching statement!
Laddie Elwell
Headwaters Science Center
Bemidji, MN
On Feb 12, 2011, at 10:33 AM, Charlie Carlson wrote:
> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology
> Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related
> institutions.
> **********************************************************************
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>
> It has been a great debate and lament. The observation I would
> make is as follows:
>
> The secret of the Origin of Species was the fact that it wasn't
> shrouded in mystery, that the evidence is first-hand with the
> pigeon next door, or the farmer down the street, with the pet in
> your living room. And these very same features and characteristics
> repeated in fossil record and in life generally as observed then
> and now: over and over, again and again from generation to
> generation. Darwin further observed that the selection was
> ruthlessly and statistical in nature. That life's physical changes
> were infinitesimally small and subtle but that over generations:
> generation after generation ad infinitum. That they accumulated to
> myriad forms.
>
> This insight on the prosaic nature of life runs counter the select
> and chosen one typically proclaimed in religious faiths that
> provide the story of our existence, but parallel with our positions
> after 3.5 billion years, because observing life now in all its
> complexity is beyond human comprehension and imagination, and we
> are intimately intertwined in its very nature. Every single species
> that exists today represents the end product of mutation, time,
> generation time and selection, just as every single species that
> existed prior was the most perfected of that time and generation on
> average.
>
> People share knowledge through stories, people seek advantage
> (access to resources and power) through knowledge, and science is
> essentially about accurate knowledge and ultimately advantage.
> Evolution needs to be perceived as a knowledge-filled advantage and
> the story will change.
>
> The opinions and thoughts expressed here are my own and should in
> no way be construed or attributed to the Exploratorium or related
> organization, and do not represent an institutional position.
>
> Charles Carlson
> Senior Scientist
> exploratorium
> 3601 Lyon St.
> San Francisco, CA 94123
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> Tel: 415-561-0319
> Fax: 415-561-0370
>
> Skype: sciskypecharlie
> MobileMe: [log in to unmask]
> Twitter: charliec53
>
>
>
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>
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