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An interesting note - in the first edition, there is no mention of "a
creator," the sentence simply appears "...having been originally breathed
into a few forms or into one..."

Many changes were made in subsequent editions to appease the critics. Sad.

You can get a cheap copy of the first edition on Amazon - it is a facsimile
production by Ernst Mayr. Very worthwhile to have.

Amanda


***
Amanda Chesworth, Educational Director
Committee for the Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal
www.csicop.org
Skeptical Inquirer Magazine
www.skepticalinquirer.org



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ian Russell" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, June 02, 2005 11:25 AM
Subject: Re: Smithsonian to Co-Sponsor a movie that promotes Intelligent
Design


> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related
institutions.
>
****************************************************************************
*
>
> At 15:09 02/06/2005, Martin Weiss wrote:
> >As far as I am aware Darwin said little if anything about the origin of
> >life on Earth.
>
> My copy of The Origin of Species is the 6th edition, 1872. In the
> concluding sentence Darwin writes,
>
> "There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having
> been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one; and
> that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of
> gravity, from so simple a beginning, endless forms most beautiful and most
> wonderful have been, and are being evolved."
>
> I can imagine how slowly and carefully Darwin penned these words. This is
a
> feeble kind of deist apologetics, but it is important to acknowledge that
> he wrote it.
>
> This is exactly the same, shrinking, deist view of god underlying the
> various species of militant creationism: a god who can only inhabit the
> gaps in scientific knowledge. Which is why the gaps are being defended so
> fiercely.
>
>
> [log in to unmask] * http://www.interactives.co.uk
> *
> Give people facts and you feed their minds for an hour.
> Awaken curiosity and they feed their own minds for a lifetime.
> *
> Ian Russell
>
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