More Critics of Darwin

What Darwin Got Wrong: Intelligent Design Proponents Welcome Fodor and Piattelli-Palmarini to the Growing Ranks of Darwin's Critics [Excerpts]

Jerry Fodor and Massimo Piatelli-Palmarini are arrving late to the Darwin doubting party, but are welcome attendees none the less. Below are some welcoming remarks from leading scientific voices in the intelligent design community.

We just received a review copy of "What Darwin Got Wrong," the new book attacking Darwinian evolution by Jerry Fodor and massimo Piatelli-Palmarini, two thorougly materalistic scientists. Why does that matter? Because typically materialists have been the most ardent defenders of Darwin's theory of natural selection. With the publication of this book, that is likely to change.

For those of you wondering what this is all about let me back up to 2007 when Fodor published his first piece of heresy in the London Review of Books, "Why Pigs Don't Have Wings." "That article led to Stanley Salthe, another materialist scientist who doubts Darwrinian evolution (and has signed the Dissent From Darwin statement to boot), to convene an e-mail discussion group that became what is now known as the Altenberg 16.

Science writer Susan Mazur reported on that meeting, and later wrote an entire book about the 16 scientists who were basically affirming what we'd been saying here at ENV for years -- Darwinian evolution is dead. She wrote:

“What it amounts to is a gathering of 16 biologists and philosophers of rock star stature – let's call them ‘the Altenberg 16’ – who recognize that the theory of evolution which most practicing biologists accept and which is taught in classrooms today, is inadequate in explaining our existence. It's pre the discovery of DNA, lacks a theory for body form and does not accommodate 'other' new phenomena.”

She also reported what Fodor had experienced after going public with his initial doubts about Darwin.

“When I called Fodor to discuss his article, he joked that he was now in the Witness Protection Program because he'd been so besieged following the LRB piece. ... Fodor also told me that ‘you can't put this stuff in the press because it's an attack on the theory of natural selection’ and besides ‘99.99% of the population have no idea what the theory of natural selection is’.”

To his credit, he has stuck with his position, and has taken it to the next level by publishing "What Darwin Got Wrong."

http://www.evolutionnews.org/2010/02/what_darwin_got_wrong_intellig.html