Uncommon Descent Serving The Intelligent Design Community

Coffee!! Marxists celebrate Darwin, denounce design – and line up all afternoon for sausages, unless they are Party members, in which case …

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Oh, wait. The Marxists who sponsor this site probably live in an oppressive capitalist state where one can just go buy sausages on the way home from work. Beef, pork, turkey, veggie, stuff I couldn’t even name …

Anyhow, in this year of all years when tax burdens celebrate Darwin, Marxists pile in. A friend points me to this:

November marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of Origin of Species by Charles Darwin. This book revolutionised thinking about the living world because for the first time it provided an explanation for the evolution of species, something that was long suspected by scientists. Darwin’s simple idea  change by natural selection  is arguably the single most important foundation-stone upon which all modern biology is based. The Origin of Species was a triumph of the materialist world outlook, even if Darwin himself didn’t quite put it that way, and for that reason its publication was celebrated by Marx and Engels.

For the first time, Darwin gave a coherent and consistent explanation for evolution. Moreover, it was based on chance and random developments in the natural environment and not in the slightest on any cosmic purpose. There was no place in Origin, in other words, for God.

– John Pickard, “Darwin’s Science vs ‘Intelligent Design'” (24 November 2009)

If I were invited to one of their Marxfests, I would auction off bricks from the Berlin Wall.

Proceeds to “open society” causes only, not to Marxism.

Here is a vid of happy Marxist citizens of East Germany voting – with their feet:

Comments
One of the greatest services rendered by my father to the study of Natural History is the revival of Teleology. - Francis Darwin
Mung
December 19, 2009
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O'Leary # 2: Darwin not only lead Asa Gray on that particular point, but had a "third party strategy". See John Angus Campbell's ""The Invisible Rhetorician: Charles Darwin's Third-party Strategy." Rhetorica 7 (1989): 55-85 Abstract Our traditional picture of Darwin downplays his active role in the public controversy around the "Origin of Species". The present essay argues that Darwin was the chief architect of his book's public defense. The keystone of Darwin's strategy was to be defended by others and not to appear actively involved in the public debate. Examination of unpublished and published Darwin letters reveals five facets to Darwin's "third party strategy": 1) The soliciting of public endorsements from established scientists, 2) The promotion of a religious argument reconciling natural selection and design in which Darwin did not believe, 3) The financing of favorable books, pamphlets and translations, 4) The recruiting of younger scientists and the promotion of their work and careers, and 5) Balancing the benefits of Thomas Henry Huxley's polemical skills against the drawbacks of Huxley's attacks on religion. The conclusion explores implications of the third party strategy for understanding Darwin's evolution from scientist to rhetorician and the ethical tension inherent in his dual commitment to persuasion and to truth. http://www.jstor.org/pss/20135203 Darwin used Gray and others to promote his ideas.Enezio E. De Almeida Filho
December 16, 2009
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I should prefer the part or volume not to be dedicated to me (although I thank you for the intended honour), as that would, in a certain extent, suggest my approval of the whole work, with which I am not acquainted. Although I am a keen advocate of freedom of opinion in all questions, it seems to me (rightly or wrongly) that direct arguments against Christianity and Theism hardly have any effect on the public; and that freedom of thought will best be promoted by that gradual enlightening of human understanding which follows the progress of science. I have therefore always avoided writing about religion and have confined myself to science. Possibly I have been too strongly influenced by the thought of the concern it might cause some members of my family, if in any way I lent my support to direct attacks on religion. ~ Darwin's letter to Edward Aveling (Son-in-Law of Karl Marx) October 13, 1880bevets
December 16, 2009
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Mung, Darwin was leading Asa Gray on here. Dawin was a slippery character, as even his sympathetic biographers have admitted. Today's Darwinists have his own views right (= no purpose whatever). The evidence from his private papers is prettty conclusive on this point. I regularly get mail from certain types of "theistic" evolutionists quoting the slippery remarks Darwin made in public, apparently unaware that anyone who wants to know the facts can now learn them. Much different from the days when students were forced to sit and listen to "facts" forced on the school board by Darwin lobbies.O'Leary
December 16, 2009
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Asa Gray:
We recognize the great service rendered by Darwin to natural science by restoring teleology to it, so that instead of having morphology against teleology, we shall have henceforth morphology married to teleology.
Charles Darwin:
What you say about teleology pleases me especially, and I do not think anyone else has ever noticed the point. I have always said that you were the man to hit the nail on the head.
Mung
December 15, 2009
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