Comments on: Public Darwin myths slammed by science historian

By: jerry

jerry — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 02:57:16 +0000

Thank you. I just noticed this.

By: j

Tue, 20 Mar 2007 11:00:14 +0000

How about

The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin, Morse Peckham. (“The purpose of this book is to present in systematic order the many variations in the text of the six editions of The Origin of Species”)

“The six editions of the ‘Origin of Species’. A comparative study,” Helen P. Liepman

By: jerry

jerry — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 01:18:31 +0000

Do you know where any of those comparative studies are?

By: j

Tue, 20 Mar 2007 01:02:47 +0000

jerry: “Just what did [Darwin] change over time? Anything major?”

A couple of critical changes:

Darwin stopped referring to variations as “accidental” after the first edition:

Further we must suppose that there is a power always intently watching each slight accidental alteration…and carefully selecting each alteration which…

And, of course, after the first edition he added the words I have put in bold:

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…

Oops.

Comparative studies of the various editions of the OOS have definitely been done.

By: chance

chance — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 02:27:34 +0000

I suppose the opening sentences dramatise the events surrounding the release of origin of species, but the interpretation is somewhat justified, if the population at large believed they we descended from Adam and Eve, and not an ape ancestor!
Perhaps the views express is correct? What would be a good way to confirm?

By: jerry

jerry — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 01:36:34 +0000

Mats,

I think if we limited it to the main players such as Darwin and Dawkins or other like Mayr and what might be in textbooks then it might be doable and constructive.

Maybe we could have a contest here for favorite “just so” stories.

By: Mats

Mats — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 23:08:13 +0000

Jerry,
That list will be massive, since evolutionary religionists are very imaginative.

By: jerry

jerry — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 01:00:14 +0000

BarryA,

That is a great “just so”story. Someone should make a list of all the just so stories. I am just starting to listen to the “Origin of Species” so maybe I will start making a list.

One thing that never seemed to bother anyone including Darwin is the lack of any current “just so” sequences in nature. They all conveniently happened in the past and left no evidence. Could you imagine the gloating if just one existed in today’s world.

By: Collin

Collin — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 22:30:26 +0000

Denyse,
I was trying to leave a comment on your Mindful Hack site but my computer ignorance conflicted with the complexity of the login process. Are you using a different strategy for comments in that site than in this one? Thanks.

By: BarryA

BarryA — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 22:21:54 +0000

Jerry, the following just so story appeared in the first edition of Origins and was dropped later:

“In North America the black bear was seen . . . swimming for hours with widely open mouth, thus catching, like a whale, insects in the water. Even in so extreme a case as this, if the supply of insects were constant, and if better adapted competitors did not already exist in the country, I can see no difficulty in a race of bears being rendered . . . more and more aquatic in their structure and habits, with larger and larger mouths, till a creature was produced as monstrous as a whale.