There's a piece in Quillette about the problems with straight Darwinian evolution. It seems that, based on the assumptions of "random mutation and natural selection" as a complete explanation of the evolution of living things, supposed events like the Cambrian Explosion, when tons of new species evolved in a few million years, could not have happened. But if simple Darwinian evolution doesn't explain the Cambrian Explosion -- or the relatively rapid development of any new species -- then there is a problem.
Now I read that there the a problem in cosmology. Back in the day scientists used "the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) -- the microwave radiation leftover from the first moments after the Big Bang" -- to compute the Hubble Constant, the measure of the rate of the expansion of the universe. But more recently scientists started computing the Hubble Constant from "supernovas and flashing stars in nearby galaxies, known as Cepheids." And the value of the Hubble Constant using this method is different from the value obtained from the CMB. So that's a problem.
As they say in Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy: Don't Panic!
This is the way of all advances in science, or rather, all human knowledge. It starts with a problem, that current knowledge can't explain everything. The "problem" is always experienced as a scandal by the supporters of the current theory, whether we are talking about biology or cosmology or philosophy or the welfare state.
And, of course, this reaction is central to the argument of Thomas Kuhn in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.
Now I think it is pretty obvious that there is something at work in the evolution of species that is not understood by Darwin's theory. Hey kids! That's OK. When we resolve the problem with new knowledge it will be amazing! The problem, of course, is that Darwinism is the basis for modern atheism, so our atheist friends are desperately afraid that a revision of Darwin's theory would undermine their world view and throw them on the waste-heap of history. I understand their fear.
Again, I argue for people to relax. That's because my understanding of "god" is that God is the extremely cunning human resolution of the knowledge problem. We humans need to know the "meaning of life, the universe, and everything" in order to give meaning to our lives and create moral frameworks for our societies. But we don't know "the meaning of life, the universe, and everything" because our knowledge of the universe is incomplete. Therefore we have to compensate for our ignorance by creating a likely story about God and the Creation and so forth. When new knowledge comes along we have to revise our likely story. No Problem!
On this view the Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe is just another likely story that extends our current knowledge back as far as we dare. If we have to change that likely story when we create new knowledge to resolve the two different Hubble Constants, No Problem! Chances are that the new theory will not throw existing science in the wastebasket but limit its application in time and space. And the new theory will doubtless open exciting new vistas unimaginable today.
If we have to change the likely story about the evolution of life to accommodate problems like rapid creation of species and their evolution, No Problem. I'm sure that some sort of evolution will persist, but it will not be quite as simple as we thought. And the new theory will likely suggest that living things are more amazing and remarkable that we could ever think in the old days.
But there always is a Problem, because people hate to have to change their religion and their understanding of reality and the meaning of life. That's because people invest their whole human identity in their religion, their faith, and the position in society that they have obtained through the practice of their faith.
Oh Well. Just Don't Panic!
Now I read that there the a problem in cosmology. Back in the day scientists used "the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) -- the microwave radiation leftover from the first moments after the Big Bang" -- to compute the Hubble Constant, the measure of the rate of the expansion of the universe. But more recently scientists started computing the Hubble Constant from "supernovas and flashing stars in nearby galaxies, known as Cepheids." And the value of the Hubble Constant using this method is different from the value obtained from the CMB. So that's a problem.
As they say in Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy: Don't Panic!
This is the way of all advances in science, or rather, all human knowledge. It starts with a problem, that current knowledge can't explain everything. The "problem" is always experienced as a scandal by the supporters of the current theory, whether we are talking about biology or cosmology or philosophy or the welfare state.
And, of course, this reaction is central to the argument of Thomas Kuhn in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.
Kuhn saw the sciences as going through alternating periods of normal science, when an existing model of reality dominates a protracted period of puzzle-solving, and revolution, when the model of reality itself undergoes sudden drastic change.Kuhn argues that science is a social undertaking, and that supporters of various theories form communities of knowledge, and that the members of such communities resist any change in the status quo, and thus the only way that the paradigm changes is when the old generation dies off.
Now I think it is pretty obvious that there is something at work in the evolution of species that is not understood by Darwin's theory. Hey kids! That's OK. When we resolve the problem with new knowledge it will be amazing! The problem, of course, is that Darwinism is the basis for modern atheism, so our atheist friends are desperately afraid that a revision of Darwin's theory would undermine their world view and throw them on the waste-heap of history. I understand their fear.
Again, I argue for people to relax. That's because my understanding of "god" is that God is the extremely cunning human resolution of the knowledge problem. We humans need to know the "meaning of life, the universe, and everything" in order to give meaning to our lives and create moral frameworks for our societies. But we don't know "the meaning of life, the universe, and everything" because our knowledge of the universe is incomplete. Therefore we have to compensate for our ignorance by creating a likely story about God and the Creation and so forth. When new knowledge comes along we have to revise our likely story. No Problem!
On this view the Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe is just another likely story that extends our current knowledge back as far as we dare. If we have to change that likely story when we create new knowledge to resolve the two different Hubble Constants, No Problem! Chances are that the new theory will not throw existing science in the wastebasket but limit its application in time and space. And the new theory will doubtless open exciting new vistas unimaginable today.
If we have to change the likely story about the evolution of life to accommodate problems like rapid creation of species and their evolution, No Problem. I'm sure that some sort of evolution will persist, but it will not be quite as simple as we thought. And the new theory will likely suggest that living things are more amazing and remarkable that we could ever think in the old days.
But there always is a Problem, because people hate to have to change their religion and their understanding of reality and the meaning of life. That's because people invest their whole human identity in their religion, their faith, and the position in society that they have obtained through the practice of their faith.
Oh Well. Just Don't Panic!
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