07.02.09

Huxley’s warning to Darwin

Posted in Evolution at 2:14 pm by nemo

Looking at this naivete on the part of Darwinists, that natural selection can explain language evolution, I am mindful of T.H. Huxley’s warning to Darwin on the even of the publication of Orign: you unnecessarily burden yourself with natural selection.

That Huxley, Darwin’s principle defender and promoter, should have taken this view on NS should be a wake up call for scientists, and followers of Darwinism. But it seems not to sink in. People like Huxley hadn’t suffered a century of brainwashing on NS. Their excitement was in the ‘fact’ of evolution.
The issue of the day was ‘evolution’, although the word was not yet in general usage. After a generation of public reluctance after the French Rev (‘evolution’ being about as respectable as ‘bolshevism’ is today) the tide began turning, first with Chambers, then especially with Darwin.
Darwin’s breakthrough was in the public promotion of evolution, first, then, his natural selection theory, second, and that theory was less popular, for good reason.
Consider the point, and the unnecessary confusion created by Darwin in the middle of his ‘success’.

This is important, given the previous post discussing the left on language evolution: everyone in ‘secular’ circles is unnecessarily burdened with NS theory.
If you really think an organ as complex as language arose by NS, without proof, then the argument will, fairly soon, cede to the religious critics, because ‘design’ seems like the only alternative, to those unnecessarily burdened with NS thinking.

The only safe stance for a secularist here is to plead ignorance. We are completely outclassed by the question of the evolution of language.

That’s not surprising: we don’t even understand how language works, or its neuroscience. Small wonder its evolution is an enigma.

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