03.01.10
Deleted Amazon review of Mazur’s The Altenberg 16
I just deleted my review of Suzan Mazur’s The Altenberg 16. These people have been pestering me for two years for free publicity here, which I have obliged, but are so unkind they won’t exchange emails. And I can’t any longer promote views I don’t agree with.
I should have been alerted by Kauffman’s Reiventing the Sacred that the new paradigm was going to be a not much.
More on this later.
I will file the review here for reference.
The coming of Postdarwinism, February 10, 2010
By John C. Landon “nemonemini” (New York City) – See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)The apparently monolithic character of the Darwin establishment is belied in this excellent report on the Altenberg conference of biologists and scientists examining the limits of the Darwinian paradigm. The reign of Darwinism has gone on far too long and the realization that many in the academic/scientific world are in reality Darwin doubters should give pause to those who trumpet the scientific character of reductionist evolutionism.
Mazur’s journalistic accounts of the various scientists involved are short and to the point, and it is not entirely clear what these scientists propose to take the place of Darwinian natural selection. In fact, there is no ‘next’ paradigm, and it is time to dispense with propaganda substituting for evolutionary theories. The next fake theory will be self-organization claims (indeed Stuart Kaufman has already produced a new approach along these lines). We need to move beyond the oversimplifications that have haunted evolutionary biology since Darwin oversimplified the deep insights of Lamarck, the true founder of evolutionary science (despite his wrong-headed adaptationist claims).
The scientists interviewed here show an awareness of Darwinism’s limits, but there is very little to do with the critique of ideology, the economic connection in the promotion of free market shibboleths under the rubric of Darwin, etc, etc… It is time to wean oneself from the misleading ministrations of the scientific priesthood (to say nothing of the ID theological wing)and realize that no general theory of evolution exists as yet. Current science cannot explain the evolution of ethics, of consciousness, of language, and much else.
A reckoning of the misleading promotion of Darwinism is needed for the scientific community to reestablish its credibility.
In the nonce, Mazur’s excellent account is essential reading for those who are constantly bombarded with the endlessly hyped theory of natural selection and intimidated into silence. The realization that many good scientists are ex-Darwinists should be a tonic for public recovery of nerve in the domination of rival propagandists.