06.30.10
Evolutionary agnosticism
Our discussion today of agnoticism deserves to be generalized to the question of evolution, that is, evolutionary dynamics.
Part of the reason for the endless debate over evolution lies in the way it resembles the theism/atheism perplexity, with a similar status as an unknowable.
We can detect evolution as a set of facts, but to pin down the nature of its mechanism is not so easy.
If you think that the question of evolution is simple, check out the eonic effect, over world history, and you will see the problem of closing in on the elusive mechanism. That issue resembles the issues related to the Kantian noumenon, as beyond knowledge. That’s why trying to pin down the question of evolution ends in a natural selection/design dilemma.
Check out the fourth edition of WHEE, and follow the chronicle of history and evolution, and it will become clear how the projection of natural selection onto deep time is a metaphysically illusory gesture.