Re: USA Today

In article <42F8D473.3070401@xxxxxxxxx>,
Lt. Kizhe Catson <lt.kizhe@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
}Dana Tweedy wrote:
}> "TomS" <TomS_member@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
}> news:dd9j3d01vnq@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
}>> There are "pro" and "con" opinion pieces in today's USA Today.
}>>The anti-evolution one is presented by Utah state senator Buttars:
}>>
}>><http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2005-08-08-oppose_x.htm>
}>>
}>> I found this statement in that essay to be "interesting":
}>>
}>>"Darwin's famous The Origin of Species concludes that over eons of time,
}>>and through countless mutations, man evolved from an ape-like ancestor.
}>>It takes an enormous leap of faith (oh my, there's one of those terrible
}>>religious words!) to conclude that man evolved from ape without any
}>>empirical fossil evidence."
}>>
}>> The essay seems to be stuck on the idea that the only evidence is
}>>fossil evidence.
}>
}>
}> It's also interesting because Origin of Species does not state anything
}> about human evolution, except for this short statement in the conclusion:
}> "In the distant future I see open fields for far more important researches.
}> Psychology will be based on a new foundation, that of the necessary
}> acquirement of each mental power and capacity by gradation. Light will be
}> thrown on the origin of man and his history."
}>
}> Could it be that Sen Buttars has not read the book he attempts to
}> paraphrase?
}
}It is possible that he's conflating _OoS_ with _The Descent of Man_
}(given that his knowledge of Darwin and evolution is vague at best).
}I've only read the former, but I assume the latter might have something
}along the lines he alludes to?

Probably not. The bulk of _Descent of Man_ is a presentation of Darwin's
theory of sexual selection. There are several chapters just on birds.
Most of the work on human origins was done by others long after Darwin's
death.

--
-- Herb Huston
-- huston@xxxxxxxxx
-- http://www.radix.net/~huston

.

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