Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id NAA26007 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Thu, 11 May 2000 13:14:05 +0100 Message-ID: <391A5E4C.A93575FB@mediaone.net> Date: Thu, 11 May 2000 08:16:28 +0100 From: Chuck Palson <cpalson@mediaone.net> X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.72 [en] (WinNT; I) X-Accept-Language: en To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: Re: Fwd: Did language drive society or vice versa? References: <39192CB7.63A10E4F@mediaone.net> <00051109415601.00619@faichney> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Robin Faichney wrote:
> On Wed, 10 May 2000, Chuck Palson wrote:
> >Robin Faichney wrote:
> >
> >> So you're a creationist?
> >
> >No. I am not saying things come of nothing, only that the results are unpredictable.
>
> You're shifting your ground -- our argument was about whether human evolution
> was improbable. I'm very happy to accept evolution is unpredictable. But if
> you still hold to the former, then what causes these improbable things to
> happen, if not God?
It seems to me that you are phrasing the question in such a way as to force the answer, -
i.e., a loaded question. The loading comes when you force cause into it. True accidents
don't first look for a cause before they happen.
Or, look at it another way. Hyperreligious people (Wilson wrote recently that they have
discovered the gene for "hyperreligiousity") tell us that the normal curve doesn't by
itself constitute an explanation because it doesn't answer the question of what caused
events to happen in that distribution. Do you buy that question?
>
>
> Personally, I think all those who insist on the improbability of things being
> as they are, are pushing a disguised creationist, or at least vitalist, agenda.
>
> --
> Robin Faichney
>
> ===============================================================
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This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
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