Session 7
Evolution and the Idea of Emergence
Starting where we are ...
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"God is the creator of all things"
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"The theory of evolution has become the central unifying concept of biology and is a critical component of many scientific disciplines"
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Write briefly in the forum area whatever thoughts/ideas/stories these two quotes trigger in your mind. (see responses and further discussion
(For further conversation see Science and Spirit)
What WERE the observations Darwin (and other biologists since him) was trying to make sense of?
- "adaptiveness"
- diversity - the pattern? - "clumpy diversity"
- geographic continuities and discontinuities
- reproductive similarity with variation
- fossils
What is the "story" of evolution?
- History dependence
- VERY long history
- Differential reproductive success AND randomness
- Complexity from simple interactions of simple things
- Order from disorder
- No architect or blueprint
- An "intentionless" prime mover
- No "right" or "best"
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A key question: can order emerge from randomness?
For what else might the concept of evolution/emergence be useful?
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