Darwinism
Mr. Darwin’s statements elude, by their vagueness and incompleteness, the test of natural history facts. ~ Richard Owen
The term Darwinism is loaded with historical and political baggage. Nominally it means the hypothesis labeled natural selection that was roughed out by Darwin.
Though Darwin was not aware of Mendel’s work, the conceptualizations generally coincide. Lamarckism is a different beast altogether; generally considered by Darwinists fanciful in embracing adaptation as teleological (goal oriented). Darwin’s own pangenesis prognostications are politely ignored in construing Darwinism.
In its modern context, Darwinism includes constructs that do not contradict Darwin’s thrust of competitive natural selection via random mutation. This is how Darwinism is understood by the British.
In the United States, creationists use the term Darwinism as a pejorative for atheistic naturalism: Nature inexplicably crafted without divine input. God-fearing folk cotton to creationism, which is that the Almighty made life as it is and always has been. This creed rejects evolution in favor of divine design.
The authoritative scientific reference to which creationists subscribe is the Christian Bible. Fundamentalists endorse a literal reading of the first chapter, Genesis: that the Lord managed the wondrous display of the entire cosmos in a mere 6 days, then took a day off before moving on to other godly business.
Atheistic naturalism is the metaphysical embrace of godless heathens who espouse the worldview that the universe is nothing but natural elements and forces. Some modern scientists sway toward this secular conviction, though pantheism retains its popularity. Pantheists philosophically try to have their cake and eat it too, in believing that Nature includes an immanent God.
In contrast to pantheism, transcendence posits that God is wholly independent of the material universe, and beyond all physical laws. While pantheism puts God as both an active being and a force, the remove of transcendence posits God as an outsider: divinity at a distance, having conceived the wondrous platform called Nature and now resting on his laurels.
Transcendence and immanence may be combined: God both within and beyond the universe. This fantastic supremist conceptualization – of God simultaneously and constantly everywhere and nowhere – accords with numerous religions, including Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism.
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Many techniques used by evolutionary biologists to detect selection may be flawed. ~ evolutionary biologist Matthew Webster
Under Darwinism, the common term for the mechanism of evolution is natural selection, or simply selection, which broadly refers to selective survival of a species by natural means; an attribution so open-ended as to be vacuous.
While the term selection appears conceptually agnostic – that a natural selection of one or more traits transpired – the shibboleth is swathed in misunderstandings. Most of these misconceptualizations stem from Darwin’s own speculations, though they are blindly carried on by scientists worldwide.
One day the Darwinian myth will be ranked the greatest deceit in the history of science. ~ Danish embryologist Søren Løvtrup
