Evolution: A Theory in Crisis - Author's Introduction

Evolution: A Theory in Crisis - Author's Introduction Introduction "With the fertility and immense power of nature, its whole work ... settled upon a myriad of living forms and functions, which shaped the beings of the animal kingdom through physiological dissonances alone. It obtained all these indescribable combinations of disassociation, and it was in their disharmony and impossibility of co-existence that another modification was made to establish the separations between the various groups of organisms, as well as the gaps that established the necessary boundaries of natural branching, classes, ranks, and loiters." Georges Cuvier Georges Cuvier, 1835 “I don’t see any limits to the amount of change in organisms, which may occur over a long period of time through the forces of natural selection.” Charles Darwin Charles Darwin, 1859 The issue of evolution has become more controversial today than at any time since the time of the Great Debate in the 19th century, be it at an important international symposium, in the pages of the leading scientific journal, or even in the fine galleries of the British Natural History Museum, you will find a discussion of every aspect of the theory of evolution, very rarely seen recently in any branch of science. It is not difficult to understand why the issue of evolution has attracted so much attention. This idea has touched every aspect of contemporary thought, and this theory has shaped more than any other theory how we see ourselves and our relationship with the world around us. The triumph of the theory of evolution means the end of the traditional belief that the creation of the world has been arranged with purpose and purpose – the so-called teleological outlook that dominated the Western world for 2,000 years. According to Darwin’s view, all of the design, arrangement, and complexity of life and the mysterious teleology behind living systems are merely the result of random processes natural selection and separation. Because of its influence in fields far removed from biology, the contemporary dilemmas facing evolutionary theory have spread so widely, and so fascinated the public imagination that topics, such as gaps in the fossil record or competing taxonomic methodologies – which are usually difficult and ambiguous, and limited to a specific category – will be discussed in detail in popular journals, but not in the daily press. There are basically two types of philosophical approaches to this argument; on the one hand, one can take a conservative position, in which the obstacles to the theory are essentially insignificant, and merely perplexing anomalies, which will be solved by the result in one way or another within the traditional framework of the theory. On the other hand, one may take a radical position, and one sees that the obstacles are not just vague puzzles that may then be solved, but paradoxes or opposite situations that cannot be explained in the traditional framework of the theory. While many biologists familiar with recent evolution acknowledge that there are serious dilemmas, almost everyone eventually takes the conservative position, believing they can resolve them by making partial adjustments within the Darwinian framework. In this book, I have adopted the radical approach by presenting a systematic critique of the contemporary Darwinian model, moving from paleontology to molecular biology. I have tried to present why I believe that the dilemmas facing the theory are so great and so insoluble that there is no hope of solving these dilemmas in light of the traditional Darwinian framework, so these dilemmas can no longer be defended from a conservative approach. - Dr Michael Denton. — Source: Brahin Center website - Posted on 2017-01-21 (archived at the Internet Archive) https://braheen.com/publications/intros/التطور-نظرية-في-أزمة-مقدمة-المؤلف