Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cuae2!ihnp4!gargoyle!sphinx!beth From: beth@sphinx.UUCP Newsgroups: sci.bio,talk.origins Subject: Re: Evolution vs.(?) Creationism Message-ID: <911@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP> Date: Tue, 16-Dec-86 11:56:08 EST Article-I.D.: sphinx.911 Posted: Tue Dec 16 11:56:08 1986 Date-Received: Wed, 17-Dec-86 22:52:37 EST References: <2778@gitpyr.gatech.EDU> <1260@cybvax0.UUCP> Reply-To: beth@sphinx.UUCP (JB) Organization: U.of Chicago Computation Center, Operating Systems Group Lines: 28 Xref: watmath sci.bio:57 talk.origins:281 In article <1260@cybvax0.UUCP> mrh@cybvax0.UUCP (Mike Huybensz) writes: >In article <2778@gitpyr.gatech.EDU> dts@gitpyr.UUCP (Danny Sharpe) writes: >> I've heard that, due to lawnmowers, dandelions in suburban areas are being >> selected for shorter stems. >[...] >> And then there's all the diseases that have become >> resistant to the drugs used to treat them. >[...] >> These are all examples of natural selection at work. > >Neither of these is natural selection, in that the selection pressures are >being applied by man. What? Do you really think it makes a difference to dandelions and viruses and bacteria (and insects which develop resistance to insecticides) that the changes in their environment were brought about by humans? As far as they're concerned, we're just another species. We may like to think of ourselves as outside of, or beyond, nature, but we're not, and we'd do well to remember it. If we realized that we have the same ties to the earth and "nature" that all the rest of the species have, maybe we'd be a little more careful about fouling pretty much anything that strikes us as inconvenient. "Human" <==> "beyond nature" is an arrogant, anthropocentric delusion. -- --JB ((Just) Beth Christy, U. of Chicago, ..!ihnp4!gargoyle!sphinx!beth) All we learn from history is that we don't learn anything from history.