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Sunday, September 24, 2006

Book review: Simon Conway Morris on E.O. Wilson's The Creation: Appeal to Save Life on Earth

Apparently, Darwinist E.O. Wilson has decided to quit trashing clergy, and make an appeal to them (as in "Dear Pastor") to help save the planet. Even though the planet has been around for a long, long time, and has been through many cataclysms. Conway Morris hints that Wilson may not be the best available person to spearhead such a move:
Wilson's programme is put forward with the best of intentions, yet it is underpinned by an incoherent metaphysics. Equally important, its scientistic agenda carries the real risk of imposing tyranny. Wilson is famous for his holistic programme, loosely described as 'consilience'. This aims to understand human nature in terms of entirely naturalistic processes underpinned by genetics. As part of his programme for human development, Wilson blithely writes that one of the great goals is to "stimulate the mind with the combination of artificial intelligence and artificial emotion", chosen of course by the wisest of our leaders.

Feel queasy about all that? Well, sure you do, you're just an ignorant fundie.

You'll have to pay to read the rest at the link above, fundie, but you won't be surprised to learn that Conway Morris does not put much faith in Wilson's Dear Pastor letter.

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