Re: Neotony was Re: god makes hubey

H. M. Hubey (hubey@pegasus.montclair.edu)
25 Nov 1995 21:22:35 -0500

janiewat@ix.netcom.com (JANIE WATTERS) writes:

>I'm new to the internet so please forgive any errors I may make, but I
>wanted to comment on this subject.

welcome, welcome :-)

Lead me onto the righeous path :-).

>Mark, you remind me of a believer in Creationism trying to preserve some
>aspect of his belief when confronted by the evidence of Evolution.

In truth the people who've been arguing against me remind me
of Creationists for they have no comprehensions of science. They
remind me of these people teaching people how to be poets,
write music, make scientific discoveries without ever having
done any of these things themselves. Actually some of them
remind me not of the people who've written such how-to books
but actually people who've read them and then gone on to
tell real musicians how to write music.

I met a very old friend a few years ago. He spent the last
20 years in the marines. When he found out I taugth computer
science he gave me a 20 minute lecture on how computers worked :-)..

>I'm not even sure what it is you are arguing for anymore. You seem to
>be saying that there is an All Knowing Force out there that has a
>specific adgenda when it comes to the evolution of life on Earth which
>is "prophesised" by the physical characteristics of human babies? Not

If a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears it, did it
make a sound?

That was a big problem for philosophers (at least some of them)
some centuries ago.

If evolution has a direction and nobody knows what it is, does
that mean that it doesn't really have a direction?

And what does evolution mean anyway? Please look up a dictionary.

>I know that my understanding is imperfect) that the porpose of evolution
>is to increase the chances of survival, and the procreation, of a

I see, so evolution has a purpose? Hmmm.. interesting.

>species, not that the survival and procreation of a species are wanted
>to achieve a specific evolutionary goal. Like ----- said "if this was

So the purpose is not to achieve a specific evolutionary goal, but
it does have a purpose?

Even more interesting...

>the purpose then why, given 3.5 billion years, hasn't it happened yet",
>since you seem to be saying that we, Homo Sapiens', are not that
>goal-which is the only point of yours that I agree with.

I never said goal or purpose or a plan. If I did it was a mistake.

I said direction. And this word "direction" is not anthropormizing
anything. Direction is direction. It doesn't require humans to
exist. It doesn't need a goal and it doesn't need a plan.


> This kind of theory makes me want to speculate about human
>evolution in the future....but I won't, because I cannot even try to
>predict the next curveball that nature will throw at us.

I think it is pointing in the right direction. We can't see
it far away but we might be able to see the direction at this
point in time.

Besides, pretty soon we'll be tinkering with our own evolution,
so the direction will be even clearer.

IT will be packaged and sold. Doctors will say things like:

Would you like your daughter to have curly blond hair or straight.

How about making your son 6 ft 6 inches tall.

Hmmm, your offspring might get Tay-Sachs but we can fix it.

How about adding an extra xyz gene.

Impossible??? Don't bet on it.

-- 





				Regards, Mark

				http://www.smns.montclair.edu/~hubey