Constraints

[Stephan Helfer]

Dear all

Bill Shear wrote:

> Evolutionary biologists, on the other hand, have the advantage of no
> constraints save observable physical law.

It would be wonderful if this was true. Instead, I believe,
evolutionary biologists, like everybody else, are constrained by a
tradition, albeit a younger one. This is no problem, as long as it is
recognised that there are PERCEPTIONS of reality on both sides of the
creationist / evolutionist divide. The trouble is that these
perceptions are used as substitutes of the reality (whatever it is)
itself. I believe (and have empirical corroboration of this every
day) that the reality in the natural world is more complex by orders
of magnitude than my perception of that reality. There is no reason
to believe that anyone else is different in this respect. In other
words: it is good to recognise ones own limitations and that of ones
perceptions (I suppose, I better stop here).


Best wishes

Stephan Helfer
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh

http://www.rbge.org.uk
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"With the destruction of each component of wild life one
more piece of evidence for human ignorance is removed."