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The following are previously unclassified quotes about Evolution, now classified under that heading, and under subheadings alphabetically by author and date, as a temporary intermediate step towards integrating them into my quotes pages proper.
"Some of the underlying emotional reasons for rejecting natural selection were later vividly expressed by the playwright George Bernard Shaw: `[T]he Darwinian process may be described as a chapter of accidents. As such, it seems simple, because you do not at first realize all that it involves. ... if this sort of selection could turn an antelope into a giraffe, it could conceivably turn a pond full of amoebas into the French academy.' ... George Bernard Shaw, Back to Methusaleh: A Metabiological Pentateuch (New York: Brentano's, 1929), p. xlvi. The last sentence is in fact the modern evolutionary point of view." (Sagan C. & Druyan A., "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors: A Search for Who We Are," [1992] Arrow: London, 1993, reprint, pp.63-64, 428n.)
"To test his belief that evolution is a constant rather than a punctuated process, McKee now intends to run simulations based on the East African fossil record and see which of the two models is closest to reality. 'Darwin was adamant that climatic change did not cause evolution,' says McKee. 'What I'm saying now is that evolution will occur whether there's climatic change or not. But what did cause evolution, I have no idea." (Armstrong S., "South Africa - the missing pieces," New Scientist, Vol. 143 No. 1933, 9 July 1994, p.33)
"Embryology and paleontology provide adequate documentation of the `how,' but we would also like more insight into the `why.' In particular, why should such a transition occur-especially since the single-boned stapedial ear seems to function quite adequately (and, at least in some birds, every bit as well as the three-boned mammalian ear)?" (Gould S.J., "An Earful of Jaw", "Eight Little Piggies: Reflections in Natural History," Jonathan Cape: London UK, 1993, p.106)
"After describing the last part of this process, the adaptation of the bones linking the jaw to the skull into a chain of ossicles linking the eardrum to the inner ear, Ernst Mayr sweepingly remarks: 'Not all the steps in this process are yet entirely apparent, but I think little doubt is left as to the principle involved.' If by 'principle' one means merely progressive remodelling, the statement is a truism. But if 'principle' means that chance selection brought about these elaborate changes, then there must be very great doubt indeed. Like de Beer, Mayr does not seem to appreciate the elementary point that demonstrating the occurrence of a sequence of events does not explain why they happened." (Taylor G.R., "The Great Evolution Mystery," [1983], Abacus: London, 1984, reprint, p.106)
"The new theory, according to paleontologist Steven Stanley of Johns Hopkins draws a crucial distinction between two kinds of evolution: gradual, small changes within a species ("microevolution") and sudden, gross changes that mark the emergence of a new species ("macroevolution"). The former is just a specialized case of Darwin's familiar theory of natural selection. The bugs hide deeper in the bark, and the woodpeckers evolve longer beaks to hunt them out. But where Darwin, from observations begun in the Galapagos Islands, concluded that enough small changes would eventually create a new species, the revised theory holds that a new species arises by some different mechanism-perhaps even a gross random mutation in a single generation." (Adler, Jerry & Carey, John [journalists], "Is Man a Subtle Accident?," Newsweek, November 3, 1980, pp.54-55, p.55)
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Created: 27 November, 2002. Updated: 7 July, 2008.