Stephen E. Jones

Creation/Evolution Quotes: Darwinism #1

Darwinism (including Neo-Darwinism) #1:

1. Is losing favour with biologists


• "More and more workers are showing signs of dissatisfaction with the [neo-Darwinist] synthetic theory"


• "Today, however, dissatisfaction with the [modern evolutionary] synthesis is widespread"

Darwinism (including Neo-Darwinism) #1:

1. Is losing favour with biologists


• "More and more workers are showing signs of dissatisfaction with the [neo-Darwinist] synthetic theory"



"Today, however, the picture is entirely different. More and more workers are showing signs of dissatisfaction with the synthetic theory. Some are attacking its philosophical foundations, arguing that the reason that it has been so amply confirmed is simply that it is unfalsifiable: with a little ingenuity any observation can be made to appear consistent with it. Others have been deliberately setting out to work in just those areas in which neo-Darwinism is least comfortable, like the problem of the gaps in the fossil record or the mechanisms of non-Mendelian inheritance. Still others, notably some systematists, have decided to ignore the theory altogether, and to carry on their research without any a priori assumption about how evolution has occurred. Perhaps most significantly of all, there is now appearing a stream of articles and books defending the synthetic theory. It is not so long ago that hardly anyone thought this was necessary." (Ho, Mae-Wan [Biologist, The Open University, UK] & Saunders, Peter T. [Mathematician, University of London], eds., "Beyond Neo-Darwinism: An Introduction to the New Evolutionary Paradigm," Academic Press: London, 1984, p.ix). [Top of page]

• "Today, however, dissatisfaction with the [modern evolutionary] synthesis is widespread"



"The 'modern evolutionary synthesis' convinced most biologists that natural selection was the only directive influence on adaptive evolution. Today, however, dissatisfaction with the synthesis is widespread, and creationists and antidarwinians are multiplying. The central problem with the synthesis is its failure to show (or to provide distinct signs) that natural selection of random mutations could account for observed levels of adaptation." (Leigh, Egbert G., Jr. [Biologist, Smithsonian Institution, USA], "The modern synthesis, Ronald Fisher and creationism," Trends in Ecology and Evolution, Vol. 14, No. 12, pp.495-498, December 1999, p.495). [Top of page]

* Authors with an asterisk against their name are believed to be creationists.

[Top of page]