Darwinism

eightyfish

I have to write a science essay in order to apply for a science-writing course. I'd like to hear people's opinions on the essay before I submit it, if possible. It's about Darwinism and I've posted this here rather than in the Biology forum because the essay concerns creationism.

If anyone's interested, I've posted it in my (very intermittent) blog, linked in my newly-added signature below. Criticisms welcome!

Zombrex

Didn't the Ben Stien movie bomb?

Or is the 13th highest grossing documentary in America the equivalent of the 3rd best looking ugly sister?

strobe

I dare you to copy all of JC's posts into a word document, print it off and hand that in....I double dare ye.

bogwalrus

As far as i know Evolution has been shown to be a hoax afterall:

http://rationalwiki.com/wiki/Scientific_evidence_of_evolution_being_a_hoax,_and_God's_existence

Galvasean

Typo in your first paragraph. Please fix.

Wacker

strobe wrote: »

I dare you to copy all of JC's posts into a word document, print it off and hand that in....I double dare ye.

I wonder how many exclamation marks there would be in total?

sponsoredwalk

dangerous." So says the 13th highest grossing documentary film in the United States. The film stars Ben Stein, and ex-speechwriter for Richard Nixon.

"and" typo!

I like the essay, it flows well and you get sucked in. I think the first paragraph is a bit jumbled though and could do with a rewrite to make it as fluid as the rest of the piece - removing grammatical markers such as "it" and "he" as they tend to cheapen good prose and you'll notice a lack of these sentences in most books.

I would just like to add that Darwin the man has been dissociated from the theory in terms of the neo-Darwinian viewpoint for years. The resurgence of Darwinism itself, leading to "neo-Darwinism", arose from the understanding of Mendelian genetics coupled with the Watson-Crick discovery of DNA.

While this should be an obvious statement I have a quote from the horses mouth - Dawkins - just to back it up and I can give you the link off youtube if you care for the source but I would say it's the prose you're mainly worried about. Always good to back up common sense with a quote from the archetypal "expert" in a white lab coat :pac:

eightyfish

Thanks RE the typo - can't believe I didn't notice that.

sponsoredwalk, I take your point about the first paragraph. It's a question of how much to quote and how much to paraphrase. I'll have a look at it later.

sponsoredwalk wrote: »

While this should be an obvious statement I have a quote from the horses mouth - Dawkins - just to back it up and I can give you the link off youtube if you care for the source but I would say it's the prose you're mainly worried about.

As for new-Darwinism, I hadn't really thought about it. I am studying for my finals at the moment, and rattled off the essay in an hour a couple of days ago in order to avoid studying for a while. I was trying not to mention Dawkins, as his name tends to surface in every article that mentions creationism and evolution, but I would be interested in the youtube thing. I found a full lecture on neo-darwinism, is that what you're referring to?

sponsoredwalk

Well I just mentioned that to back up the idea that Darwin is divorced from so much of the modern applications of Darwinian explanation.
Like, he knew nothing about mendelian inheritance or dna or the particular functions of the cell organelles he was looking at through microscopes back then. However the theoretical framework he set up is the only means to explain all of this.

It would be hell for me to find it, I'll have a think about it and check out the videos I think it's buried in and post it if I find it :cool: