Quote:
Originally Posted by David Bailey  Open Mind,
I still think the question about whether natural selection has enough power to do what it is supposed to have done (with or without the actual genesis of life) is an interesting question - but probably very hard to answer definitively. |
Yes, I know that from reading many of your posts. That is perhaps the most sensible position to hold. I was just trying to clarify G D Martin's viewpoint and what emphasis I do not quite agree with in his interesting book.
Incidentally I don't quite agree with Sheldrake's quote in this Skeptiko edition either when he says telepathy is
'normal not paranormal', natural not supernatural .... likely to be an evolutionary advantage' ...... but it is probably just a terminology problem due to Sheldrake speaking off the cuff .......
Personally, I do agree telepathy will have natural causes and be part of nature ..... but 'normal' implies 'common' and telepathy is not commonly obvious (at least to die-hard skeptics!
) .... whether telepathy is 'normal' or an evolutionary advantage may depend on whether it is conscious or collectively unconscious effect. I would guess it perhaps more of an evolutionary advantage at the collective level and hard to evolve as an advantage and often disadvantageous at the individual level.
Different viewpoints are good, one of the reason I like Paul's post - even although I disagree.
As always ..... I could be wrong