The long-busted, yet pervasive, myth that Charles Darwin's Eureka!
Moment realisation of the ability of natural selection to explain the problem of
species, came by way of his observation of variation in the beaks of Galapagos
Islands finches is a supermyth. Darwin did no such thing. He failed to
understand the significance of the variation in those finch beaks, he never
collected the finches, he misclassified 7 of the 13 finches collected. He never
even collected them, they were collected by another crew member. The real natural selection significance of adaptation of Galapagos Islands finches was a 20th century
discovery. The myth is a supermyth because it is deployed to this day by
Darwinists arguing against the myth of divine creation of new species. It is
used by the uninformed, including some Darwinists, in an attempt to disprove
the overwhelming evidence that Darwin’s real Eureka! Moment came around 1837
within the pages of Patrick Matthew’s (1831) full and prominently published and
reviewed articulation of the theory of the ‘natural process of selection.’
Darwin claimed never to have read the book despite the newly discovered fact
that other famous naturalists read and cited it - including three of Darwin's
scientific associates.
Supermyths are myths about myths that are created and compounded by experts, spread by pseudo-skeptics and destroyed by evidence. Braced myths are a sub-type of supermyth, created by orthodox expert authorities that are so powerful they are believed to be true by respected scholars who unwittingly promote them as examples of the need to be healthily sceptical of counterknowledge and then, with unintended irony, use them as argument winners to refute other fallacious knowledge.
Thursday, 6 March 2014
Darwin's Finches are Another Supermyth
The long-busted, yet pervasive, myth that Charles Darwin's Eureka!
Moment realisation of the ability of natural selection to explain the problem of
species, came by way of his observation of variation in the beaks of Galapagos
Islands finches is a supermyth. Darwin did no such thing. He failed to
understand the significance of the variation in those finch beaks, he never
collected the finches, he misclassified 7 of the 13 finches collected. He never
even collected them, they were collected by another crew member. The real natural selection significance of adaptation of Galapagos Islands finches was a 20th century
discovery. The myth is a supermyth because it is deployed to this day by
Darwinists arguing against the myth of divine creation of new species. It is
used by the uninformed, including some Darwinists, in an attempt to disprove
the overwhelming evidence that Darwin’s real Eureka! Moment came around 1837
within the pages of Patrick Matthew’s (1831) full and prominently published and
reviewed articulation of the theory of the ‘natural process of selection.’
Darwin claimed never to have read the book despite the newly discovered fact
that other famous naturalists read and cited it - including three of Darwin's
scientific associates.