Page 59 - The Evolution Impasse 1

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Boudreaux, Edward things from simple species to complex
ones, also known as the Scala naturae,
A professor of chemistry at Univer-
represented the starting point for the
sity of New Orleans. Boudreaux regards
evolutionary systems of both de Buffon
the theory of evolution as an unscientific
and Lamarck. The American historian of
claim. On 5 July 1998, he participated in
science D. R. Oldroyd describes this re-
an international conference titled The
lationship:
Collapse of the Theory of Evolution:
In his Histoire Naturelle, Buffon reveals
The Fact of Creation held by the Science
himself as an exponent of the doctrine of
and Research Foundation. At that confe-
the Great Chain of Being, with man be-
rence, Boudreaux gave an address, De-
ing placed at the top of the Chain. . . . La-
sign in Chemistry, in which he referred marck held a version of the ancient doc-
to the chemical elements essential in or- trine of the Great Chain of Being. Yet, it
der for life to emerge having been set out was not conceived as a rigid, static struc-
by way of creation. As he went on to say, ture. By their struggle to meet the requ-
irements of the environment, and with the
The world we live in, and its natural laws
help of the principle of the inheritance of
are very precisely set up by the Creator
for the benefit of us, humans. 59 acquired characteristics, organisms co-
uld supposedly work their way up the
Chain—from microbe to man, so to spe-
ak. . . .Moreover, new creatures were
Buffon, Comte de
constantly appearing at the bottom of the
The Comte de Buffon was a French Chain, arising from inorganic matter
evolutionist and one of the best-known through spontaneous generation. . . As-
scientists of the 18th century. He served cent of the Chain involved a continuous
process of complexification. 60
as director of the Royal Zoological gar-
dens in Paris for more than 50 years. To From that point of view, the concept
a large extent Darwin based his we refer to as the theory of evolution
theory on the works of de Buf- was actually born with the ancient Gre-
fon. One can see most of the ek myth of the Great Chain. There
teachings that Darwin emp- were many evolutionists before Dar-
loyed in de Buffon’s wide- win, and the most of their original
ranging 44-volume ideas and so-called proofs were alre-
study Histoire Natu- ady to be found in the Great Chain
relle. of Being. With de Buffon and
“The Great Chain Lamarck the Great Chain of
of Being,” Aristotle’s Being was presented to the scien-
classification of living C Comte de Buffon n tific world in a new guise, whereu-
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Harun Yahya (Adnan Oktar)