A scientist who doubts Darwin?

Evolution probably has more evidence than any other theory I can think of. We can chart the evolution of whole animal groups back millions of years in some cases.

'Who are you and how did you get in here? I'm a locksmith. And, I'm a locksmith.' (Leslie Nielsen)

The best thing about this subject is that we're living in an age where we will find out exactly how we got to where we are today. Misinformation can be traced back 6000 years. Occult is not necessarily bad. It could be good too. Occult means hidden.

I suppose we can only present likely probabilities which we come to regard as truths. It's almost certainly true that we all believe things now that will probably be disproven in the future.

I suppose we can only be honest to ourselves and recognise that we are humbled by nature and its complexities.

I've always liked the quote, attributed to Newton :

'I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.'

'Who are you and how did you get in here? I'm a locksmith. And, I'm a locksmith.' (Leslie Nielsen)

Is it not just as likely or even more likely that life evolved here independently? As for evolution? Why would you doubt it? It might be more complex than Darwin imagined, but the fossil record shows clearly that species evolve. Sometimes relatively quickly but usually very slowly and always by the natural selection of advantageous mutations.

Next you will be telling us that 'God' did it.

Well he did George Harrison's wife so who knows what's he's capable of.

'Who are you and how did you get in here? I'm a locksmith. And, I'm a locksmith.' (Leslie Nielsen)

Last time I studied it, life evolved under the sea at hydrothermal vents where the most fortunate confluence of factors emerged.

Once the seeds were sown, the evolutionary process took over and there was no stopping it.

I know, hardly a theory that I would espouse with any confidence as most likely. I guess more and better will emerge as science seeks to find the way.

Darwin was a passionate Christian and wholly believed in life emerging from divine creation. What upset the God Botherers at the time was that evolution is not what the Bible says. Accepted dogma envisaged a fixed status with God having created everything as we see it. No moving continents (wrong), man created in his image (convenient), the earth sitting at the center of all creation (tosh) and all life made in a day on an as seen basis.

Like many with that rarity of both intelligent and religious, I suspect he struggled with that contradiction and the simplistic absurdity of creation which provided comfort and certainty to an uneducated, agrarian, pre-enlightened world.