My Darwin Rant
In the centennial year for Darwin, we were swamped with interesting new biographies and commentary. This note is to give my thoughts on why Darwin is incomplete and is not serving very well as a way to understand human experience.)
Darwin’s “natural selection” principle is not confirmed by Embryology. The chimpanzee seems to be morphologically descended from humans, not the other way around as Darwin predicted. The observation was first made by Louis Bolk in the 1920s and is vastly explored in the book Developmental Dynamics, by biologist Jos Verhulst. Jaap van der Wal has also summarized Darwin’s “embryology problem.” Haeckel’s Law (“Ontogeny Recapitulates Phylogeny”) is incorrect and actually was based on falsified research done in the early 1800s before Darwin used it for his thesis.
According to Natural Selection, the purpose of life is the perpetuation of the species, and all life forms compete vigorously for survival. I think this is valid to a degree but it really does not fully reflect my experience and observation. If Darwin’s view is correct, longevity would not be so highly prized past the child-bearing age. In reality, some other motivation is also present, and we don’t need to look far to find it: “The Purpose of Life is the fulfillment of consciousness” (Randolph Stone, DO, DC, ND, 1948). Darwin’s view leads to a materialistic, competitive, even cynical social world-view. In contrast, Stone’s view (based on Yogic philosophy) implies a quest for knowledge and fulfillment plus it also makes space for personal growth and development on all levels including spiritual, mental and emotional. If Darwinism is all we have, these layers don’t really matter except to the degree that they support perpetuation of the species; this is very far my most people’s actual experience.
Please note that my ideas here are not about Religion! It is so unfortunate that once again a discussion is highly charged by religious beliefs and needs and consequently scientific exploration is compromised.
Louis Bolk observed in a chimpanzee fetus dissection that the morphological development was opposite to what Darwin’s principles would predict.