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Uncommon Knowledge

Uncommon Knowledge with David Berlinski on “The Deniable Darwin”

Uncommon Knowledge

Hoover Institution

Politics, History, News:politics, Science, News

4.81.9K Ratings

🗓️ 8 July 2019

⏱️ 58 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

David Berlinski is a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture, a contributing editor at Inference: International Review of Science, and author of many books. Berlinski discusses his book The Deniable Darwin and lays out how Charles Darwin has failed to explain the origin of species through his theory of evolution. Berlinski explains that change in biology is not continuous—it’s radical, something which Darwinian theory fails to explain. He discusses how Darwinian evolution is blind to the future as there is no fidelity to the facts. He gives examples of amino acids and dogs and explains why there cannot be just one species. He further strengthens his statement by saying that everything cannot be accounted for as being random: there should be some scientific evidence to support it. Berlinski responds to Peter Robinson’s question about Razib Khan’s statement to the effect that, “The seeds of both tyranny and democracy were sown by the evolutionary pressures that shaped humans over millions of years.” He argues that the deepest aspects of our nature are not formed by evolutionary pressures because evolution is relatively neutral. He also replies to Robinson’s question about a remark of Pope Benedict XVI to the effect that Western thought, by its very nature, “excludes the question of God, making it appear an unscientific or pre-scientific question.” He explains that it is not right to argue that physical theories imply that the conclusion is antitheist, as mere exclusion in these theories does not imply that. Robinson further asks Berlinski’s views about the growing population of Islam and decreasing population of Europeans in Europe. Berlinski explains that Muslims take religion seriously, but theology/religion has more or less disappeared from the Western habit of thought. He states that faith and religion should come together. Berlinski further talks about how Albert Einstein’s comments disprove God, not because he is an antitheist, but because Einstein wanted to push quantum theory and his belief in the rational universe. Finally, Robinson asks about Europe’s survival in terms of economy, population, and growth, and Berlinski says that the nation-state is an idea that is no longer there and that patriotism is disappearing.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Welcome to Uncommon Knowledge, I'm Peter Robinson.

0:07.0

We're shooting today in Italy, in Fiesole, a town in the hills just above Florence.

0:17.0

An academic and author, David Berlinski, is a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture, and a contributing

0:25.2

editor at Infrance International Review of Science.

0:29.7

Dr. Berlinsky holds a doctorate in philosophy from Princeton, performed postdoctoral work in molecular biology at Columbia,

0:37.0

and has taught philosophy, mathematics, and English at institutions such as Stanford, Rutgers, and the City University of New York, and the University of Paris.

0:47.0

His books include The Devil's Delusion, Atheism, and its Scientific Pretensions,

0:51.0

and the Deniable Darwin and other essays.

0:55.0

David Berlinsky, welcome.

0:56.0

Thank you so much.

0:58.0

I have to speak for just a moment about David Galerter, the Yale Computer Scientist who just this past spring published an essay in the

1:07.2

Claremont Review of Books called Giving Up Darwin, quotation.

1:12.1

There's no reason to doubt that Darwin successfully explained the small adjustments by which an organism adapts to local circumstances, changes to fur density, or wing style, or beak shape. Yet yet there are many reasons to doubt whether he can explain the big picture not the fine

1:27.8

tuning of species but the emergence of new ones the origin of species is exactly what Darwin cannot explain."

1:37.0

Close quote. Now, David Galerner is a leading computer scientist.

1:43.7

And computer science is at the very center

1:45.8

of everything that's cool about the new economy,

1:49.8

about the current academia, it's technocratic, it's rational, you don't have to ask ultimate questions,

1:57.0

and here's Galertner going over to the Kooki side.

2:01.4

And why does he do this? In part by reading the work of David Berlinski, which David Galerner in his essay referred to as quote

2:10.0

essential. So take me through a few of your arguments from the

2:17.0

deniable Darwin bearing in mind that you have a lot to answer for.

...

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