Evolution Ain't No Faith, Man!

To me it's just good, good sense. (nod 'n' a wink to AC/DC)

I've been wanting to blog on this Salon story all day. It's an interview with Edward O Wilson, a biologist and the author of quite a few books, including The Ants, The Diversity of Life, and Consilience, all of which are considered seminal, though controversial, works on the evolution of human intelligence.

As I mentioned in my last post, work was just too hectic to do it justice today. Luckily for me, PZ Meyer's has done his own brand of justice on it. So I'll just say that it's a thoroughly enjoyably read and that Edwards makes it clear that atheism isn't what science is selling. It's simply a logical conclusion for anyone who takes material reality seriously and, science being all about discovering what is really and demonstrably real, tends to lend credence to an atheist view of the universe.

In PZ's words,

Awe is good. Appreciating the majesty of the universe is good. Demeaning it by coupling it to false and non-existent concepts like gods and spirits is bad.

I think Wilson already knows this, though.

Emphasis, and agreement, are mine.

Read more about what Wilson himself thinks at either Salon, or Pharyngula and then Salon.

Either way you go, the comments on Pharyngula are an excellent blend of people's perspectives on Spirituality; something PZ disdains (for damned good reasons) but I humbly and, yes, sometimes desperately embrace for, what I quite frankly consider, damned good reasons of my own.