Re: [UUPoly-L] Re: Evolution/Evolved

[bear@pagansexcult.org]

On Wed, 15 Feb 2006, CWLee wrote:

>
> Without disrespect to any of the previous posters, I don't
> think it is useful to suggest (insist?) that the only proper
> way to use the terms evolution (and its derivatives) is in
> its Darwinian/biological sense.  Any good dictionary will
> disclose that the term is used in many other ways; a really
> good dictionary or reference source will disclose that the
> term pre-dates Darwin, and has historical roots in a Latin
> word meaning to unfold or unroll.

The only times I've seen the word used to mean "being better than
other people" as it was here are times I've seen people take
exception to the implied insult or implied moral judgement and
start a fight.  Its use as a codeword for moral or ethical
progression is fraught with peril.

I don't like it because the continuing unfolding or unrolling of
creation does *not* imply that we will, as a race or as a people,
continue to get "better" as we see moral direction; it only
implies that there is change in our future, and that has as much
risk as it does promise.  If we have created a world where
sociopaths thrive, an environment where people don't know their
neighbors and can be taken advantage of by an amoral agency,
where litigation is seen as more effective than negotiation and
the rightness or wrongness of actions is measured solely against
the law rather than by whether people are helped or hurt ...
then "evolution" means, sadly, that we can expect our children
and grandchildren to become well-adapted to that environment.

			    Bear